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Rear Window (1954) - Alfred Hitchcock
After having my attention drawn to the Hitchcock film discussions, I decided to rewatch this classic, considering I only remembered it through flashes. However I didn't end up particularly impressed with it.
Rear Window follows a wheelchair-bound, who gradually starts to observe his neighbours and suddenly discovers a murder plot. First of all, I have to say I quite liked the private setting that Hitchcock constructed. It was very intriguing to see people's lives unraveling behind the closed curtains, or in this case not so closed. Also I was suprised to see the amount of comedy in this flick, such as the man and the woman desperately trying to enter the house through the window during the rain or when Doyle starts to stare at half naked ballerina and Jeffries asks him "How's his wife?". Those particular moments got a laugh from me. The chemistry between Stewart and Kelly was very good and their scenes were perhaps my favourite parts of the film. I also really liked Thelma Ritter's character, who I've just recently saw in Pickup on South Street.
- Hitchock's cameo
Still, I thought the pacing of the film was pretty poor. I understand it took quite a while to introduce the characters and set the atmosphere, but It just took too long. Eventough most of the dialogue from the beggining was cleverly scripted, it wasn't really that relavant to the plotline and I gradually started to lose my interest because of it. And ultimately, when things start to unravel and tension reaches its breaking point in the last 20 minutes, the execution really wasn't the sharpest. There were some moments that I felt didn't really make sense, which Hitchock used to achieve the dramatic effect, but instead they ended up quite silly. Like for example when Lisa is in Thorwald's apartment and Jeffries is whispering on the phone with Doyle, eventough he's alone in his apartment and no one can really hear him. Or the confrontation between Jeffries and Thorwald. There were literally 2 minutes of Jeffries preparing for Thorwald's entering and yet it didn't even cross his mind to uhm, lock the door or pick up a knife or something. Instead he chooses a camera and decides to blind sight Thorwald with it in a rather comical scene. The only moment in the film that I believed was really intense was when Thorwald finally noticed Jeffries spying on him. I thought his stare right into a viewer's eyes was just brilliant. The light-hearted ending also appealed to me and it kinda reminded me of the one in Blue Velvet, where after a major chaos,a piece is restored and we are shown sort of a cynically utopistic final shot.
Ultimately this was a fun Hitchcock experience, but for a film that was suppose to be a crime thriller, it sure had more of a comedic elements than suspenseful ones to me personally.
Rating:
After having my attention drawn to the Hitchcock film discussions, I decided to rewatch this classic, considering I only remembered it through flashes. However I didn't end up particularly impressed with it.
Rear Window follows a wheelchair-bound, who gradually starts to observe his neighbours and suddenly discovers a murder plot. First of all, I have to say I quite liked the private setting that Hitchcock constructed. It was very intriguing to see people's lives unraveling behind the closed curtains, or in this case not so closed. Also I was suprised to see the amount of comedy in this flick, such as the man and the woman desperately trying to enter the house through the window during the rain or when Doyle starts to stare at half naked ballerina and Jeffries asks him "How's his wife?". Those particular moments got a laugh from me. The chemistry between Stewart and Kelly was very good and their scenes were perhaps my favourite parts of the film. I also really liked Thelma Ritter's character, who I've just recently saw in Pickup on South Street.
- Hitchock's cameoStill, I thought the pacing of the film was pretty poor. I understand it took quite a while to introduce the characters and set the atmosphere, but It just took too long. Eventough most of the dialogue from the beggining was cleverly scripted, it wasn't really that relavant to the plotline and I gradually started to lose my interest because of it. And ultimately, when things start to unravel and tension reaches its breaking point in the last 20 minutes, the execution really wasn't the sharpest. There were some moments that I felt didn't really make sense, which Hitchock used to achieve the dramatic effect, but instead they ended up quite silly. Like for example when Lisa is in Thorwald's apartment and Jeffries is whispering on the phone with Doyle, eventough he's alone in his apartment and no one can really hear him. Or the confrontation between Jeffries and Thorwald. There were literally 2 minutes of Jeffries preparing for Thorwald's entering and yet it didn't even cross his mind to uhm, lock the door or pick up a knife or something. Instead he chooses a camera and decides to blind sight Thorwald with it in a rather comical scene. The only moment in the film that I believed was really intense was when Thorwald finally noticed Jeffries spying on him. I thought his stare right into a viewer's eyes was just brilliant. The light-hearted ending also appealed to me and it kinda reminded me of the one in Blue Velvet, where after a major chaos,a piece is restored and we are shown sort of a cynically utopistic final shot.
Ultimately this was a fun Hitchcock experience, but for a film that was suppose to be a crime thriller, it sure had more of a comedic elements than suspenseful ones to me personally.
Rating: