Rear Window is my all time favourite Hitchcock film. It is one of my all time favourite films ever. I remember seeing it for the first time in college, a friend showed it to me and it was nothing like I imagined. It was a spot on perfect mix of romance, mystery, comedy, thriller, and urban drama. It makes me laugh out loud. It makes me swoon and sigh. It has me on the edge of my seat each and every time I watch it. It is simply entirely entertaining while offering us even more.
Think about the themes it explores. There are issues of ableism and the frustration of being restrained by the limits of our bodies. There are issues of urban voisinage and our responsibilities to those around us an each other, including our disconnection in an urban landscape. There is the idea of getting older and what success and legacy means. There is the question of what love means and how to recognize it as well as all the sexual politics that go along with it. There is the clash between community and privacy and striking a balance that is fair. There is paranoia and gaslighting. All of this is packed into a tight little story that grabs you and doesn't let go.
Rear Window is remarkable in how timeless it is. The story is set in a very specific time, much of the plot couldn't happen today due to our technological lives. But the themes remain so timely. Jeffries' views on love and what he admires in Fremont are very modern. Domestic violence is a theme that we understand today even more than the time that this film was made. Watching Rear Window during a pandemic gives its extra pathos.
From the opening moments with the Jazz score and the shot out the window, I was hooked. This might be Hitchcock's most beautiful film. Despite being set entirely in one apartment, he finds a way to make the film look so beautiful. The sunsets out the window during the couple's dinner, a dinner fraught with conflict and passion, is so intensely exquisite. The colours in each flat we peer into are so lovely, such as the pinks in Ms. Lonelyheart's abode amplifying her sadness. The courtyard's earthy brick which turns to a warm purple in the evening light is so inviting. I've always had a pull for the feel of New York City and this film captures that energy in a way that reaches right into my heart. He uses shadow and light in such incredible ways to fill our screen with beautiful images.
Also reaching into my heart is the nature of the relationship between Jeffries and Fremont. Their relationship is a complicated, yet beautiful, mix of the way people who are very different connect and find those ways of meeting each other in the middle. Their moments aren't presented to us a traditionally romantic but about two minds meeting, clashing. It is a respectful connection between adults, and for me it is the kind of romance I love seeing on the big screen. And when she climbs through the villain's window I was madly and forever in love, and internally screaming in fear.
There is a moment in the middle of the film that I always find so moving, the scene where a woman, standing on her balcony, finding her dog dead, screams drawing the attention of all her neighbors, admonishes them for their callousness, and then everyone goes back to what they were doing. It is a powerful and succinct comment on modern life. And it is moving every time.
I consider a short list of movies to be perfect and this is one of them. Each time I watch it I am enraptured. It is one of the movies I never tire of watching.
Rear Window
Starring: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Wendel Corey, Raymond Burr
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writer: John Michael Hayes
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