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REAR WINDOW NOTES Rear. Window background information Alfred Hitchcock - born in London in 1899, and died in Los Angeles in 1980 - Regarded as screen’s ‘master of suspense’ ROLE OF WOMEN/ THE FAMILY - Presented as a microcosm of 1950’s society - Expectation of the Nuclear Family - Two children, girl and boy - Father who works & provides - Homemaking mother - Moving from the world of the nuclear family to more fluid roles and family ideals, but there was still that “either/or proposition”; people found it difficult to merge their more adventurous younger years with their middle aged lives, and Jeff embodies this. Cold War - Capitalism of the USA (country’s trade/industry controlled by private owners) vs. Communism of USSR (state ownership) - There was a real fear that communism (a theory and a system considered to be at odds with the American way of life) would infiltrate and infect their country. - Alien invasion films used as an allegory for rear of invasion by the Communists - ‘Red Scare’ McCarthyism - ‘Protecting’ democratic freedoms and national security by repression of communism - Harassed those with or associated with those possessing left of centre political views - Removed from positions of political influence; this followed to public and private industries - Drastically narrowed American political spectrum - Reaction caused more damage than the threat itself - Domestic communism was seen as a big threat to national security

- McCarthy published ever changing lists with fabricated evidence - Investigation of army shifted public opinion against him

Hays Code - Informal name for The Motion Picture Production Code (1930’s-1960’s) - Shaped, if not censored, American filmmaking - 1. Cannot show crime, wrongdoing evil or sin as positive/make the audience sympathetic - 2. Correct standards of life must be upheld (eg. nuclear family) - 3. No nudity, overt or aberrant sexuality

Characters L.B. JEFFERIES. - JEFF -full name is james. Stewart - world. War ii veteran -photo journalist - staunch bachelor - he got his injury from a. race car -crisis of masculinity -pays attention to the fina detail because he was a photographer Descriptors - risk taker - sarcastic - disagreeable, selfish , stubborn ,egostical -cynical skeptical ,critical thinking - observational -struggles with commitment /staying in one place -uninvested QUOTES - “I’m not stubborn. I’m just truthful” - “Couldn't we just keep things status quo?” (wants things to stay the way they are / no commitment)

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- “You’re taking all the chances” to Lisa - “Why would a man leave his apartment three times on a rainy night with a suitcase” (during moment with Lisa rational / dichotomy) - “Just how would you start to cut up a human body” - “Does that make me sound like a madman?” - “I’ve seen it through the window” - “Have you checked his bank statement lately?” - “It’s a second hand version of an unsupported story” - “Find the trunk. Mrs Thorwald’s in it” - “I wonder if it is ethical to watch a man with binoculars and a long-focus lens” - [of his globe-trotting life] “You don’t sleep much, you bathe even less.” - “Something dramatically different. You got it” - [of marriage / happiness] “She’ll find her happiness and some man’ll lose his” - “Rushing home to a hot apartment to listen to the automatic laundry and the electric dishwasher...and the nagging wife” - stereotype of American marriage - [of Jeff - complaining] “You’re behaving like a taxpayer” Played by James Stewart, Jefferies (or "Jeff") is a celebrated photojournalist who has been sidelined by a broken leg sustained while filming close-ups on a racetrack. He is a World War II veteran and staunch bachelor, much preferring a life of international travel to settling down with Lisa, his refined Park Avenue girlfriend. However, due to his injury, Jeff is forced to spend several weeks confined to his West Village apartment, during which time he learns to see Lisa in a new light .

Jeff is a photo journalist who got a broken leg while filming close. Ups on a racetrack jeff is a world war II. Veteran and staunch and much rathers a. life of international travel to settling down with. his girlfriend lisa carol fremont due to jeffs injury causes him to be confined.to his room for several weeks in his west village apartment this makes him see lisa in a new light and observe more of his surroundings

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LISA CARROL FREOMONT -grace Kelly -post war independent woman - blonde society girl -girl Friday Descriptors - Multifaceted. Ditsy yet hard working and determined - - thoughtful -

Elegent ,sophisticated ,façade of perfection.

- Complicit ,conforming - Socialist Quotes - “She’s too perfect. She’s too talented, she’s too beautiful, she’s too sophisticated. She’s too everything but what I want.” - “When I want a man, I want all of him.” - “Not for a long time. At least not until tomorrow night.” - “If you could only see yourself... sitting around looking out the window to kill time is one thing, but doing it the way you are with binoculars and wild opinions about every little thing you see is diseased.” jeff describes his girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly), as "too perfect." She is a blonde, lithe society girl who works in fashion and lives on Manhattan's ritzy Upper East Side. She has impeccable taste in clothes, shoes, and food, and is always up on the latest trends. Despite her polished exterior, however, Lisa proves herself to be much more rebellious and bold than Jeff previously imagined.

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MISS. TORSO - Exemplar of Jeff’s voyeurism (remember: voyeurism has inherently sexual connotations) - Ballet dancer - Surrounded by a bevy of suitors - Isn’t interested in them - A soldier returns to her at the end of the film - Comment: unlikely couple, he doesn’t meet her social expectations - Descriptors - Enthusiastic, passionate, voluptuous - Coquettish, overtly sexualised

Jeff refers to his comely blonde neighbor as "Miss Torso" (Georgine Darcy). A ballet dancer, Miss Torso frequently stretches and rehearses in revealing outfits. She is always surrounded by rich and handsome suitors, but, as Lisa observes, she's not in love with any of them. At the end of the film, Miss Torso welcomes home her short, ordinary-looking beau, who has just returned from war (presumably in Korea).

YOUNG MARRIED COUPLE NEWLY WEDS Descriptors - Amorous and lustful - Carrying bride over threshold - ‘Honeymoon period’ - Shattered by arguments over money, wife tells husband she’d not have married him if she knew he planned to quit his job

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OLDER MARRIED COUPLE

MISS LONELY HEARTS - Single and lonely lady - Dresses up and pretends to go out - Considers suicide near the end of the film (ultimately ignored by Jeff) - Stopped by the music of the Songwriter - Love is necessary for happiness? - Descriptors - Desolate, isolated, lonely, forlorn - Anguished, distraught, disconsolate - Daydreamer, fantasising

Jeff makes up nicknames for all his neighbors, and Miss Lonelyhearts (Judith Evelyn) earns hers because she is a middle-aged single woman who is desperate for love and keeps striking out. She eventually tries to commit suicide, but the beautiful music of the songwriter stops her from taking a bottle of pills. At the end of the film, Hitchcock hints that Miss Lonelyhearts might have found love after all; we see her upstairs in the songwriter's apartment

THE THORWALDS - Mrs Thorwald: - Invalid wife - Descriptors - Invalid - Reclusive

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-anna. thorwald

- Cloistered - Demanding - Nagging

Mrs. Lars Thorwald only appears onscreen through Jeff's binoculars and camera lens. She is always in bed, although her spirit seems quite healthy; she is always nagging her husband, Mr. Thorwald. She exits the film within the first act, supposedly to go on a trip upstate, but Jeff uncovers the truth; Mr. Thorwald killed his wife and tried to hide her body. - Lars Thorwald: - the murderer (commits uxoricide) - Jewellery salesperson - Resents being the provider - Representative of changing gender roles - Descriptors - Unsatisfied - Relentless - Suspicious - Trapped - Frustrated - Remorseless

We don't learn much about Rear Window's resident killer, "the salesman" Mr. Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr). He peddles wholesale costume jewelry for a living. He and his wife have lived in their West Village apartment for the past 6 months, and Jeff has watched Thorwald become increasingly frustrated with Mrs. Thorwald's nagging.

THE ARTIST. - Older woman - Spends much of time in yard

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- Neighbourhood busybody She is. A single women in the 1950s that is happy compared to lonely hearts. Who. Is single and sad

STELLA Thelma Ritter - Traditional views - Audience surrogate - Disgusted by Jeff’s voyeurism but drawn into drama - Descriptors - Sharp-tongued and down-to-earth - Philosophical - Conservative - Sage -nurse Visiting nurse from insurance company She encourages for marriage - Quotes - “Trouble. I can smell it.” - “How’s that for a bit of homespun philosophy?”

Stella, played by Thelma Ritter, is the nurse whom Jeff's insurance company has hired to look after him while he heals. She is sharp-tongued and opinionated, and espouses some rather traditional views when it comes to the subject of marriage. At first, she tries to get Jeff to stop spying on his neighbors, but she soon is swept up in the drama, as well.

THE COMPOSER (SONG WRITER )

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Descriptors - Drunk, struggling with career - Lonely Tom Doyle the detective - Presented as a foil to Jeff - Old friend of Jeff (from WWII) - Epitomises the average man’s opinions and expectation of women - Descriptors - Dismissive, condescending, belittling, flippant - Supercilious, arrogant, misogynistic - Disinterested, apathetic, detached During World War II, Jeff and Doyle spent three years on a plane together; Doyle was the pilot and Jeff was the photographer. Now, Doyle has become a detective, and Jeff calls on him for his unofficial opinion on the Thorwald "case." Doyle is cynical and not afraid to stand up to his old friend. He frequently challenges and mocks Jeff's obsession with his neighbors, but also does care about Jeff and have the capacity to admit when he is wrong.

Themes QUOTES - "She’ll find her happiness... and some man’ll lose his.” - “Rushing home to a hot apartment to listen to the automatic laundry and the electric dishwasher... and the nagging wife.” - “Those high heels, they’ll be great in the jungle. And the nylons and those 6-ounce lingerie, they’ll make a big hit in

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Finland.” - “You don’t sleep much, you bathe even less.” - “She’s too perfect. She’s too talented, she’s too beautiful, she’s too sophisticated. She’s too everything but what I want.” - “The feminine intuition stuff sells magazines. But in real life it’s still a fairy tale.” - “Women aren’t that unpredictable.” - “When I want a man, I want all of him.” - “Not for a long time. At least not until tomorrow night.” - “Every man’s ready to get married when the right girl comes along.” - “That’s normal.” CONTEXT - Uses social stereotyping to set the context of 1950’s cultural expectations - Shows inherent progression of life - From the opening scene, the recurring message amongst adults is that it is ‘about time [Jefferies] got married’. Jefferies’ editor, Gunnison, rebuts Jefferies apprehension about a life with a nagging wife, informing him that ‘wives ... discuss’ nowadays. Jefferies, however, attributes this to the higher income neighborhood Gunnison lives in, as indicated by the Kuleshov effect, with close cutting between a disdainful expression and the Thorwald couple. Hitchcock thus proposes that, while some. demographics of 1950’s America had begun to shift out of the marriage paradigm, this was not the case across the country. - An institution rather than just another part of society – as it is arguably considered today – marriage was considered to be a fundamental building block of the seemingly successful and prosperous American society of the 1950s. REDUCTIVE NATURE OF GENDER STEREOTYPING Nevertheless challenges gender - Lisa’s multifaceted/multidimensional personality - As she changes and compromises throughout the film, her wardrobe also becomes much more practical and much less ostentatious as the film wears on, until she is finally wearing a

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smart blouse, jeans and a pair of loafers. The change in her wardrobe reflects changes in her character as well. - Lisa’s activity vs Jefferies’ passivity - Jefferies’ need to peer up to Lisa throughout the film, implied through low angles, affirms his belief she is ‘too perfect’ and the pair are, in his opinion, incompatible. However, in the concluding scene, Hitchcock uses a mid-level pan between the pair, suggesting a balance of power and a resolution of dispute. - Hitchcock reveals how both women and men are confined by reductive and outdated gender binaries. - Miss Torso is viewed, particularly by Jefferies, as an inherently sexual character through the use of provocative, revealing costuming and intimate closeups. This sexuality is widely accepted as shameful and promiscuous, suggesting that perhaps Miss Torso is partaking in this behaviour not for others, but for herself. Yet in returning. to her partner following his return, Hitchcock insinuates that, whilst she is able to achieve some level of self-empowerment from promiscuity, there is a part of her that still seeks to confirm feminine identity; to settle down and be married.

Jefferies’ Newspaper

Lisa’s Magazine

Active

passive

Masculine

Feminine

News, Current Affairs

Global Politics Fashion

CYNICISM TOWARDS MARRIAGE - Jefferies sees marriage as a trap that results in a nagging wife and the loss of freedom and potentially his career. - Opposite sides of frame, shift into more intimate/closer as they figure out their relationship/the murder

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- Furthermore, the exterior shot of their apartment suggests that their apartment is small; physically embodying the mental constraint Thorwald feels within his marriage. - The archetypal female’s desire for marriage is evident in Lisa who, though characterised as a post-war independent woman, is eager to marry Jefferies, leading her to conform to his goals, pleading that she’d ‘just like to be a part of it somehow’. This reduces Lisa to simple and lacking complexity in the eyes of Jefferies; he believes that she is ‘too perfect’ to mould herself to his lifestyle. Hence, Hitchcock displays the dichotomous nature of female identity in 1950’s New York; a natural juxtaposition. - Hitchcock portrays marriage as undesirable through the use of closeups during their discussion, which occurs as Stella applies cream to Jefferies’ back, causing him discomfort that merges with the discomfort he feels at the prospect of marriage. - The importance of marriage is evident in the lives of Jeff’s neighbours; Miss Torso’s “juggling [of the] wolves”, and Miss Lonely hearts’ depression both reflect this idea Jefferies is in control - takes the photo. He decides where gaze is directed.

SURVEILLANCE AND VOYEURISM watching. People QUOTES 

- “Why would a man leave his apartment three times on a rainy night with a suitcase?

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- “Does that make me sound like a madman?”

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- “It’s a second hand version of an unsupported story.”

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- “Do you suppose it’s ethical to watch a man with binoculars, and a long-focus lens—until you can see the freckles on the back of his neck, and almost read his mail? Do you suppose it’s ethical even if you prove he didn’t commit a crime?”

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- “We’ve become a race of Peeping Toms.”

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- “If you could only see yourself... sitting around looking out the window to kill time is one thing, but doing it the way

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you are with binoculars and wild opinions about every little thing you see is diseased.” 

- “Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence.”

CONTEXT o

- Boom in photojournalism

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- Vicarious experience; satisfaction or sexual gratification through what we witness

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- One neighbor speculating about another committing terrible actions is very reminiscent of the attitude of many Americans during the early 1950’s.

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- McCarthyism caused and validated people’s reason to spy on one another; the community mentality was that no one was to be trusted. - Creates a climate of suspicion, which Jeff is sensitive to

- Jeff’s exaggerated interpretations of his neighbour’s actions lead him to an irrational sense of suspicion - Jefferies’ use of surveillance as a pastime, and his developing preoccupation throughout the film aligns with McCarthy himself; both become reckless to the point where they are personally endangered; where Thorwald comes into Jefferies’ apartment. ETHICS OF VOYEURISM o

- From a societal perspective, spying on other people for personal enjoyment is inappropriate at best and illegal at worst.

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- The use of a POV shot also portrays the Thorwalds as entertainment for Jefferies; presenting the idea that Jefferies is more interested in escaping boredom and mundanity than seeking justice.

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- Hitchcock presents the idea that, although it can be justified in the discovery of crime, voyeurism is in itself not an action completed in search of truth.

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- Voyeurism can perhaps be regarded as a signifier of moral engagement and care for the community, in that Thorwald, the film’s antagonist, is the only person within the courtyard who does not move to the window as the Dog Owner grieves the little dog’s death.

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- Rear Window provides a juxtaposition of civic duty against the right to privacy, as well as the creepily invasive nature of a Peeping Tom. - Throughout the film, Hitchcock also questions whether the voyeur has an ethical duty to act on the information gathered through watching. Jeff and Stella experience a moral dilemma in refusing to act upon seeing Miss Lonely hearts about to overdose. It is the consequential flickering of the frames - the Kuleshov effect, from Miss Lonelyhearts to a close up of Jeff and Stella’s anguished and concerned faces, that the audience becomes privy to the moral ambivalence in burdening the duty of care. However, both do not act upon it, suggesting a lack of truly benevolent intention in their surveillance.

Marriage and relationships Community COMMUNITY, COMPASSION/APATHY AND LONELINESS QUOTES 

- "You don't know the meaning of the word 'neighbor.' Neighbours like each other. Speak to each other. Care if anybody lives or dies. But none of you do.”

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- “We’re two of the most frightening ghouls I’ve ever known.”

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- “According to you, people should be born, live, and die on the same spot.”

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- “People ought to get outside and look in at themselves.”

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- “You just have to face it, Lisa, you’re not meant for that kind of life.” COMMUNITY VS. SOCIAL ISOLATION

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- Proximity of the village and connection is presented through the shared experience of heat (open windows) and diegetic soundtrack.

- Miss Lonelyheart’s suicide attempt is able to be stopped. 

- All the individuals are ultimately presented as lonely and listless - Songwriter and Miss Torso’s parties are at best superficial and at worst desperately trying to find meaning

- Contrary to social assumption that attractive women could never be lonely o

- Lisa’s desire to fill her days with things, objects and...