Rear Window Response PDF

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Professor Kevin Hagopian...

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In Rear Window, the development of the song “Lisa” parallels the development of the romance between Jeff and Lisa. In this scene, we hear the composed melody played for the first time. What is going on in this scene that would explain why it is heard here first? We hear the song “Lisa” for the first time in this scene of Rear Window because this scene presents two major events in the relationship between Jeff and Lisa. This scene is the first time in which we see feelings of emotion and sensual contact between Jeff and Lisa, and this is the first time where Lisa considers Jeff’s theories that Thorwald may be a murderer. Through the use of cinematography and editing we can clearly see how the character’s actions towards each other show us that they are reconciling their romantic relationship. This also shows us Lisa’s facial expressions which lets us know she is finally starting to believe Jeff. During the first moment Lisa when starts to consider what Jeff’s thoughts about Thorwald, we are in close up shot of her face. On screen we see Lisa look out across the courtyard, and see her face immediately become blank as if she had seen something that really terrified her. This is followed by a wide shot of Thorwald through the window in his apartment. This moment is a turning point in Lisa and Jeff’s relationship because Jeff has now been able to pull Lisa into his fantasy world, as she finally begins to see what he sees. This is completely different from the beginning of this scene which shows shots of Lisa talking Jeff out of his voyeuristic tendencies. This is an allusion to a part of 1950’s culture that has a paranoid relationship with anything transgressive. Hitchcock also uses one of his famous subjunctive camera shots in this scene after the shot of Thorwald. The subjunctive camera moves from Jeff’s window to being very close to Lisa’s face. This is to exaggerate Lisa’s facial expression even more and emphasize for the audience that actions of Thorwald and the box that she sees are very important. The editing in this scene is crucial to allowing the audience to understand what Lisa and Jeff are looking at and what their reactions are to what they are seeing. One of the main editing techniques used in Rear Window is shot, counter-shot. This is used to attract our gaze and interest, because once the audience sees how the character on screen is reacting to something they are looking at, the audience becomes more interested in wanting to find out what it is. Throughout the film, and in this scene especially, Hitchcock “feeds our appetite to look at things” (Michel Chiron). Appetite of the Eye, a term created by Chiron, is a way of thinking about how Hitchcock lures us into different types of identification with his characters and tries to get the eye to want something. This scene is the first time we see how the relationship between Jeff and Lisa parallels the solution of the crime. Prior to this scene, Jeff had been pushing Lisa away romantically, investing himself in the fantasies of what he sees across the courtyard. In this scene though, with the use of the song “Lisa” playing in the background, and the cinematography and editing that helps us understand the characters emotions, we see that their relationship is now on another level. Now that Lisa starts to agree with Jeff, their relationship is going very well. During this scene, the song “Lisa” becomes louder as a parallel to how their relationship is going. Their new shared fantasy now acts like glue for Lisa and Jeff’s romantic relationship....