Rear Window: Introduction

In this blog I will introduce the film Rear Window (Hitchcock 1954), analyze some intertextual elements in the movie, analyze the editing, and compare some of the elements with the 2007 remake Disturbia (Caruso).

Jeffries (James Stewart) is a professional photographer that broke his leg in a laboral accident trying to get a great shot. Now he has to recover in a wheelchair at home, and due to boredom he start spying on his neighbours. His girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) will help him when he starts investigating a neighbour in particular, Lars Thorvald (Raymond Burr), as the latter start acting suspicious.

Intertextuality: Readings inside Rear Window

The first thing that we can comment about the main character and his voyeur habits that are caused by boredom is that he is a photographer in a double meaning: he is a professional photographer for a living and the photography of the film is determined by the possition of the character in the setting. 

Also, he uses the camera and the teleobjective as a peeping tool to spy on his neighboors, therefor, it has an intertextual meaning. 

We can also comment that when he is assualted by the suspect, Lars Thornvald, he uses his camera and the flashes to fight for his life, so it is an extension of his body.

Another element to read in terms of intertextuality is the relations between men and women.

The character portrayed by James Steward, Jeffries, has a relationship with Lisa, played by Grace Kelly.

He shows lack of commitment, as he does not want to get married and fears the same kind of routinary life he has spied on some neighbours.

We can say that "Jeff" has established voyeur bonds with some of his neighbours, some of them are female.

These include Miss Torso (nickname by him) , a girl who is always exercising and in a happy mood, recieving male visits. Jeffries has given her this nickname because he only regards her as a body, without a personality. He thinks she is always seeing men, but in fact, at the end of the movie, we can see that she is full of joy for the return of the little boy from the army.

Another female neighbour nicknamed by Jeff is Miss Lonleyheart. She is in her forties and prepares herself for imaginary dinners with imaginary dates. At first, Jeffries laughs at her, but with time he feels sorry for her, when she ends up crying and drinking.

We can asume that the position towards women of Jeff is a statement from its time.

Editing: We never leave the Jeff's Room

As we can see in the following scenes, we never leave the room

In the movie Rear Window, point-of-view editing is used to put the audience in the position of Jeffries character. The vast part of the shots are from the prespective of Jeffries house, to create that voyurial atmosphere and suspense. There are even  shots that represent the sight from his binoculars or camera. This help to indetify with his character, creates onward tension, from the moment he starts spying on his neighbors to the moment his girlfriend gets caught. The viewer does not have more information than "Jeff" at any point of the film. Also, the background information we obtain about the main character himselft is cleverly decyphered through a telphone conversation that is cleverly edited at the opening scene:

In the scene in which his girlfiend, Lisa, get caught interfering in the flat of the suspect (2nd vide in this post), Hitchcock could have chosen to use a camera in that flat, but instead, wanted to show the viewer the action from the prespective of Jeffries. Suspense is based on the drama that his lover is seeing her being caught, not the violent assault by the suspect murderer. And the director puts us in his skin.

Comparing elements: Rear Window (1954) VS Disturbia ( 2007 remake)

There are several similutes in the remake by D.J. Caruso that are tributes to the originial movie by Alfred Hitchcock.

• First of all, in the original movie, Rear Window, the character L.B. Jeffries portrayed by James Stewart has to wear a leg in cast after an accident as a professional photographer. This makes him stay home in a wheelchair unable to leave, because the magazine he works for wants him to fully recuperate.
•          In the remake Disturbia, the teenager Kale Brecht played by Shia LaBeouf is convicted to house     arrest because of hitting his spanish class high school teacher, who made a commet about his dead father in class. He has to wear an ankle monitor that will alert the police if he leaves a electronic wire that surrounds the house for a distance of 30,5 meters.
• Both characters, Brecht and Jeffries, become voyeurs of their neirbours because of their boredom, using binoculars to spy on them (while Brech uses also webcameras as a sign that the times have changed).
• We can also see paralles in the roles of the friend aiding the main character in both films: in Rear Window, Wendell Corey interprets the police detective Tom Doyle, while in Disturbia, Aaron Yoo portays the playfull charecter of Ronnie (although this character has a more active role that Tom Doyle in Rear Window).
• The character of the girlfrined helping investigating the crime is also present in both films. While in the original movie by Alfred Hitchcock, the character of  Lisa Fremont, who was portrayed by Grace Kelly, was in a relationship with the main character from the start, in Dirturbia, the main character Kale develops a relationship over time in the film with the chacter Ashley  Carlson, played by Sarah Roemer. Both these female character in both films will be the investigators of the crimes as the main characters are forced to stay at their house.

Some of these similarities caused a lawsuit from the owner of the right of novel in which Rear Window was based, "It had to be Murder". The judge resolved the lawsuit ruling that Disturbia did not steal Rear Window's plot. My recomendation is to watch them both, as they are both films of their times.

They are definetly directed at different audiences, and they are for sure not comparable, as they did not aim for the same goals.

You can read about the lawsuit ruling here