Plenty have read Rear Window<\/em> as a hyper-personal \u201cdirector\u2019s movie,\u201d and that scans. We can see what Jeff is doing \u2013 as he gazes out at the windows facing him, the courtyard between them, and the tics and rituals of the neighbors who occupy them \u2013 as akin to the kind of selection and focus that Hitchcock does in this and every film he makes. The opening shots of the picture are all subjective, all Jeff\/Hitch\u2019s POV through those windows, but it\u2019s also theatrical; the film opens with the window shades dramatically rising, curtains on the big show outside. (Later, Grace Kelly\u2019s Lisa Fremont closes them with a flourish, announcing, \u201cShow\u2019s over for tonight.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the credits end, Robert Burks\u2019s camera travels through those windows for a glance around at the courtyard. This extended sequence serves two purposes: we continue to settle into the perspective the camera will adopt through much of the film, while also acquainting ourselves with the geography of its primary space. (Most filmmakers can barely do one thing at a time; Hitchcock can, with seeming effortlessness, do two.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there\u2019s also a more loaded, and more frequent, interpretation of what\u2019s going on here; that in these \u201csix weeks in a two-room apartment with nothing to do but watch the neighbors,\u201d Jeff has become an unapologetic voyeur. He never misses an opportunity to gaze lasciviously at \u201cThe Torso,\u201d the perpetually bikini- and underwear-clad dancer across the way, and Hitchcock never misses an excuse to cut back to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople do a lotta things in private they couldn\u2019t possibly explain in public,\u201d notes his cop pal, Doyle (Wendell Corey), and he\u2019s not wrong; Jeff\u2019s eyeline is frequently inhabited by private moments none of us should see, thanks primarily to windows and shades that are open due to the sweltering heat. (One can\u2019t help but wonder how this story would\u2019ve played out in the winter, or in the age of air conditioning.) The apartment building is located in Greenwich Village, we\u2019re told, though Hitchcock constructed the elaborate, multi-level set (complete with rooftop pigeons) on the Universal lot in California, and it feels like the kind of story that could only take place in the cramped quarters of Gotham.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what\u2019s most fascinating about the film now, through a contemporary lens, is the way in which Hitchcock \u2013 the most openly horny filmmaker of the studio era \u2013 is subtextually telling a story of sexual frustration and roleplay. Before we even meet Jeff\u2019s significant other, he complains to his nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) about her, and the pressure she\u2019s putting on him to settle down. He\u2019s \u201cnot ready for marriage,\u201d he insists, and he\u2019s specifically uninterested in the idea of coming home to a \u201cnagging wife\u201d; as if on cue, an unhappy married couple fights across the way. But the gallery of windows can suggest other possibilities as well; he also spies a pair of grinning newlyweds eagerly pulling the shade before consummating their marriage, or the apartment\u2019s sad singleton, \u201cMs. Lonelyhearts,\u201d as a warning sign of the perils of eternal singlehood. He can look around and see both his best- and worst-case scenarios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lisa Fremont seems like a best-case, and not just because she looks like Grace Kelly. Their repartee is sparkling; their chemistry is off the charts. They\u2019re clearly hot for each other (their kissing, all that Hitchcock could show us in a 1954 feature, is electrifying), and his irritated bachelor act is such a tiresome front, and she knows it. But they\u2019re at a point of frustration, and not just because of the decision point (whether or not to settle down and marry) they\u2019re stuck at. The unspoken aspect \u2013 again, 1954 \u2013 is that Jeff has been in a cast that goes up to his waist for six weeks. They kiss hungrily, but they can\u2019t consummate their lust. His broken leg and wheelchair make him immobile, but the cast makes him impotent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So they find other outlets. Early on, as Jeff becomes certain that Mr. Thornwald (Raymond Burr), his neighbor across the way, has killed his wife, he can\u2019t get his mind off it, even as Lisa is trying to make out with him, his mumblings intermingled with her sweet nothings. It doesn\u2019t take long for her to realize that if she wants to catch and keep his attention, she\u2019s going to have to insert herself into his obsession. She eventually becomes convinced by what he says and what she sees, and goes all in accordingly. But she senses the possibilities of sleuthing with him, of creating a power dynamic (\u201cHey chief, what\u2019s my next assignment?\u201d), and then, and this is key, flipping it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so their suddenly dangerous partnership becomes a much-needed release valve for the sex they can\u2019t have. He watches her \u201cperform\u201d for him, dropping off the note for their mark; she jokes about having \u201cto move to an apartment across the way\u201d and \u201cdo the dance of the seven veils\u201d to get his attention, but he ultimately has to view her through those binoculars to fully appreciate her (\u201cBoy, you shoulda seen her,\u201d he marvels to Doyle). When Lisa returns from performing this errand, she asks breathlessly, \u201cWhat was his expression when he got the note?\u201d Hitchcock lingers on a close-up of Jeff\u2019s gaze; he looks like he wants to devour her. He is undeniably turned on by her, and the danger she\u2019s put himself into for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That will change, of course \u2013 later, he feels genuinely helpless and frightened while watching Thornwald hurt her, a potent reminder of the real danger, and real risks, of the scenes they\u2019re creating. But when she returns to him safely, he marvels, \u201cGee, I\u2019m proud of ya,\u201d and like that, she\u2019s got him. In Rear Window<\/em>\u2019s final scene, Lisa appears to have been \u201ctamed\u201d; she\u2019s not longer clad in the ornate dresses of the rest of the film, now relaxed, though still impeccable in a casual blouse and jeans (wearing the pants now, if you will), reading the \u201cmanly\u201d magazine Jeff works for. But when she sees he\u2019s asleep, she casts it aside and picks up her preferred Bazaar<\/em>. It\u2019s easy to read this moment as a broad \u201cgirls will be girls\u201d gag, or some such regressive thinking, and maybe that\u2019s all it is. Or maybe that final moment is merely a confirmation that, whatever the norm of the moment, Lisa is always capable of switching roles \u2013 of re-asserting her own personality, and again becoming the alpha that so aroused her partner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRear Window\u201d is<\/em> <\/em>out this week<\/em><\/a> on 4K Blu-ray disc, as part of the \u201cAlfred Hitchcock Classics Collection.\u201d It\u2019s also<\/em> <\/em>streaming on Peacock<\/em><\/a> and available for digital rental or purchase from<\/em> <\/em>the usual suspects<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s 1954 favorite (out now in a gorgeous new 4K transfer) remains one of his most effective movies \u2013 and one of his kinkiest. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":531,"featured_media":14888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1399],"tags":[1431,1422,162],"class_list":["post-14885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-looking-back","tag-classic-corner","tag-looking-back","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/531"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22728,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14885\/revisions\/22728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/rearwindow2-1024x576.jpg\")
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