March 27, 2017

4 Cinematic Techniques Alfred Hitchcock Uses in ‘Rear Window’ to Turn You into a Voyeur

This is how the Master of Suspense made audiences become voyeurs whether they wanted to be one or not.

Watching Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller Rear Window is an interesting and somewhat unusual experience. On one hand you’re a passive spectator watching a film about a recently-incapacitated photographer spying on his neighbors out of boredom, but on the other you are an extension of good ol’ Jimmy Stewart’s intrusive gaze. In essence, you become another person confined to that stuffy old apartment with nothing more than a pair of binoculars and a morbid curiosity that goes a little too far. But how does Hitchcock put you into that voyeuristic role? That’s a question that Matt Draper answers in this interesting video essay.

For all intents and purposes, Rear Window is a film about voyeurism, so it makes sense that Hitchcock’s approach to the film would be to force audiences to become voyeurs. And there are a lot of cinematic elements at play in Rear Window that help put audiences into the role.

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Source: NoFilmSchool