Rear Window (1954)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1954
	Director: Alfred Hitchcock (The Birds, Vertigo, Psycho)
	Actors: James Stewart (Vertigo), Grace Kelly (Dial M for murder), Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 26.01.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Constrained to spend seven weeks at home in a wheel chair after an accident, a professional photographer (Steward) spies on his neighbours, alternating with visits from his nurse (Ritter), his girlfriend (Kelly) and a detective friend (Corey). He becomes convinced to have witnessed a murder.
Review: I have recently watched a few movies by Brian de Palma, spiritual son of Hitchcock, and then acquired the beautiful Blu-ray box-set (picture below) containing 15 movies by the master of suspense. Rear Window is the first one I watched, keeping the masterpiece Vertigo and the aging The Birds for later. The image quality is impressive (so sharp that you immediately notice the times when the actors are not in focus) but the sound is weak due to the original mono recording. I surely hope all movies in the box-set look as good. Rear Window is supposed to be such a classic of suspense (I may have seen it only once about twenty years ago) that I was a bit disappointed by the first one and a half hour. The story evolves only very slowly then, until it really reaches in the last 30 minutes the heights of suspense Hitchcock was known for. So the movie is not all about murder and suspense, and this may be what makes it strength 60 years after. One thing I love about Rear Window is the framing: the camera often scans the opposite wall of the apartment building and we glimpse the life of people living there: lonely middle-aged woman, young couple, pianist, old couple, troublesome couple. It sometimes looks like cartoon strips, and after one hour when the characters we know enter this frame it gives a strange feeling of violating the intimacy of what happens on the other side of this window. The movie may in fact be a reflection on cinema (the whole story of the fourth wall, also very well illustrated in Anguish, and in a different style in Last Action Hero). A second thing I noticed, especially in the first hour, is that most discussions turn around couples and what to do of your life. Indeed the main characters is in his forties, not married and not willing to, he prefers to travel for his work. I guess this was uncommon in the 50's. In contrast we see how the neighbours have managed: happy couple, unhappy couple or remaining single. This observation doesn't really help the hero in taking any decision. It will turn out to be the tragic event (the murder) that will bring him closer to his girlfriend and maybe consider a different life. A brilliant movie on many aspects.
Rating: 8 /10