This is the first in a series of examinations of images and scenes that perplexed and fascinated me at first, but which perfectly encapsulate the theme of the films in which they appear.
Jeff & Lisa viewed, frustratingly, from behind.
This shot from Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’ begins wide and pushes in to the above composition, holding there for approximately 13 seconds while Jeff (James Stewart) and Lisa (Grace Kelly) exchange several lines, before pulling out into the original wide shot again.
For most of its length, ‘Rear Window’ uses subjective shots, from Jeff’s point of view, intercut with close-ups of his reactions to what he sees from his wheelchair-bound position at his window, causing the viewer to identify strongly with the increasingly unhealthy interest he develops in his neighbours. Throughout the film, the time Jeff spends glued to his window invisibly observing (and judging) his neighbours grows, as his own relationship with Lisa becomes more problematic and suffocating. Like the movie viewer, Jeff’s watching is a form of vicarious escape from his own life.
This shot immediately precedes Lisa drawing down the blinds on the window, cutting off the source of Jeff’s distraction so she can have his undivided attention; she is about to interrupt his addictive observations, but by concealing his characters from us, Hitchcock gives us a foretaste of the medicine Lisa is intent on administering to Jeff.
In a film explicitly about voyeurism (and subtextually about the act of viewing film), the sense of frustration one feels at this moment is palpable – one expects the camera to circle around them (or cut to a more convenient angle) so we can see their faces, as is our ‘right’. The viewer’s identification with Jeff is once again reinforced.
The brilliance of this shot is that this seemingly ‘bad’ composition is completely intentional; a subtle and sublime example of Hitchcock’s manipulative mastery.
