Alfred Hitchcock once said I enjoy playing the audience like a piano, but how does he do this in issue of his films? It's going to vary one of the best parts about hitchcock is how many different techniques? [it] is used over his career if you watch one of his movies you might implement one tactic to help tell his story But later who will use something completely different or a variation of one of those techniques?
one of the reasons that is heralded with so much respect is that despite most of his movies dealing with murder deceit and Corruption all of them feel fresh when you watch one of his movies It doesn't feel like a ripoff of another But instead a whole new entity a big reason why this happens is that he liked to try new things he had built up enough of a Reputation of being a great director that studios allowed him to blend the lines of conventional film making but [also] Experimental styles the movie of his that I want to take a closer look at today is rear window Not only is it one of the best mystery movies of all time But also one of the best movies out there [if] you have not seen it then you are missing out in a truly great movie And should watch it before continuing on with this video because I will be discussing spoilers So please watch the movie one of [the] biggest achievements of hitchcock in this movie is how he puts the audience in the perspective of [Jeffries] with the exception of his fall towards the end of the movie He stays in his apartment for every minute of screen time and for the most part the camera stays there with him other Characters might leave the room but at the end of the day our protagonist is stuck with us in a small room We get glimpses into other apartments, but we never actually enter them this is the perfect setup for a film though as hitchcock to show as much as he can but still only show enough so that He can still create suspense How many times have you been watching a suspenseful thriller or a horror movie? Would have looked somewhere where the protagonist hasn't well in this the protagonist is limited in Movement Just like the audience in most movies the protagonist can get up and do whatever they want to do But in this [Jefferies] is stationary [just] [like] the audience you can only sit there and watch this creates a very interesting Parallel between the audience in the character essentially we as the [audience] watched two things first We see what Jeffries sees everyone else. We make up our own opinions about them Which are admittedly heavily influenced by Hitchcock and what he wants us [to] see and believe But the way that he's able to influence us is the second thing that he shows us which is the activity within Jeffrey's apartment [if] this movie was just a Documentation of the lives of others around the area it would take on a whole new [meaning] Everyone who watches this movie would have different interpretations of what is happening so we need to have a guide someone to take us through this world and tell the audience what to believe but Despite having that guide people are still going to make assumptions for themselves They aren't going to believe everything that is told to them we flat out see thorwald [and] a woman leave his apartment [the] audience needs to be able to question the sanity of Jeffries that is what Hitchcock Encourages the audience to constantly go [back] and forth with itself to try and figure out if thorwald actually murdered his wife [let's] take a closer Look at one scene in particular to see what hitchcock does to manipulate the audience This seems when Jefferies first talks with detective Doyle about the possibility that thorwald murdered his wife Before it convinced himself that this is real and is still unsure about it The dialogue itself goes back and forth between the two neither of them really get the edge the scene ends with both of them believing What they believe when they walked in but throughout the scene hitchcock uses visual storytelling to try and convince you a thorwald isn't the murderer based off [of] visuals alone Detective Doyle has total control over the conversation at all times he towers over Jefferies And is seen as physically larger than him for the entire scene in Addition the camera takes his perspective when he gets up it follows him instead of staying on [Jefferies] Doyle is often seen at the center of the frame and we as audience members are meant to take his perspective upon this first meeting But why would Hitchcock lied to us?
Well for no reason other than he wants us [to] doubt our protagonist if you can predict What is going to happen on your first viewing? It's not going to be a very fun viewing is it but if you're constantly being thrown back and forth and back and forth Not being able to decide. What is real or not then there's another mind game happening one Where you as the audience members are questioning everything that you see But outside of the murder plot the biggest theme or idea in this film is that of looking at [other's] lives Because he's in a wheelchair an apartment bound Jeffrey starts to look into the lives of others to try and see What it is that his neighbors do at the start of the movie the camera shows off the different people who live around his neighborhood?
There are three people that we are going to be taking a closer look at to try and get a better understanding of Mr So miss lonely heart and the pianist Starting off with miss torso the ballet dancer can be best categorized by what [Jeffery] seizes her he doesn't [get] the full picture Until the very end which is a constant theme throughout this entire movie. We were only shown so much which leads to people making assumptions Jeffrey's thinks that she is rather loose, sexually because she's willing to have many other men over But Lisa sees right through that in fact she compares herself to Mr so saying that there is much more to [her] character than what we can see from our Viewpoint in Jeffrey's apartment and come the end of The movie it is revealed that Lisa was right that she did have a special someone in her life It was only seeing the other man to try and advance her career This torso is important not only to understand the main idea that is present in this movie But also to look further to understand the relationship between Jefferies and Lisa as we already saw Lisa compared herself to Mr So when we see her husband come back. This is further emphasized.
He isn't perfect. He's rather short He wears glasses in a [setup] to be seen as someone who most would view below her standards, physically But that doesn't matter [they] make each other happy and that is good enough [for] each other it is in the same vein that we see the relationship [between] Jefferies and Lisa he thinks that she is too perfect for him But despite that they make one another happy and they want to be together [this] lonely heart says Jefferies What happens when you reject others for too long as he matures into his older age? He was comfortable with settling down alone But people need the companionship of others to be able to survive he needs to have someone in his life Or else he could end up like Miss lonely heart forever unhappy at the center of this movie is a relationship between Jefferies [and] Lisa and seeing miss lonelyhearts shows the importance of having someone else in your life Finally the piano player tries to achieve perfection he plays the same song over and over again trying [to] get it, right But never being able to do so this ultimately shows that there is no real perfection in life There [are] always going to be small flaws in everything early on Jeffrey says that Lisa is too perfect She's too perfect and yet after watching all [of] his [neighbours] he learns that [there's] no such thing as perfection just Things that make you happy and things that don't and to always choose the things that are going to make you happy One last thought in the film when Lisa and Jefferies are discussing the morality between looking at others through their rear window He states that as long as his windows are open for people to peer into his life It's okay to peer into theirs This argument is very interesting when it's applied to the audience because we are able to peer into the lives of the different characters See what they see and hear what they say, but this is a one-way street Or maybe it isn't remember, and we saw alfred hitchcock in the other apartment it appears that this is a one-way street We see him, but he doesn't see us But he does more [than] see us He tells us what to see what to think and how [to] feel about the different characters in this film?
The whole time while we are looking out.
