Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-14T02:40:23.387Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

The Fourth Side

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Michel Chion
Affiliation:
Cahiers du cinem
John Belton
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Get access

Summary

One of the principal difficulties in a scenario like that of Rear Window, I imagine, was to make the spectators complicit, during the entire film, with the pure voyeurism of the protagonists. This would have been difficult because, except at the end, they are not threatened by the (possible) murderer whose actions they study, nor is it necessary for them to defend anyone, since the crime has already been committed by the time they start to become interested in him.

However, this difficulty is directly confronted at the very beginning of the film, in the first scene between Jeff (James Stewart) and his nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter). Stella anticipates the spectator's reaction, with an unambiguous condemnation: “We've become a race of Peeping Toms.” This condemnation is, in fact, something of an endorsement of voyeurism; Stella herself will be, when the moment arrives, the most enthusiastic participant in this sport and will display the most fertile of morbid fantasies concerning the murder across the way.

On the other hand, there indeed is something that is never said or alluded to throughout the film, and that must not be – because the whole working out of the story depends on its repression.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×