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A Feminist Perspective Of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

1460 Words6 Pages

Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist from Britain who is known for her essay on visual pleasures in narrative cinema. Being inspired by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan’s ideology combined with psychoanalysis, Mulvey comes up with the ‘Male Gaze Theory regarding sexual objectification on women in the media. The male gaze is the way in which the visual arts and the literature portrays women and world from a masculine point of view presenting women as objects of male pleasure regardless of being heterosexual male or female, thus the formula of cinema becomes comprised of “women ad image, man as bearer of the look.” The male gaze consists of three different gazes: - look of the camera that records the film, - the look of the characters in the film and – the look of the audience that views the film. Mulvey then went on to classify women’s role on film functions “on two levels: as erotic objects for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic objects for the character within the auditorium.” She then criticise Alfred Hitchcock’s film ‘the rear window’ made in 1954 for his portrayal …show more content…

By welcoming us to relate to Jefferies through the subjective utilization of perspective shots and most significantly exactly when Mr Thorwald gives back his look by looking straight into the camera (at Jefferies and verifiably at us), this is Hitchcock's comical remark on the primordial status of the observer as voyeur. One of the important characteristics of the gaze is that the object of the gaze is not aware of being looked at, therefore giving the viewers gaze a voyeuristic

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Gender Roles In Rear Window By Alfred Hitchcock

120 Words | 1 Pages

Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock depicts men and women in the 1950's and how they are different and the same when representing their gender roles. There are circumstances in the movie where the gender roles change and switch around. When jeff has a broken leg he needs two women to help him around the house. Nurse Stella and his girlfriend Lisa both take pride in taking care of jeff. There were many different roles depicted in the movie, there were happy couples, sad couples, happy singles, and sad singles.

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Relationships In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

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Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window has several themes. One major theme is relationships. The lead character, Jeff Jeffries, a photographer and committed bachelor, is involved in a relationship with Lisa Fremont, a model, although the relationship has some tension due to Jeff’s lack of commitment. When Jeff is confined to his apartment recovering from a broken leg, he begins spying through his rear window on his neighbors in a nearby apartment. Through her frequent visits, Lisa is drawn into this spying as well.

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Ethical Issues In Rear Window

873 Words | 4 Pages

Rear Window Argues that people should mind their own business. Do you agree? Rear Window, a 1954 romance/murder-mystery by the renowned golden age director Alfred Hitchcock, is a film that explores a multitude of themes and genres through the voyeuristic gaze of protagonist L.B. Jefferies. Jefferies, or ‘Jeff’ as he commonly known throughout the film, is a middle-aged bachelor recently hospitalised due to his high-risk career as a photojournalist. This hindered condition serves as an important foundation on which the movie is built upon as Jeff’s forced lifestyle being in a wheelchair causes an abrupt stop in his usual high intensity way of life and causes him to quench his boredom in other ways, predominantly watching the other residents in his apartment complex through the ‘rear window’ of his apartment.

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The Role Of Community In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

1132 Words | 5 Pages

The idea of similarities among all people, an underlying connection, is expressed by Hitchcock when Lisa in Rear Window argues with Jefferies, saying, “There can't be that much difference between people and the way they live! We all eat, talk, drink, laugh, sleep, wear clothes --“. When she says this, Lisa has a lamp light shining from the upper right side of the screen to indicate the truth of her argument. There is also an instance in Rear Window where the ability to understand a person sprouts empathy. Jefferies is sitting in the dark, after Lisa leaves angry, when the piano man comes home.

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Symbolism And Motifs In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

672 Words | 3 Pages

Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock is a fillm full of symbolism and motifs that provides viewers with a bigger meaning. It shows these rhetorical appeals through Hitchcok’s eyes that would not be recognized if not analyzed. Through these appeals I have recognized the window as being a symbol and marriage and binoculars as motifs. After understanding much more than what the eye anitially sees when viewing this film there is a fine line between understanding what is going on in the film and observing what the protagonist Jeff is viewing.

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Anxiety And Suspense In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

973 Words | 4 Pages

In the 1954 film, Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock uses the depicted sequence of frames to evoke feelings of anxiety and suspense in the audience by portraying an invasion of privacy and the fear of being caught breaking that boundary that society tends to cherish and protect. When assessed individually, the chosen frames provide a partial, but incomplete evocation of suspense. In the first of the two frames, the audience is outside looking into an apartment building with three people in view, none of whom are composed in a way that would suggest they know where the others in the building are. Additionally, the woman on the upper floor is smiling and waving in the direction of the audience. Coon explains that Hitchcock draws on “societal anxieties

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Alfred Hitchcock Rear Window Analysis

1431 Words | 6 Pages

With Rear Window (1954), Alfred Hitchcock proved himself to be one of the best directors of suspense thrillers filled with mystery and humour. He himself called the film his most cinematic one because it was told only in visual terms (Morrow), but it was also a challenging “editing experiment” as the entire film was shot from one place, Jeff’s apartment that overlooked his backyard. The Film follows L.B. Jeffries “Jeff” (James Stewart), a photographer confined to a wheelchair in his apartment after breaking his leg at work. He spends his days watching his neighbours and eventually suspects that one of them killed his wife. His caretaker, his girlfriend Lisa and his detective friend, at first unconvinced of his suspicion, eventually join him in his voyeurism and help him to solve the crime.

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In Laura Mulvey’s article, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” she writes about the relationship between voyeurism, cinema, and gender. She begins by describing the concept of scopophilia, which means to gain pleasure from looking. She writes that scopophilia is inherently active/masculine, and that pleasure is derived from looking at other people as mere objects. On the other hand, the passive/feminine is derived from the experience of being looked at (pg.188). Mulvey sees this binary relationship between viewer and object being viewed as a part of our culture, and the greatest example of this is found in cinema.

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Examples Of Voyeurism In Rear Window

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Hitchcock's mystery film “Rear Window”, took place in 1954. explores the theme of voyeurism as uncontrollable action that everyone can be guilty of. Due to Senator Joseph Mcarthy encouraging citizens to spy on their neighbours in the 1950s, voyeurism wasn't seen as crime. Nevertheless, Throughout the film there are many evidence and signs verifying that everybody is guilty of voyeurism The first sign of voyeurism occurs during a helicopter scene.

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Human Curiosity In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

1250 Words | 5 Pages

Alfred Hitchcock’s, Rear Window (1954), is a cinematic masterpiece that analyzes the complicated aspects involved within human curiosity. Telling the story of a photographer, L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, the film delves into the metafictional ways in which he uncovers a murderer while recuperating from an accident. Being stricken in a wheelchair, Jeff looks out of the rear window in his New York apartment and views the lives of his many neighbors. Through his recovery, Jeff lives his life vicariously through his window until he hears a woman screaming for help, startling him and creating suspicion that his neighbor, Lars Thorwald, has murdered his wife. This leads to a series of events that eventually leads to Thorwald being convicted of his crimes

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Social Isolation In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

1225 Words | 5 Pages

Alfred Hitchcock 's Rear Window explores the lives of those who feel isolated within society. The 1954 film, set in the tenements of Grenwich village, depicts those who are incapable of fitting into society 's expectations, as well as those who feel isolated from common interaction with others. Moreover, Hitchcock displays how its human nature to seek comfort and deeper connection even with those who are surrounded by others. Despite depicting characters as lonely, the progression of the film illustrates how individuals can be freed from isolation. The director asserts the loneliness and struggle that comes from fitting into social mores.

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1185 Words | 5 Pages

Through The Eyes of L.B. Jeffries Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”, utilizes elements of mise-en-scene to help the audience identify with the main characters. In this film specifically, we’re encouraged to identify with protagonist, L. B. Jeffries, a photographer living in New York who’s been confined to a wheelchair for the past few weeks and his only view of the world is through his rear window and into his back courtyard. Three profilmic elements of mise-en-scene that encourage identification is the set, the interaction among the actors, and the props presented on the screen. All three of these elements together support the sole identification with Jeffries throughout the film.

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