“Six weeks sitting in a two bedroom apartment with nothing to do but look at the neighbors.” You would think this would be a dull concept for a movie, sitting in a window watching people’s daily lives. But when your view is as limited as if you’re in another building, something much more entertaining is made. When photographer L. B. Jeffries is confined to his apartment for weeks with a broken leg in the film Rear Window, he spends his time looking out the window at his neighbors. With the summer heat meaning every window is open for Jeffries to peer into, he learns about everyone in his block. He even discovers a murder plot, of all things. But we aren’t sure if it really is a murder plot at first. In fact, we, the audience, are given much more reason to doubt there is a murder than Jeffries. By using subjective narration and only placing the camera within Jeffries’ apartment, the film takes on a much more entertaining story than if we had an objective viewpoint. In fact, subjective narration is the only thing that makes Jeffries the hero of the story. This may be hard to imagine, but Jefferies isn’t exactly a …show more content…
We are not Jefferies. Another film with splendid use of subjective narration is the Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan. Under immense pressure, the protagonist, Nina, starts to show signs of psychosis and schizophrenia. Her hallucinations are shown to us clearly as we question what is real and what is in the Nina 's mind. In some scenes she fights an enemy that is not there, but we see it, rather than watch her struggle with nothing. In the case of Black Swan we are Nina. But in the case of Rear Window, we are not Jefferies. Yet with all this reasons to dislike Jefferies, we, the audience, find ourselves on his side, sympathizing with him, and even fearing harm may come to him. Why is this you may ask? Two reasons: Loosely subjective narration and camera