The opening scene of Rear Window (1954), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, acts as a prologue of the film: we are introduced to the space where much of the narrative will take place, to the protagonist, his background, and his neighbors through entirely visual means. Hitchcock created an entire film from the rear window of a Greenwich Village apartment symbolizing a certain “movie-watching” experience. Hitchcock uses mise en scène to show how the film is going to progress, uses camera movement around the buildings to give a sense of continuity and time, uses the frame of the rear window as the frame of a metaphorical movie screen to allow the audience to experience pure visual cinema.
The opening sequence can be seen as a curtain raiser. Indeed, the first few seconds start with the camera inside Jeffries’ apartment showing his curtains being …show more content…
Hitchcock uses the frame of Jeff’s rear window as the frame of a metaphorical movie screen. As Jeff watches out his window, he decides which neighbors to watch, kind of like deciding what channel to watch on a television screen. We can even consider each neighbor’s window as an additional television screen within Jeffries’ screen. We therefore get a bunch of movies (the neighbors’ windows) within a movie (Jeffries’ window) within a movie (Hitchock’s Rear Window). The audience experiences pure visual cinema.
The camera movement, mise en scène, the frame of the rear window as well as the sound in this opening sequence are all used to give us a taste of how this thriller is going to develop. This sequence builds up the film impeccably, giving the viewer a little taste of what the film will contain and also by introducing our main character JB Jeffries. I feel this opening scene is one of the most powerful scenes of the film as the audience makes its own assumptions about what happened and what is about to happen through almost only visual
The opening sequence can be seen as a curtain raiser. Indeed, the first few seconds start with the camera inside Jeffries’ apartment showing his curtains being …show more content…
Hitchcock uses the frame of Jeff’s rear window as the frame of a metaphorical movie screen. As Jeff watches out his window, he decides which neighbors to watch, kind of like deciding what channel to watch on a television screen. We can even consider each neighbor’s window as an additional television screen within Jeffries’ screen. We therefore get a bunch of movies (the neighbors’ windows) within a movie (Jeffries’ window) within a movie (Hitchock’s Rear Window). The audience experiences pure visual cinema.
The camera movement, mise en scène, the frame of the rear window as well as the sound in this opening sequence are all used to give us a taste of how this thriller is going to develop. This sequence builds up the film impeccably, giving the viewer a little taste of what the film will contain and also by introducing our main character JB Jeffries. I feel this opening scene is one of the most powerful scenes of the film as the audience makes its own assumptions about what happened and what is about to happen through almost only visual