Suspense And Tension In Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

In Alfred Hitchcock’s film, Rear Window, a particular scene begins with main character LB Jeffries confined to his wheelchair with a broken leg, and Stella, LB’s house nurse, watching across the courtyard as LB’s frustrated lover, Lisa, climbs the fire escape and steps into murder suspect, Thorwald’s, open window of his apartment, and begins to search for anything suspicious. Thorwald returns to find Lisa in his apartment. Luckily the police arrive and save her before she is assaulted. The scene ends as Lisa reveals the ring of the alleged victim that she has uncovered to Jeffries across the courtyard, in which Thorwald witnesses this taking place and proceeds to look aggressively across at the two.
There is a reflection in a window in Thorwald’s …show more content…
A voyeuristic approach to this scene is represented with the point of view camera shots and the up-close face shots of Jeffries. This builds up the idea that Jeffries and Stella are not the only ones watching, the viewer is too. Thorwald suddenly reacts to something in his apartment that cannot be seen by either the viewer or the two helpless characters, and all we can assume is that he has found Lisa. This leaves us, the voyeurs, questioning what is going on in the unseen area, drawing us even closer to the film. The lights are suddenly turned off, and the view is even more constricted. This relays an idea that the viewer is just as guilty of spying, as is Jeffries, hence the suspense. When the police arrive, Jeffries and Stella take out their telephoto lens and binoculars, respectively, with intentions of providing a better view into the room. The frame slowly gets closer and closer to the characters in Thorwald’s apartment which correlates directly to drawing closer to the climactic event at the end of the scene. Through the lens of the binoculars and telephoto lens, there is a circular screen that allows you and the two characters to view into the apartment. Outside the