1Nikki KigaComparative Literature 271James TweedieAnu HastingsThrough the Window

Hitchcock is a director that maintains direct and uncomfortable perspectives throughout his films. He particularly likes to experiment with unconventional film technique while framing a narrative around sleuth-like characters with voyeuristic tendencies. One of Hitchcocks most acclaimed films, and arguably most representative of his mastery of the lens, culminated after decades of experimentation in Rear Window (1956). Hitchcock has at this time refined his narrative style and in many ways directed his lens to emphasize dynamics on and off the screen. The contrast between realism and manipulation in Hitchcocks films are meant to both bring the audiences attention to social dynamics while maintaining an appropriate level of involvement. Hitchcock uses windows to control the perspective of both his characters and the audience. The framing of space through a glass panel and with a lens provides Hitchcock with the mechanisms to cinematically comment on the social relations while at the same time control the distance from which his characters and his audience are involved in the action. The ordinary is reflected with new meaning through the windows Hitchcock creates. In Rear Window (1954), the credits play over a frame of a window looking out on an apartment complex. As the credits come to a close the blinds start to roll up by an unseen force, Hitchcocks directorial power ushers the viewer into this rear, or more appropriately, reflective world. The camera takes on its own perspective, moving out of the window, sweeping the courtyard and then coming back inside to our sleeping sleuth. This is not from Jeffries (James Stewart) perspective, but instead an introduction lead by the director himself. We see the musician, the childless couple on the balcony, the young dancer and back inside the window to Jeffries and a sweep of his broken leg. In one fell swoop, we see his broken camera and tripod, the image of a giant wheel mid-bounce, that all explain his confinement to a wheelchair. This is one of the few moments the viewer previews the community without the guidance of Jeffries perspective or lens. It reminds the viewer that Jeffries is included in this reflection of reality, he is quickly established as a surrogate for the moviegoer, sitting in the dark, watching the private lives of others unfold while retaining his anonymity (Isralowitz). Hitchcock is extremely aware of how perspective, and suspense vs. surprise affect the audiences involvement. He uses that knowledge carefully to control what the audience knows on and off the screen. Hitchcocks choice of a wheelchair-restricted photographer furthers his motives. A photographer is used to viewing people through a lens and framing them. Jeffs profession accustoms him to placing the people and things he sees within frames that condition the meaning that attaches those images (Howe 21). Hitchcock truly hopes to emphasize the importance of the movie frame, or the portal of the viewer into an alternate realm. Hitchcock even went as far as to require the windows in the set to be made to exacting screen proportions. There are noticeably some dividers, as in Jeffries window that splits the screen into thirds, perhaps meant to break the screen as following the rule of thirds. It cannot be ignored that many of the aesthetic choices are very intentional and also meant to further emphasize and mirror the relationship between the viewers window and the windows within Rear Window. Hitchcocks intentionally uses mirroring between on-screen action and off-screen action to further the viewers relationship to the characters. To further build suspense, Hitchcock uses the windows vantage point in movies like The 39 Steps (1935) or Shadow of a Doubt (1943) to relate both the characters curiosity and the audiences curiosity as to who is watching and, or, being watched. The spectator can at times find him or herself being the spectacle. Jeffries as a spectating character is not at all uncommon in Hitchcocks films. Jeffries plays the standard amateur sleuth-hero character that we find pervasive in Hitchcocks films, including The 39 Steps, Strangers on a Train (1951), and North by Northwest (1959). In The 39 Steps Richard Hannay looks out his window to confirm Annabellas story that there are two spies observing them. In Shadow of a Doubt Uncle Charlie peeks out his window in New York to confirm that the two detectives are watching him. In Strangers on a Train, Guy peers out his window at the two detectives who are constantly tailing him. All of these examples of surveillance all flip the roles of the watchers and the watched. Spectatorship and voyeurism are not only seen in Rear Window but throughout Hitchcocks work, it only becomes the most apparent commentary through its obvious thematic import in Rear Window. Rarely do we see ourselves clearly, Hitchcock toys with this notion of reflection and uses it both visually and ironically. The very opening of North by Northwest is of the reflective side of a building downtown all the cars coming and going, perhaps foreshadowing all of the car sequences to come. In many ways, Hitchcocks films are meant to reflect commentary on more than just the communities in the movies, but also the society outside of the film. Even within the film, Rear Window, we see the phenomenon of someone watching a window through a window. However, rarely does that other window turn in on that same someone. Jeff watches Ms. Lonelyhearts greet and guide her invisible love to the table and pour wine. Meanwhile, unseen by Jeffries, Lisa is setting out the meal for him. Both scenes mirror one another, one plays out in front of Jeffriess window, and the other, behind. He says, Ms. Lonelyhearts, well at Least thats something youll never have to worry about. Ironic, since while Ms. Lonelyhearts love is invisible and a fragment of her imagination, Lisas love, Jeff, doesnt see her seriously. Hitchcock uses windows and reflections to cast commentary on the scopophilic tendencies of the characters and the audience and how infrequently those views are reflected back on their own lives.Occasionally, reflections can catch up with the characters and thereby the audience as well. The window scenes mentioned before from The 39 Steps, Shadow of a Doubt, and Strangers on a Train were all right before the main characters attempted to sneak away from surveillance. In order to avoid the scopophilic gaze, one must at times address it. Similarly, Hitchcock breaks the window divide of the movie screen between the film and the viewer by creating uncomfortable contact between characters and the audience. An abnormal close-up of Uncle Charlie brings us close as he discusses the pig-like widows, we can almost see the spittle fly from his lips. Finally, little Charlie, speaks out, voicing an opinion that the audience must be thinking, and Uncle Charlie turns to address the opinion. In doing so, Uncle Charlie makes direct eye contact with the audience and presumably little Charlie, the audiences surrogate. Hitchcock uses a point of view shot, to allow Uncle Charlie the opportunity to face his viewers. We, the audience are caught in an uncomfortable moment, our screen of anonymity temporarily lifted. Similarly, Thorwald makes eye contact with the audience through the telephoto lens Jeff has lifted to his eye in Rear Window. We, the audience, are made complicit through this act of scopophilia. As Stella and Jeff scramble to remain unseen we know that the screen of anonymity has been lifted. The reflections through lenses or screens are one of the direct ways the audience becomes involved. In a slightly more subtle commentary, Roger Thornhills reflection in the television screen gives him away to the maid in North by Northwest (1959). Again, the theme of the movie screen, a window we have into these fictional worlds casts a reflection on our involvement.The window goes both ways. Hitchcock uses tools, like an actual window or binoculars, telephoto lenses or television screens to remind the audience that the window is not just meant to look out of but also meant to see inside. When Lisa chastises Jeff for spying on his neighbors he replies, They [his neighbors] can do the same thing to me, they can watch me like a bug under a glass if they want to. Indeed, it is only at the end of Rear Window that Jeffs neighbors turn the scopophilic gaze onto him. We are thrown outside of Jeffs perspective and this time enters the windows of his neighbors. It intercuts between the long shots from neighbors windows, to the closer views from Thorwalds perspective as Jeff struggles and eventually falls out of his window. While the window provides a portal, it is also inescapable that other things get cropped out: we see some, but not all. In the case of Notorious (1946), we the audience, see Alicias and Devlins embrace from Alexs vantage point. We see through the cellar door window, the two locked in an embrace. The cellar window reveals a truth that Alicia and Devlin had tried to hide from Alex, but not as important as the truth they used this window to crop out. The window plays a notable role between love interests. Back in Rear Window, we see Lisa attempt to enter Jeffries window of attention by leaving his apartment and stealing into Thorwalds. An attempt to gain Jeffs attention, this time by being seen within the object space beyond the window. Yet as her strategy evolves, she is not simply an object to be watched, but one who looks back as well (Howe 26). Her knowledge of Jeff behind his window is ultimately what gives him away. As she knowingly waggles her finger, while wearing the wedding ring, it symbolizes both her desire to wed and the existence of an accomplice. Upon seeing Lisa reveal the ring, Thorwald looks around and finally confronts his accuser. Previously, Jeff had comfortably sat behind his window with a shade of anonymity that allowed him the benefit of distance and non-direct interaction. His window provided him all the privacy and divide to explore his voyeurism and scopophilia. Similarly, the audience sits in comfort, a comfort Hitchcock seeks to dislodge from time to time.Film as dream, film as music. No form of art goes beyond ordinary consciousness as film does, straight to our emotions, deep into the twilight room of the soul.-Ingmar Bergman

Hitchcock recognizes the power with the lens to appeal to the audience and at times disturb his audience. He also understands the fine balance between the appealing and the disturbing. Hitchcock seeks to fully engage his audience and to use cinematic technique to manipulate their emotions during those ninety to one hundred and twenty minutes. His use of windows provides an ideal portal for him to both reveal and distance his audience from. He cant afford to estrange his audience by being too boring, frightening or emotional but neither can he restrain his surreptitious mind by not pushing boundaries. Proper spectatorship thus involves a balance between dismissal and acceptance, and requires a distancing from, yet involvement in the diegesis (Palmer 6). It almost becomes a game to him, of how far he can go, and how much he can sneak in, until someone notices. We see it in his varying subtle use of windows, lenses and screens and we also see it in his use of cameo appearances. Hitchcock was a subtle critic of his institutional apparatus, a filmmaker who deviously undermined the premises of the medium (such as scopophilic interpellation of the spectator) and the thematic/narrative conventions of realist narrative (Palmer 4). In many ways, Hitchcock sought to uphold and at times break down the cinematic window. His penchant for cameo appearances toys with this notion of in front of and behind the window. His placement of himself in front of and behind the lens recognizes and confirms the reflection of reality in cinema.

Works Cited Howe, Lawrence. "Through the Looking Glass: Reflexivity, Reciprocality, and Defenestration in Hitchcock's Hear Window." College Literature 35.1 (2008): n. pag. Web. Isralowitz, Jason P. "Lonely Hearts and Murderers: The Fourth Amendment Through Hitchcock's Lens." The Legal Studies Forum 24.1 (2000): n. pag. Web. Palmer, R. B. "The Metafictional Hitchcock: The Experience of Viewing and the Viewing of Experience in "Rear Window" and "Psycho"" Cinema Studies 25.2 (1986): n. pag. Web.