Rear Window
Film auteur Alfred Hitchcock is arguably one of the best directors to ever produce films. He has earned five Best Director nominations, and one just happened to be for his Rear Window. His 1954 film precedes more famous ones as Vertigo and Psycho, the latter of which is one of the best films ever made. Rear Window, however, is one of the most suspenseful and entertaining films of Hitchcock's career. Filmed on an extremely small set, this film should seemingly feel claustrophobic, but paradoxically, it is wide open. With Rear Window, Hitchcock creates another masterpiece, which has managed to work its way onto my Top Ten Best Films Ever list.
Hitchcock is a master of pace, and Rear Window has a steady build up to an intense conclusion. Opening with an extremely self-explanatory prologue, which uses no dialogue whatsoever, Hitchcock shows his talent with silence (he grew up with silent films, and knows how to "show" instead of "tell"). The camera pans across the backside of an apartment building, introducing us to several different characters, although we don't know who they are. We then meet L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart), a risky photographer who pushed his limits too far and broke his leg. Confined to his small apartment for several weeks, he has had nothing to do with his time, so he has taken up voyerism. Looking out his rear window, he watches across the courtyard at the backside of another aparment complex. While watching Rear Window, one of my less intelligent friends wondered why everyone left their shades open. I tried to explain to him that that wasn't the point. So what is the point? The human interest in peering into places which we are not supposed to see.
I can't help but compare this to Sliver, a mildly entertaining, but overall dumb film. That film dealt with voyerism on a sexual basis. Rear Window, however, shows real people in real situations. Across the way are windows to different worlds... private ones. However, human nature is fascinated by looking into these private lives from safe positions. By giving us realistic characters to look at, and realistic characters who peek into other people's lives, we grow immediately fascinated. Now obviously this would be an extremely boring film if it was based on someone staring into apartments all day long, as it would happen in real life. But this is a fictional film, and Hitchcock has the freedom to do what he pleases.