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One of Alfred Hitchcock's main themes was voyeurism
One of Alfred Hitchcock's main themes was voyeurism
One of Alfred Hitchcock's main themes was voyeurism
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Rear Window is an entertaining movie using voyeurism as a story element. For me it has a double meaning; first like the rear view mirror in a car one is always looking in it to see out of the rear window, at who or what is behind us, looking over our shoulder. The concept of ‘Looking over your shoulder’, brings to mind a paranoia of being followed or watched. The second is meaning of the movie’s title is more apparent in that the rear windows of the visible apartments share a common view of a circular enclave or backyard view of other neighbors who share the same visual experience. The concept of ‘Looking over our shoulder’ or paranoia of being followed or watched seems not to exist in the minds of the neighbors for most, if not all of the tenants of the different buildings live openly with their windows, shutters, blinds and curtains pulled back allowing anyone with a good pair of eyes to see directly into, what would ordinarily be their private world. They are inviting voyeurism as a community culture; fearless of what their neighbors would learn about them, their stories, hab...
“And of Clay We Are Created,” by Isabel Allende, offers an observation of what social psychologists know to as the bystander effect. In the story, Azucena is a young girl, trapped in the muck, in need of a great amount of assistance. As she suffers and countless reporters are on the scene filming, no one ever stops filming to aid her. The reporters care more about getting the story than saving the precious life of another human being. As the story progresses, Allende connects Eva Luna to Rolf and Azucena use voyeurism as a key dramatic device. Using the interpersonal relationships of the characters, Allende takes a look at how voyeurism can be a contributing factor to the growth of social insensitivity to another’s needs.
In the film Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock, a significant shift of power is portrayed. This shift occurs between the protagonist of the film, L.B Jeffries and his romantic partner, Lisa Freemont. This shift also aids in outlining the main theme of the film, which is marriage, as all aspects of marriage are observed and taken into account by Jeffries. The change of dominance within Lisa and Jeffries relationship can be broken down into three stages, which develop and change throughout the film. At the beginning of the film Jeffries is shown to have the power within the relationship as he dictates the parameters of the relationship, however he is also intimidated by Lisa 's social standing. Towards the middle of the film the possession
The Truman Show engenders question on the authenticity of behavior and virtue in the face of pervasive voyeurism(which I will refer to in an exclusively non sexual manner). The Truman Show expostulates that an unaware participant in this perverted voyeurism, no matter the level of cognizant awareness, is still inauthentic because of the pervasive manipulation by Cristof and his cronies and the willing deception by Truman Show 's costars. These factors engender a contrived scenario that forces Truman to act in an expected manner—rather than natural--much like the intrusive Mr. B and English society (but really Richardson) forces Pamela to act virtuous. Pamela is an apt point of comparison for the Truman Show because both mark the genesis of a new medium in their respective cultures. Pamela is regarded as one of the catalysts for the epistolary novel and elevated novel in England; in
This method of surveillance effectively curtails negative social behaviour by keeping the population under constant fear of being watched. The objective of this intense surveillance is to create a modern Panopticon, a prison designed by British architect Jeremy Bentham in the late 1700s. This prison featured a centralized guard tower surrounded by brightly lit cells. Due to the difference in the quality of light, the prisoners were not able to see the guard tower so, “not knowing if they are being watched, but having to assume that they are, the prisoners [adjusted] their behavior” (Jan Kietzmann 135). This method was adapted by many societies including soviet Russia where the people were so afraid of being spied upon that they would only meet their friends in public to avoid being suspected of private conspiracy (Enteen 209). As in communist Russia, the governing body’s manipulation of surveillance is in an effort to ensure that no citizens are doing, or thinking of doing anything contrary to the goals of the party. This omnipresent surveillance has been shown to cut down on crime, however this comes at the cost of the citizens’ freedom and spontaneity, turning vibrant humans into fearful
You are alone in a dark cell. You are fearful because you know that you are being watched, but you do not know who is watching you or when you are being watched. You are suddenly conscious of every move you make because you are aware that someone is monitoring every inhale, every exhale, and every little aspect of your life. This is the concept of Jeremy Bentham’s “Panopticon.”
Regular among his works, Hitchcock opens the film with a hovering crane shot coasting over the setting of Phoenix, Arizona. Even without the mysterious, chilling soundtrack, the shot itself watched in silence evokes a timid passage into danger. In a long take it sweeps across the cityscape to build initial curiosity in the viewer, and then surpasses a curtain-drawn window into the presence of a hotel room’s trysting occupants. Immediately the viewer is called into confronting his/her discretion regarding those things we are not customarily meant to see, in such ideas as privacy and good taste. How far should the law step into a man’s world before he is discovered with reasonable certitude for engaging in illegal activities?
... surveillance. There has become many ways for people with supremacy to now observe anything and make it “unverifiable”(288). Panopticism made a huge contribution to the ideas of discipline in modern society.
This left Hitchcock films as some of her mother’s favorites. Pemberton, went to a Hitchcock festival as an adult, this time watching Rear Window, which she had not seen since she was a child with an objective examination, she found a scene that would shift both her and her mother’s perspective of this movie. As Jimmy Stewart’s character, Jefferies, realizes he is in danger, telephones his friend Wendell Corey, who was not at home, but he spoke with the baby-sitter who did not appear on screen, but was portrayed in a voice that would convey imagery of a “familiar black image.” Asking the inspiration for this essay “Do he have your number, Mr.
If I were to visit a psychiatrist with the mental state I am in, he might accuse me of being a voyeur, but believe me I don’t take pleasure in peeking into other people’s lives so I am not a voyeur. I just do it because I am bored and pretty much have nothing else to do. The story I am going to unfold took place over a year ago. Those were desperate times for me. I was sick and tired of being a loner back then and I was looking for a relationship of my standards, and quite frankly I had set myself very high standards.
What makes voyeurism such a powerful aesthetic strategy is its violation of the taboo of privacy, its denial of a condition that we take for granted as our right - namely, not to be observed in certain places, at certain times, doing certain things. 17
Moving away from Foucault and Bentham, David Lyon has made a quest for other surveillance theories. He writes, “It seems clear that some constructive contributions to surveillance theory are needed. Surveillance theory cannot ignore the panopticon but it can surely move beyond it” (12). The direction as to where to turn is still an ongoing debate. Some have not strayed far and have turned to Foucault’s governmentality, others have turned to an Orwellian model, Deleuze, Baudrillard, Zizek, Arendt and Kant to name a few. This paper will turn to Henri Lefebvre and his book Production of Space as Lefebvre has become in vogue in surveillance theory and later in this paper will be useful in discussing helicopters and how occupy Mike Davis’s idea of Los Angeles creation of a ‘defensible space’.
The narration that accompanies the scene is allowing our voyeuristic desires to enter into the
“I always feel like somebody's watching me and I have no privacy.” These are the famous lyrics from one of Michael Jackson's hit songs Somebody’s Watching Me. Now, back when this song was created, there was not as much worry about people constantly being watched by cameras, but it seems to fit in the problem that my generation is facing. In the book 1984, written by George Orwell, the society is always being watched through a device called a telescreen. The main character, Winston, has trouble adjusting to the life of always being monitored, and the fact that if you made one mistake you could be tortured or killed. This book was made in the late 1940’s and was written to show what the predicted future would be like. Many people who have read
“One of my neighbors in the apartment building across the street spends a lot of time at her mirror examining her pores, and I can see her doing it, just as she can undoubtedly see me sometimes. But our respective privacies remain intact as long as neither of us feels seen.”
Classical cinema motivates the desire to look by incorporating structures of voyeurism and narcissism into the story.