The representation of women in Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Rear Window” indicates he wants the women in his films to be seen negatively. In using the feminist criticism approach, it is evident that there is a contrast in the way the genders are portrayed throughout the movie. The character Lisa Fremont is a great example of the way women are depicted. Lisa is constantly trying to get Jeff to become more involved in their relationship. However, Jeff treats Lisa as a distraction, and during the film she is not treated in a positive way. The way this relationship is portrayed makes it seem as if Lisa is trying hard to get Jeff’s attention, yet he is the only one that has the power to define the relationship. From a feminist standpoint, Hitchcock’s …show more content…
After Jeff’s accident, his life remains stable and Jeff seems comfortable in his current occupation. However, Lisa is trying to be adventurous with her job and wants to travel the world. She even encourages Jeff to open a portrait studio and pursue his career even further. Jeff constantly turns her down and denies her the right to even try to make their relationship more serious. Jeff is extremely hesitant in moving their relationship forward and constantly pushes her away in fear. He has reached the crucial age of making important decisions, as he is middle-aged and should be settling down in life. However, the idea of settling down into a dull, simple lifestyle seems to scare Jeff. For example, “Through the Looking Glass: Reflexivity, Reciprocality, and Defenestration in Hitchcock’s Rear Window” by Lawrence Howe discusses the difference between the women and men characters of the story. Howe talks about the way the film “reinforces the power of the masculine spectator over the feminine spectacle” (16). Howe also incorporates the idea of a woman, Lisa in this case, being a force to be reckoned with. During the film, Lisa represents herself as an independent, strong woman. She holds her own, even when Jeff continues to make her feel inferior. Jeff seems to hold power over their relationship, as he does not want to get married to Lisa. This elevates the idea of Lisa being
He uses the point of view shot a lot in Rear Window, most of the film we are looking from the perspective of L.B. Jefferies view outside of his window. Everything he sees, the audience sees through his view. This seems to really create an honest relationship with the audience and the character. For example, when L.B. Jefferies sees Lars Thorwald putting his knives away. We see everything that L.B. Jefferies sees and essentially feel the same way that he does. When Hitchcock adds in a shot following the POV of L.B. Jefferies reaction to what he saw Lars Thorwald just do, that is Hitchcock using the Kuleshov effect. Used in almost every Hitchcock film, the audience gets a sense of reality and the reaction to that reality from the character. In Hitchcock’s The Birds for example, the Kuleshov effect is used extremely. In the scene where the man gets knocked down by the bird at the gas station and gas spills down the roadway. We see this through alternating shots of POV from Melanie Daniels view and her facial expression as the gas trail leads to man who is about to light a cigarette. We see the fear and drastic change in emotion in the close up shots showing her reaction to what she saw. In the end, the audience feels psychologically involved and connected with the
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
One such example was invented through his films, “The Hitchcock blonde”, a beautiful blonde heroine who often is attractive, icy, clever, and elegant. From Eva Marie Saint’s portrayal of flirtatious secret spy Eve in North by Northwest to Kim Novak’s manipulative accomplice Madeleine/Judy in Vertigo, the Hitchcock blonde is iconic and often times falling for the lead. Grace Kelly as Lisa in Rear Window uses her wits to not only get key evidence of the murder but also earns Jeff’s admiration. The leading men of Hitchcock’s films have similar characteristics as well, such as having tall, lanky physical builds, youthful appearances, as well as reluctance towards their role. Cary Grant’s Thornhill in North by Northwest features each of those qualities as well as having mother issues, another trait of Hitchcock leads. Thornhill is rather tall with an energetic personality looking to clear himself of the fake spy identity that is “George Kaplan.” Finally, there is usually a female figure that goes out of her way to care for the lead. Thelma Ritter fulfills this role as Stella in Rear Window, Jeff’s insurance company’s nurse caring for him while he recovers from a racetrack accident. In Vertigo, Barbara Bel Geddes’s Midge continues to pursue Scottie despite his rejection of her advances as well as obsession over
The women in both films gave the men something to look at. For example, in the opening scene of Rear Window, the audience sees Jefferies looking from his window over to Miss Torso who is dancing and stretching as she gets ready for her day. As in the film Disturbia, the audience sees Kale looking through
Hitchcock was a tenacious and dedicated director. He received his education at St Ignatius College and London County Council School of Marine Engineering and Navigation, which left him with an outstanding work ethic. Nevertheless, his Catholic upbringing instilled a fear of authority along with complications with intimacy, hence, gives one possible explanation of his opinions about women. He also fantasized about travel and exploration as a child, so his experience, curiosity and fear of the unknown produced his “Master of Suspense” personality.
Stam, Robert & Pearson, Robertson., ‘Hitchcock’s Rear Window: Refluxivity and the Critique of Voyeurism’ in Deutelbaum, Marshall & Poague, Leland A. ed., A Hitchcock Reader (John Wiley & Sons: 2009).
Rear Window, a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starts the opening scene by introducing professional photographer, L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries who broke his leg while trying to get a picture at an auto race. He is immobilized and passes time by observing his neighbors through the window of his New York City apartment. He begins to suspect that a man across the courtyard may have murdered his wife. Jeff procures the help of his visiting nurse Stella and model girlfriend Lisa Fremont, whom the topic shall be concerning, to investigate Jeff’s suspicions about his neighbor. The information obtained from Rear Window about Lisa Fremont will be used to explain what is known about the character, what role she plays in the movie, how she might think, and how that conclusion was made.
The films we chose to compare and contrast in our analysis are Rear Window and Disturbia. The movie Rear Window was released in 1954 whereas Disturbia was released in 2007 53 years apart. Rear Window is an Alfred Hitchcock movie while D.J. Caruso directed Disturbia. We chose these movies to compare because both the films have similar story lines and it is generally known that Rear Window influenced D. J. Caruso in the creation of Disturbia. Our comparison concludes that while Both the movies might look similar on the surface, they are two distinct films created to cater to a different set of audience. In our analysis we will compare the elements of genre, plot, male gaze, semiotics (class & technical), mise-en-scene, voyeuristic scopophilia, among the other aspects of the movie.
Rear Window follows an everyday man who inadvertently observes a crime and attempts to bring about justice, completely subverted the crime fiction of its 1950’s context, departing from the hard-boiled and film noir sub-genre. Alfred Hitchcock has made a movie that both encourages voyeurism and shames it. Jeff is not your conventional sleuth or a loner by choice. Instead he is a photographer who has become a voyeur who addresses the boredom of being confined to a wheelchair because of a broken leg, by spying on his neighbours through his rear window. Like many hard boiled detectives he fears commitment and intimacy. Jeff harnesses his voyeuristic tendencies to attempt to piece the crime together and reveal the
In Rashomon, the person who is narrating their side of the story would often be shown first. Through showing a shot of the narrator, the viewer can understand that the story will continue as their point of view. After showing a shot of the narrator, the film moves into the story being told. Point of view structures the plot by focusing on the structure of the narrators’ sides of the story. The film is dominated by the states of mind and endings are often left open-ended. It is up to the viewer to decide how one would want the film to end. In Rear Window, the viewer’s only point of view comes from Jeff, who is viewing his neighborhood through his window. The viewer tends to get shots of the neighborhood and within the frame are the people involved in the plot – the murderer, the old woman who almost commits suicide, etc. The only time the viewer gets a different point of view than Jeff is when the dog is killed and the film shows different angles and quick movement of the camera to distinguish that one would be viewing the chaos of the murder in the neighborhood. Point of view is structured by only giving the viewer Jeff’s perspective, which would guide the viewer to make the same assumptions and follow the clues that are thrown at
Over the decades, law enforcement agencies have worked tirelessly to fight crime and keep the public safe. In order to achieve these goals, they have enforced certain policing tactics. In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell mentions and explains in depth about the policing strategy known as Broken Windows Policing. This method of policing is derived from the Broken Windows Theory which states that if there is a broken window and no one bothers to fix it, then people will have a mindset that no one is in charge thus resulting in more windows being broken. The Broken Windows Theory regards crime as a result of disorder. In other words, when people see disorder present in the environment, they will be liable to commit more crimes with
Hitchcock also wanted to shine a new light to women because at the time, women were seen as submissive and dependent on men.17 He does this by displaying the theme of an independent and strong-willing
Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, explains the mind set of society in the 1960s. She writes that the women of the ‘60s were identified only as creatures looking for “sex, babies, and home” (Friedan 36). She goes on to say “The only passion, the only pursuit, the only goal a woman [was] permitted [was] the pursuit of a man” (Friedan 36). This mind set, this “feminine mystique,” is clearly shown throughout the show Mad Men. The side effect of the feminine mystique hurt all the women of this time. Matthew Weiner shows how this conception of the “ideal woman” hurt all of his lead women. The consequences are shown in the two women who bought into the idea, Betty and Joan, and the one who re...
As women's studies programs have proliferated throughout American universities, feminist "re-readings" of certain classic authors have provided us with the most nonsensical interpretations of these authors' texts. A case in point is that of Kathleen Margaret Lant's interpretation of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire in her essay entitled "A Streetcar Named Misogyny." Throughout the essay, she continually misreads Williams' intention, which of course causes her to misunderstand the play itself. Claiming that the play "has proved vexing to audiences, directors, actors, readers, and critics" (Lant 227), she fails to see that it is she herself who finds the play vexing, because it does not fit nicely into the warped feminist structure she would try to impose upon it.
Women in the novel are accurately portrayed as they were in the 1920’s. Lewis presents two different scenarios in the novel, but both of these cases can follow the same mannerisms. First, Lewis depicts the loving housewife. Myra, Babbitt’s wife, continually comforts Babbitt throughout the whole novel. Myra even accepts the blame when Babbitt decides to cheat on her. Women are depicted throughout the novel as inferior when...