Relationship Advice from Alfred Hitchcock - Rear Window

The following posts were taken from a film paper I wrote this past semester. Fortunately or unfortunately, you may find yourself needing to watch a bunch of Alfred Hitchcock movies... which I am suggesting will be not only enjoyable but good for you.


Part 1 - Rear Window
Part 2 - Vertigo
Part 3 - The Birds

Hitchcock specialized in high-anxiety thrillers and suspense-laden plots that strung the audience along on a tight rope. In the course of his oeuvre as a director, he developed a number of distinctive techniques, and explored a small number of particular themes repeatedly in his work. Crime, espionage and theatre are the common backdrops for Hitchcock to work out his thoughts on deception and artifice, both our propensity for it and its destructive power. Death lurks in every corner of the world according to Hitchcock and is unlikely to be avoided alone. It is this treatment of relationships, particularly sexual relationships, juxtaposed and intertwined into the plots, crimes and crisis of the various films, that universalize Hitchcock's films and provide perhaps his most poignant commentary on the human condition. 

Right from the beginning of his career, marital relationships were prominent in his work beginning with his first break finishing the two reeler Always Tell Your Wife (1923) and his full directorial debut The Pleasure Garden (1925). The themes of marriage, sex, infidelity and a murder, in particular of a spouse, are already present and will recur in numerous of his subsequent films. In fact, the murder of a spouse occurs, is attempted, or is otherwise referenced in a shocking number of Hitchcock's films. While perhaps contributing to the accusations of misogyny, this ultimate violent betrayals fits into Hitchcock's oeuvre on a number of fronts. Marriage, like all relationships, is open to deception and artifice. Furthermore, marriage is intended to be a life long loving and committed relationship, the epitome of safety and support. Thus it is not surprising at all that Hitchcock exposes us to the devastating violence and horror that is possible in our closest relationships - reminding us, as always, that we are never safe and secure. Three films which capture some of the breadth of Hitchcock's address of relationships are Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958) and The Birds (1963).

Rear Window is one film in which the setting is confined exclusively or primarily to a single location. James Stewart stars as L.B Jeffries along side Grace Kelly (his girfriend Lisa), as an impotant photographer confined to a wheelchair in his apartment due to a broken leg and reticence to get married. His impotence is most notably signified by the enormous and phallic lens on the camera he uses to spy on his neighbours. An impassioned speech made by Jeff's nurse, Stella, early in the movie presents the 'Hitchcockian' expectations regarding appropriate relational behaviour: “When a man and a woman see each other and like each other, they ought to come together, wham!- like a couple of taxis on Broadway - and not sit around analyzing each other like two specimens in a bottle.” Hitchcock's positive view of this statement can be seen in the positive outcomes of the relationships in his film that manage to follow this advice. The 39 Steps (1935) is a similar an example to Rear Window in a number of respects. Both films center around a relationship that has been added to the original story by Hitchcock. Furthermore, both films require the resolution of some initial relational conflict in order for the other external plotlines to resolve well. The lead male character would have been quite incapable of success without the assistance of his female partner. Grace Kelly makes this point explicit in the final scene of To Catch a Thief (1955) saying, “ Were you afraid to admit you just can't do everything by yourself? You needed the help of a good woman. You aren't the lone wolf you think you are.” To which Cary Grant responds affirmatively. In The 39 Steps, Hitchcock literally insists on the relationship, having the two handcuffed together and holding them in frame as a couple for three full scenes forcing them to learn to live together. Rebecca is a lovely example of this plot idea of a couple liking each other and then coming together and getting married rather quickly ultimately being a positive way to enter relationships. In contrast, the relational premise of Psycho is exactly the opposite.

Rear Window makes a full treatment on the topic of voyeurism, along with its relationship to film. Rather than handcuffs, it is Jeffries' broken leg which confines him to his apartment. He, however, transfers this sense of confinement onto his relationship with Lisa, which he suggests is incompatible with his adventuresome photography. Grace Kelly is treated with some of the most beautiful film ever created, brilliantly undermined by the foreboding shadow she casts over James Stewart as she leans in for a kiss. An axis jump to a slow motion shot of the kiss disorient and overwhelm the audience in such a way as to draw them into the kiss. The axis jump provides that element of surprise and spontaneity that is important in great kisses and romance. Holding the couple closely in frame, we are informed of the goodness of their intimacy regardless of Jeffries' earlier evaluation regarding their compatibility. The treatment of this kiss further underlines the importance of this relationship to a happy ending. Jeffries' final question, “Who are you?” breaks their intimacy and frames the relational question of the film. To the audience's relief, Lisa is not to be deterred by Jeffries' analysis regarding their compatibility. She returns as seductress and accomplice, entering into his current adventure even more deeply than he is able, becoming the subject of his voyeurism and successfully regaining his affection.

Even the neighbourhood, which becomes Jeffries' soap opera, is a study of relationships. There are the newlyweds who are continuously having sex, the ballet dancer being hounded by men, the suicidal Miss. Lonleyhearts, the childless couple with the dog, the man who murders his wife, and the musician. How does one move from the lustful, infatuated fidelity of the newlyweds to the unfaithful, murderous action of a criminal? Hitchcock's placement of these couples close together and in the apartment block around Jeffries highlight his own relational dilemma regarding marriage and both its potential joys and horror. I think it is important that he and Lisa address this horror together and conquer it, in a sense, despite it coming very close to killing both of them. They are however, ultimately, successful in their adventure and reinvested into their relationship.

The film successfully raises a number of unnerving questions below concrete realities of the plot such as, “Are you being watched?” but even more disconcerting for an audience is the implication also of being discovered as a voyeur and the potential consequences of what one sees. The film very distinctly reminds the audience that death and violence can invade your own backyard and even your home. We are safe only insofar as our relationships of love and trust are real. If, however, our marriage is filled with deception, as is the case in Notorious (1946), one is not unlikely to wind up murdered or dead, as in the film Rebecca (1940).

I found myself recently reflecting that Jeffries strong sense of calling and identity as a photographer, which prompts his hesitancy in relationship is distinctly reminiscent of Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard breaks off his engagement to a woman he loves, Regine Olsen, near the beginning of his career to pursue his sense of call. This decision, which may be celebrated as a tremendous self sacrifice for the sake of calling, he later reflects on in Fear and Trembling, where he celebrates most highly "the knight of faith," who is able to suspend the ethical by virtue of the absurd and thus both marry the princess and pursue his holy calling or at least somehow believe both to be possible despite full acknowledgement and resignation to their impossibility. Kierkegaard clearly presents this awesome picture of faith in contrast to his vision of himself as the "Knight of self resignation" who sacrifices himself for the greater good. Thus I suggest that Kierkegaard effectively presents great relationships must be characterized by faith, in that they must contain both resignation to the impossibility of their success and simultaneously belief in their possibility. This is the contradiction and paradox of faith. In Rear Window Jeffries is the "knight of infinite resignation" however Lisa is able to, after resignation, make the move of faith and thus the relationship, by virtue of faith succeeds. The dangerous possibility of entering or being in a relationship with neither self sacrificing resignation or faith yields results, both exceedingly common such as divorce or as depicted by Hitchcock in the film Dial M for Murder (1954), which centres around the murder of spouse. Thus by Hitchcock we are constantly reminded both of the danger of life and in particular relationships, while simultaneously being encouraged to be in them and having them presented to us as our only hope and the necessary path of salvation.