I like watching people, watching people.

In the following essay I will discuss what Hitchcock means by Rear Window being a “purely cinematic “film, with reference to Truffaut’s interview with him in my course reader.

In the interview that Hitchcock has with François Truffaut, he defines the purest expression of a cinematic idea as something that consists of three parts. The first is the situation or context “You have an immobilized man looking out.”(Alfred Hitchcock: 1983;214), The second part shows what the character is being influenced by “what he sees” (Alfred Hitchcock:1983;214) and the third part is how the character reacts in relation to the current situation. All three parts can be simplified by seeing the first part as the situation, the second as the action and the third as the reaction.

Hitchcock refers to experiments on the use of Montage which is “the production of a rapid succession of images in a motion picture to illustrate an association of ideas” (“montage." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2010.) carried out by Kuleshov, where emotion could be expressed to the audience through the use of film techniques rather than the use of dialogue (Alfred Hitchcock: 1983; 215-216). Hitchcock makes use of this cinematic technique to express what he feels is the “purest form of cinema”.

He makes use of close-up shots to reveal to the audience as little as possible and only uses long-shots at the climatic point of a scene as he feels that the “size of the image is used for dramatic purposes, and not merely to establish the background” (Alfred Hitchcock:1983;218). An example of the use of a Long-shot is when the woman’s dog dies and this is also the first time when the camera changes point of view (Alfred Hitchcock: 1983; 217).

Hitchcock goes on to say that he makes use of cinematic means to tell a story, through the exploration of characters possessions and by doing so establishing who the character is and what the character does(Alfred Hitchcock:1983;221). Rather than making use of dialogue to establish the scene, he feels that “dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds”, his idea to what pure cinema is, is especially visually based (Alfred Hitchcock:1983;222) .

From a narrative point-of-view, Rear Window explores the notion that everyone likes watching each other; it is but a reflection of the modern society. A reference is made to film audiences as Steward watches his neighbours through the window of his apartment, it also explores the different ways that women and men, react to what they see. The story is furthermore based on real life criminal cases which may also be a element of what pure cinema is, by incorporating real life events within the narrative and believable characteristic traits that are found in everyday people (Alfred Hitchcock: 1983; 216,222).

From the interview that Truffaut had with Hitchcock, I have come to the understanding that pure cinema is the decisive use of cinematic elements to tell a story in its most simplest way without wasting any time and in the same instance making use of every shot to portray the story in the most powerful way as possible.

Bibliography:

• Trauffaut, F.Hitchcock [Revised edition] New York: Touchstone (1963), 213-223.
  
• Merriam-Webster Online. 4 May 2010
  

By James Honiball

JamesHoniball©2010