Rear Window
Jan 13, 2016
(Alfred Hitchcock, United States, 1954, 35mm, 112 min)
35mm print!
Co-presented with the Photographic Center Northwest
After suffering a broken leg, professional photographer L.B. Jeffries becomes apartment-bound and unable to work. To keep himself entertained, Jeffries begins to spy on the neighbors across the courtyard through his telephoto lens. When a neighbor’s wife suddenly goes missing after an argument with her husband, Jeffries becomes consumed with discovering the truth of her disappearance.
The brilliance of Hitchcock's claustrophobic masterpiece lies in its ability to draw viewers into Jeffries' obsession. Trapped with him inside the apartment, we experience all the suspicion, fear and excitement Jeffries does. Considered by some to be his best film, Rear Window perfects the slow-burning tension Hitchcock does so well, and at the same time questions our own complicity in its voyeurism.
“It's one of Alfred Hitchcock's inspired audience-participation films: watching it, you feel titillated, horrified, and, ultimately, purged.” –The New Yorker
“The deliciousness of watching the film as it's intended to be seen is that the big screen gives Rear Window back its claustrophobia.” –Houston Chronicle