Perhaps my favourite of Hitchcock’s films, Rear Window has many moments of pure cinematic joy. I’ve selected two here, though the first one – The Look – is the one which was the gut punch on a first viewing. A note of caution though. If you’ve not seen Rear Window don’t watch this clip out of context. Watch the whole film. The build up to this moment, with Raymond Burr making a discovery (and those who know the film will understand which moment I mean), is a perfect punch through the fourth wall which still has the power to shock today. Watch it and see if you don’t physically move backwards when it happens.
The second moment is one I’ve written about before. It is the finest kiss in cinema.
At the start of the film James Stewart is wheelchair bound and his banter with Thelma Ritter, who is nursing him back on his feet following a broken leg, revolves around his truculent lifestyle. Frustrated at his lack of self care he is scolded for ignoring the obvious advances of someone named Lisa, whose praises are sung so highly we are left to imagine an almost angelic being, helplessly in love with this man. Marriage is mentioned and the subject is dropped, and quickly. Lisa, however, remains.
The oppressive heat of the season not only gives James Stewart cause to be cranky but it lends the film a heightened tension; choked up in the stifling atmosphere you can imagine anyone going crazy. The various occupants of the apartments which so beguile the bored, listless Stewart all seem to be twitchy and by offering us a candid look into the lives of these people there is an unrelenting suspicion that we, along with James Stewart, will soon be watching something nasty happen.
Then it happens. James Stewart is asleep in the darkness of his room, vulnerable and unaware of the intruder. A shadow falls across his face as he stirs and then we see her as Stewart’s eyes open, from his point of view, the face of Grace Kelly looming towards him. Before we have time to adjust to this unsettling, beautiful image everything stops and she kisses him, Hitchcock shoots them in profile, step prints the kiss, slowing down time and giving the moment a dreamy blur. It’s the perfect kiss, the perfect introduction to this character. Lisa has come to save him.
There follows a more formal introduction to the character, speaking aloud each one of her names accompanied by a switching on of the various lights in the room (Reading from top to bottom: Lisa… Carol… Fremont.), she literally brings him out of his self-imposed darkness. There are many moments of pure pleasure to be had with Rear Window but the image of an angel emerging from the half light, to kill or to kiss, is breathtaking.
