The Narrative Techniques Used by Hitchcock in Rear Window Essay

For my paper I have chosen to analyze the movie “To Kill a Mockingbird.” This movie is based on the novel – by the same name – written by Harper Lee. The story has two major plotlines. One follows Jem, Scout, and Dill as they try to uncover the secretes behind the infamous “Boo” Radley. It’s only at the end of the movie that we learn “Boo’s” real name to be Arthur, and that we discover he actually tries to protect people, as he saved Jem and Scout’s lives. The other major plotline, and the one more relevant to this class, follows Atticus Finch, Jem and Scout’s father, as he tries to represent Tom Robinson. Mr. Robinson is an African American man who has been charged with raping Mayella Ewell. The movie then follows both the trial and the

Alfred Hitchcock (1899 – 1980), the “Master of Suspense”, was a English film director, who was well known for his use of suspense and psychological elements to shock and surprise his audience. Hitchcock was known for his use of recurring themes, motifs and plot devices, such as the use of birds, hand motifs, the audience as a voyeur, mothers, blonde women, and sexuality. He was also very technical in his editing, using filming techniques such as deep focus, point of view, close up and wide, tracking shots. Montage was also a technique he used frequently in his films. He believed that by using visuals, he could convey thoughts and emotions just as well as dialogue could.

The opening scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window essentially acts as one long establishing shot — only rather than establishing just the location of a scene, it establishes the entire film in more ways than one. One particularly important shot in the scene, beginning 00:02:36 into the film, tells the audience much of what it will need to know about Rear Window’s setting, characters, and themes.

Major Actors: James Stewart (L.B. Jefferies), Grace Kelly (Lisa Fremont), Wendell Corey (Thomas Doyle), Thelma Ritter (Stella), Raymond Burr (Lars Thorwald), Judith Evelyn (Miss Lonelyhearts), Ross Bagdasarian (Songwriter), Georgine Darcy (Miss Torso), Sara Berner (Woman on Fire Escape), Frank Cady (Man on Fire Escape), Jesslyn Fax (Miss Hearing Aid), Rand Harper (Newlywed), Irene Winston (Mrs. Emma Thorwald), Havis Davenport (Newlywed)

The film was made in 1941 and won best screenplay at the Oscars and was also nominated for best picture, best director, best actor and best cinematography. It was directed by Orsen Welles and its main actors were Joseph Cotten , Dorothy Comingore and Agnes Moorehead. The film has aged incredibly in the last 75 years from its release and has defined film in how good it really was. Citizen Kane changed the way movies are made because it became the starting point for many filmmakers first learning about how films are made and how a director can give a film a particular style. The editing (by Robert Wise) was as innovative as the cinematography by Gregg Toland - add these two talents to the talent of director Orson Welles not knowing how to direct properly and you have stylistic flourishes and a film that still impresses today. It didn't immediately change how movies were made citizen Kane was actually a somewhat forgotten film for several years until it was rediscovered in the late 50s - but it was definitely ground-breaking and many of the techniques used were copied and used by later directors.

The windows show the outside world, showing you what lies beyond the four walls which you are stuck between. Many cases throughout the book result in a woman’s character being trapped and not being able to leave the house they are in. The women then result in looking out the windows only to dream about leaving. “She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow” (11). The main character’s grandmother was trapped in her own house, her husband had stripped her of her freedom and was enable to leave. Windows are tricky, they are sweet like honey showing you the outside world, but in the book the character, then realizes they cannot venture past them so they

In the film industry, there are directors who merely take someone else’s vision and express it in their own way on film, then there are those who take their own visions and use any means necessary to express their visions on film. The latter of these two types of directors are called auteurs. Not only do auteurs write the scripts from elements that they know and love in life, but they direct, produce, and sometimes act in their films as well. Three prime examples of these auteurs are: Kevin Smith, Spike Lee and Alfred Hitchcock.

The first instance of window imagery is deceivingly small and easy to pass over, but upon reflection it creates a certain symmetry by subtly foreshadowing the final window scene. In the very opening section of the book, Clarissa’s departure from the house dredges up memories of her time at Bourton, of scenes with Peter Walsh that took place in front of an open window. This memory, brought about by the impact of the early morning air, also reminds her of the “solemn” feeling this incident gave her “standing there at the open window, that something awful was about to happen.” Though fleeting and lightly discussed, this emotion placed so close to the beginning of the novel seems to indicate the dangerous nature of an open window, which anticipates both Septimus’ death and Clarissa’s later musings in front of a window.

drives from the city to her lover and, on the way, stops at the Bates

The Grand Budapest Hotel revolves around Europe of the 1930s and 1960s while it was in time of the war, through the adventures of The Grand Budapest Hotel's doorman Zero and the Hotel manager Gustave. The saga is linked to a burglar and a Renaissance painting, a great family's wealth war, and the sudden change of war in Europe. It reflects the vicissitudes of political history in Europe for half a century. This article will analyze The Grand Budapest Hotel from two aspects: artistic style and film theme.

would be that “in the window” describes the location of the activity involved in “try on that dress.” This

Since the beginning of the Industrial Age, Americans have idealized the journey towards economic success. One thing people do not realize, however, is that that journey is not the same for every individual. For Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles), the main character of Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, the path towards riches and a fulfilled life is being well liked. He serves to please others. He strives for that attention. This view cost him his happiness in the end. In this man’s rise and fall through prosperity, Welles shows the futility of striving solely for likeability.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film, Rear Window, explores many dimensions in cinematography. The phenomenal film is well known for proclaiming its voyeurism issues that goes on in today’s society. Even though voyeurism is an act that should not be done, this film portrays it in an affirmative way. Rear Window introduces primary structural components in the first act which sets the mood for the audience to interact with J.B. Jefferies in a way as it is the audiences duty to help him solve the mystery on whether Thorwald murdered his wife or not.

Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry found the perfect, fragmented form to simulate memories in the non-linear storyline of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). The thematic elements of the film helps this simplistic story of love found, lost, and found again develop into a complex pattern, much like the workings of the brain. Each character is everything you would expect them to be in real life – down to earth, imperfect, and hopelessly searching for the love someone can only dream of. We can relate to them because we all long for more than we are, and want the best of us to be shown to someone else. Memories make up who we are, they define us. Life teaches us lessons which shape our memories, and in turn, we learn from them. What if those memories were gone? Are we still destined to be the same person? The protagonist of the movie is Joel, and the story surrounds his relationship with Clementine. The antagonist can be seen as Patrick, who tries to destroy their relationship, or Lacuna Inc., whose purpose is to make them forget their relationship. Charlie Kaufman has created a beautiful story that incorporates so many valuable forms in cinema, and leaves viewers on the edge of their seat until the very end. My goal is the show the class concepts of this narrative, as well as demonstrate how the way the film’s story is told

When it comes to movies, many directors are good at their jobs. However, other directors are great in the art of film making. There is no doubt such statement is considered utterly subjective, but what would life be without subjectivity, for it is our differences that make us thrive against a monotonic existence. By the same token, Alfred Hitchcock and Christopher Nolan utilize their singularities to create films that for decades have impacted the movie making universe. In fact, it is their differences that provide us with a high contrast to compare and scrutinize their job and find what made them great at it.