Hitchcock's Rear Window

Jeff’s broken bones leave him stranded in his apartment, perched at his rear window leading a voyeuristic existence with nothing but his binoculars and his own imagination, while those who visit him are tugged into his discoveries that eventually become obsessions. Jeffries observes all of his neighbors change, and while he watches so to does his own life take on a transformation. The narrative of those living at Jeff’s rear window matters just as much to the plot as what goes on inside his own apartment. The people through whom Jeff vicariously lives act as stopwatches or time tables of sorts- We’re given a sense of how the film is developing, of how much time is passing, of how Jeff’s own relationship is shifting. The goings on of Jeff’s neighbors represent the amalgam of where Jeff and Lisa can go and how they can turn out, and while Jeff is confined to his apartment, we sometimes get a sense of what the two of them could be doing, a more exciting life they could be living.

Miss Lonelyhearts’ enactment of romantic evenings over wine and dinner can represent an extreme of how Lisa might feel about the fact that Jeff doesn’t often reciprocate warm feelings and affection. Miss Lonelyheart is hopeless and alone, and her own imagination comforts her as she fantasizes about having some company. Likewise, Lisa probably feels hopeless that Jeff is not as loving and sometimes seems oblivious to her messages. On a lonely night after a disappointing visit to Jeff’s, Lisa may possibly just as well succumb to her own imagination and role play a little at what a romantic evening she wants to have or should be sharing with Jeffries. One can't sense, however, that Lisa’s frustration could reach the point of suicide as does Miss Lonelyheart’s.

Across from Jeff’s window lives Miss Torso, the dancer who lacks a proper leotard. She is quite social, but her activities usually involve only the company of men. Lisa too seems socially active. Someone with her sensibility and style would almost have to be. But again, these two women might share a certain lacking emotionally in that, though they surround themselves at parties or get-togethers, there doesn’t seem to be stability. Lisa especially is searching and prying at Jeff to realize what she’s after or to see what they have together. After an especially frustrating visit, Lisa hints at not returning for a while. Jeff asks when he’ll see her again, and she caves. Maybe tomorrow, she admits. There is resolve in the end in that Jeff and Lisa finally find romantic commonality, and so does Miss Torso, rather humorously.

The life of the newlywed man might represent what Jeffries, along with most men, both desire and fear. The shades are drawn for nearly the film’s entirety, and when the man finally peers his head out the window, his wife nags him and the completely spent look on his face is priceless. Jeff is reluctant to be tied down, but does at last see past this momentary frustration and downside of being a couple. He becomes more responsive to Lisa, but then again a man with two broken legs can’t really go anywhere.