For many viewers, Rear Window vies with Vertigo as Hitchcock's masterpiece. The case for Vertigo is based on the film's style, its expressionistic use of color, and its sophisticated narrative and visual examination of the psychology of obsession. Rear Window, on the other hand, perhaps more than any other of Hitchcock's films (it's claimed), demonstrates the rich narrative and psychological potential of the director's cinematic vision executed in a totally constructed environment. As I mentioned, the entire film was shot on a single stage at Paramount. While most of the action takes place in L.B. Jeffries' (Jimmy Stewart) apartment, we, like Jeffries, have visual and aural access to the events occurring in and around several constructed apartments surrounding his building's courtyard. Following the film, we noted that its soundtrack—ranging from the actors' dialogue, to street noise, to music—is completely diegetic, meaning that it can be heard equally by the characters in the film and the audience (as opposed to nondiegetic sound, which is available only to the viewer). For this week's post, I'd like you to write about how one or two significant elements of Rear Window's soundscape (these can be recurring elements or single sound events) provide not just a sense of realism, but also layers of symbolic, ironic, or dramatic meaning. How, that is, does Hitchcock's sound construction enhance the surface and subtext of his visual construction? Looking forward to your posts! (Note: The visuals below are merely illustrative. I'm not asking you to choose one of them to write on as I have in previous posts.)
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