Wednesday 31 December 2014

Rear Window

That flash you see in a dark apartment right at the beginning is like a hint as to the later action.

I love that the couple who sleep on the fire escape have the alarm clock tied to the rail, and when it starts raining the husband drops it and off course it starts ringing.

The moment where Grace Kelly is caught in Raymond Burr's apartment which is so tense is acted out to totally contradictory background music.

The fact that Hitch is the clock winder is marvellously apposite. (And come to think of it he's often seen as a musician.)

Much of it is silent: I bet you could watch the film without sound and still know what's going on.

You wonder if Grace Kelly's comment on the dead dog - "maybe he knew too much" is a little in-joke reference to The Man Who Knew Too Much.

When we were schoolboys I bet my friend Nic Jury that if I asked three random strangers if they'd heard of Rear Window that at least two of them would. We tried it, and I was right.

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