Within These Four Walls
— How Alfred Hitchcock Made Us All Into Peeping Toms by Locking Us In The Room With James Stewart In “Rear Window”
One of the reasons why I always loved Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” from 1954 and regard it as one of his finest works, is the use of camera placement in creating intimacy in the story.
We are in the same room as James Stewart’s character L. B. Jeffries (Jeff). We see what he sees. What is really interesting about this movie is how Hitchcock is pushing the boundaries of cinematic storytelling by placing the camera where he does.
He’s not breaking the “fourth wall” per se (more on that in a minute) but he’s placing us — as the audience — so close to the action that we cannot move or look away. It creates an extremely intimate and personal space, bordering on being outright uncomfortable.
What is the fourth wall and how is it sometimes broken?
Most people are by now aware of the notion of the fourth wall, the breaking of same. If not, here’s a super quick run-through.
In theater and movies, you refer to “breaking the fourth wall” when the actors on the stage/screen face the audience directly.
