Thriller Opening Scene (Rear Window 1957)

Rear Window is a thriller film released in 1957, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It stars Grace Kelly as Lisa Carol Fremont, James Stewart as L.B. 'Jeff' Jefferies, Raymond Burr as Lars Thorwald and Thelma Ritter as Stella.

The opening sequence starts looking out of a window with the opening credits, the camera pans around the neighbourhood and focuses in on what some of the neighbours are doing. It then tracks back to the person who's window it is and looks around his room looking at various objects. It then cuts to him on this phone where he is talking about his leg cast being taken off whilst he is looking at a female neighbour from his window view. From this we can guess, due to it being a thriller, that something may happen to one of his neighbours, and he won't be able to do anything about it, due to being confined to a wheelchair.

The target audience for this film is young adults and above. This is suggested due to the slightly comedic viewing of the male gaze of the female neighbour. The conversation that the man is having on the phone is more serious, would therefore not interest a younger audience.

The genre is hard to establish due to the non diegetic sound track that is contrapuntal towards the thriller genre, which confuses the audience to almost believe that they are viewing a different genre to what the film's description tells them. The comedic factor of the male gaze also contrasts to the thriller genre, due to thrillers stereotypically being more serious.

A POV shot that pans around the view from the window establishes that the film is set in an urban area, and maybe within a city. The lack of dialogue in this sequence lets the audience think of a plot line themselves. The camera backs up into a man's room where there looks to be a man, in a wheelchair, who has more importance to the storyline. The various objects around this room contrast against the happy setting that has already been shown within the neighbourhood, due to the pictures depicting death and destruction. The multiple photos on the walls and a camera on a desk connotes that the man is a photographer, which could indicate that the man has been injured in his work, as he is wearing a cast on his leg. Also a woman is shown a few times around his room in magazines and even on the walls. this connotes that she is of importance to the man and/or the film as well.

I think this a very effective opening sequence due to the lack of information on the plot and to the genre. Therefore making it harder for the audience to figure out what may happen later in the film, leading to a more intriguing story line.