Rear window One positive thing about being a movie noob, having watched just a minuscule amount of classics, is the possibility to be amazed by old films almost like those watching them in the times of the first release. I am sure that since Hitchcock’s Rear Window there were a lot of different takes on the idea of showing the events through a voyeur's eyes. However, I can not find such examples in my memory, and I applaud the idea. The movie is genius in how it makes quite simple separate stories of neighbors' lives into a complex palimpsest. All of the little things - a dancer stretching in her room, a loner drinking herself to sleep, a family quarrel that is only the beginning, as we will find out, of a sinister series of events - weave themselves into an intricate plot, keeping the viewer both entertained and on the edge of their seat. The brilliancy of the movie for me hides in the fact that we are forced to watch through the photographer’s eyes. We do not know much more than he does, there is no omnipotent narrator helping - instead, we have no other choice than to fill in the gaps with our own assumptions. As we are never inside the neighbors’ apartments, we partake in the voyeurism and it is possible to feel that pull of curiosity and sinful attraction, that keeps the photographer’s eyes glued to the window. As an observer, he shows an interesting dichotomy. He seems to be above everybody else: he is able to judge those he watches, he is level-headed, as he is not personally involved in any drama, he coldheartedly gives nicknames to people based on their key features. However, for the most part of the movie he is powerless, both literally and metaphorically bound to his observation post, bored to no end, forced to live through others. After the mystery is solved and all of the characters' stories come to a sort of conclusion, I am left with a lot of questions. One of the most intriguing of them is: what makes watching other people so compelling? I think, one of the answers lies in the desires for perfection and for safety. If not involved directly, we are free to complete the stories however we please, to attach to people the attributes we want them to have, however true or not true that can be. If remaining an observer and not interacting with people, we distance ourselves from any possible judgement. Hitchcock's story has ended, but walking down the street I unintentionally look up scanning the windows. Who's behind the window glass? Are they watching?