Lives Reflected in the Window Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)

Events and plots in cinema occur in relation to time and space. The script also changes accordingly. The idea that is aimed to be narrated in the film is conveyed to the audience not only through the script but also through space. The director emphasizes the idea of using space. By being situated at the intersection of architecture and cinema, the notion of space connects these two disciplines, constituting their foundation. Both cinema and architecture take experience and life as their concern. They also include symbolic connections without withdrawing from space-place-time. Concepts such as houses, streets, cities, windows, doors, and stairs qualify for spatial images and are used for creating context in cinema. At this point, the study aims to evaluate the interaction between cinema and space/architecture and how an architectural element “a window” transforms from its main function into a tool of observation. It illuminates different spaces and lives although an analysis of Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rear Window.

Rear Window holds an important place in the history of cinema, with features such as the story being set in a number of apartments that are situated around a courtyard; the protagonist Jefferies identifying the rear window of his apartment with a cinema screen and therefore identifying the protagonist with the audience; shooting the film from the room of the protagonist/a limited space with special techniques; paying attention to the decoration so that it will reflect the most significant features of the character; and inclusion of a number of themes such as love, murder, and detecting.

In order to establish the relationship between cinema and architecture, the study focuses on the meanings that are attributed to the spatial organization of the film set, the spaces that the characters in the film spend their lives in, and architectural elements such as doors, walls, and stairs, particularly the windows.

Keywords: Alfred Hitchcock, architecture , architectural element, apartment, cinema, courtyard, daily life, design, inner-outer space, james Stewart, L. B. Jefferies, murder, observation, private life, rear Window, shared life, social relations, space, thriller, window.