Alfred Hitchcock and Voyeurism

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Alfred Hitchcock's films deal with many psychological themes, including the idea of voyeurism. It reviews two of his films; "Rear Window" (USA, 1954, Alfred Hitchcock) and "Vertigo" (USA, 1958, Alfred Hitchcock) and discusses the occurrence of voyeurism within the narratives of both films. It also looks at the idea that certain aspects of the films can be said to be representations of the voyeuristic nature of cinema-going itself.

From the Paper:

"I will now look at Vertigo and consider how the voyeurism and the gaze of the film can be seen as much more sexual than that of Rear Window. It has been said that Rear Window seems like a comical "test run" for the more obsessive and frightening nature of Vertigo, and that Rear Window, Vertigo and Psycho form a sort of trilogy of films that contained the them of voyeurism. Vertigo was not as popular on its original release as Rear Window. This is probably due to the fact that there is a lot more complexity and psychology in the story, or because James Stuart seemed too old to play the romantically obsessed man. The story is about Scotty (James Stewart), an acrophobic detective who has been hired by a friend to trail his beautiful and troubled wife, Madeline. His quest at first is an innocent one, but he soon becomes Madeline's obsessive stalker. "

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