Rear Window + Mulvey

Let me begin by saying I have been wanting to watch this film for quite some time now and it has been recommended to me on several different occasions and it was nothing at all like I expected. After reading Mulvey and viewing Rear Window I came to several conclusions regarding their immediate connection and why her article was chosen for this film.

Before I draw too deep into that let me inquire if, in Rear Window, it was insinuated that the "peeping tom", also known as Jeffries, was viewing the ballerina as to sexually satisy himself? In other words as Mulvey stated "sexual stimulation through sight".

I ask that because in the first paragraph on the first page of Mulvey she states, and let me quote, "At the extreme, it can be fixated into perversion, producing obsessive voyeurs and Peeping Toms whose only sexual satisfication can come from watching, in an active controlling sense , an objectified other". I realize that Jeffries was forced into the situation of being stuck in his apartment via broken leg, and that viewing other people's life in their apartments through the rear window of his apartment was entertaining in his situation. Yet, I feel we did not get to view much after he was done peeping. Either the screen would black out, or he'd fall asleep and then we'd see him in the morning. Is that insinuating anything after the screen blacks out after watching Ms. Ballerina? I wonder.

Now let me pick up where I started regarding the connections I found in Mulvey with Rear Window. Her fascination with people's curiousity in looking and our need to dissect other people's life and surroundings is directly connected with this film. In observing other people's life what exactly are we looking for? In the film Jeffries was attempting to solve a murder mystery, yet in smaller panels and side stories we see him delving into people's relationships or lack there of. I believe he is trying to accomplish what Mulvey regarded as finding one's purpose in this world, where do they fit in? In watching them he was putting those peices together and attempting to figure that out for himself.

In the movie we were asked to focus on "the gaze" and as I observed that was what made the plot. The unshakable gaze, the tell all signs of something that's going to make me jump is about to happen. It reveals a strong sense of uneasiness and interconnecting relationships. Through the gaze I felt that people were connected to one and other in the sense that it is nearly impossible for us to be drawn apart. The effects of others relationships may in fact immediately effect you directly or indirectly and through the lense of that camera in Rear Window we saw many instances of just that.