Rear Window (1954)

Genre

Mystery | Thriller

Director

Alfred Hitchcock

Country

United States

Cast

James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr, Judith Evelyn, Ross Bagdasarian, Georgine Darcy, Frank Cady, Jesslyn Fax, Rand Harper, Irene Winston, Havis Davenport, Gig Young, Harry Landers, Ralph Smiles, Alfred Hitchcock

Plot

After breaking his leg, professional photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jefferies (James Stewart) is confined to his New York apartment. He spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbors, and he becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Opinion

I've watched the Castle episode with a similar plot and I was worried I wouldn't have enjoyed the film, but I did. Rear Window is a combination of mystery, romance, thrill and comedy. Alfred Hitchcock was a great filmmaker and he knew exactly how to make a captivating film. All we do while watching this film, is observing someone watching someone else, behind which we can identify the director himself.
The similarities between the start and the end quite impressed me: the film starts with the camera moving from a sleeping backyard to James Stewart's sweaty face, to his broken leg, and it ends in a quite ironic way: same James Stewart, but with both legs broken - meaning he has been punish for his curiosity.
The cinematography is great. The acting is superb.

Quotes

Stella: Intelligence. Nothing had caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence.

Rating

9.0/10

Longtime Cronenberg Producer Martin Katz Acquires Feature Length Rights For FOXED!

My good friend James Stewart has ample reason to be full of cheer (other than the holidays being here) with producer Martin Katz (MAPS TO THE STARS, COSMOPOLIS, HOTEL RWANDA) acquiring the worldwide rights to Stewart's 3D short FOXED! as he plans to spool up a feature length stop-motion animation under his production banner Prospero Pictures.

Says Katz: "Emily is a sympathetic girl and the foxes are terrifying. There's no punches pulled in the film's design, which combines stop-motion animation techniques with modern 3D."

I've known James for years now and he is always in the center of the Canadian stereoscopic 3D industry. To view his 3D short on iTunes, click here.

In the short, children are being kidnapped by foxes and forced to work in mines. The feature-length “Foxed!” will continue the story of Emily and the other children who have been kidnapped and must work together to escape and save their town.

From THR: "Stewart's short was released on iTunes in 60 countries after screening at 90 film festivals worldwide. Foxed! has won a half-dozen awards, including at the San Antonio and Garden State film festivals.

Stewart is at work on a script and will direct the Foxed! feature. His screen credits include the 3D work on Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams as well as a slew of cinema commercials, stop-motion and CG animation.

Katz compares the look and mood of the upcoming Foxed! feature to Tim Burton's dark fantasy animation, or Henry Selick's 2009 stop-motion film Coraline. Foxed! is set for a 2017 release, and will include a full Oculus Rift VR experience written and designed to run alongside the theatrical release."

From Variety: “As a storyteller, it’s exciting to work on multiple platforms at once,” Stewart said. “I’m excited about telling the story in an immersive environment, where the viewer is able to have a very different experience with the same story. The VR experience will be a separate, similar story, but it will obviously be nonlinear and be an active experience in 360.”

Stewart said the VR platform offers a host of new opportunities for storytellers, which he finds energizing.

“From a narrative point of view, the difference between VR and linear storytelling is very much like the difference between reading a book and having a dream,” he said. “The way we dream is very nonlinear and very abstract, and I think that is what VR is going to closely resemble, as opposed to something that starts with a beginning, middle and end. It’s definitely going to have a beginning, it’s definitely going to have a middle and it may not have an end, depending on who you are and how enthusiastic you are about it.”

So thrilled for James to have this happen for him and Geneva Film Co. I'm really looking forward to seeing more details about the full length stop-motion animation and how the story has being adapted. Keep an eye open for this one!

Trailer for the 3D Short FOXED!


Sources: THR | Variety

New Breed Of Theatrical 3D Advertising Launches - Samsung's Interactive Pre-Movie 3D Gaming Ignites Audiences

Very cool new concept using your hands to control game motion on a 3D screen at the theater! Samsung is ramping up their cinema marketing for their brand new Galaxy S III phone and they are certainly not being cheap about it. $20 million not cheap. Apparently it's the biggest cinema ad buy EVER.

The cool thing about the advertising is that it's in 3D: A traditional advertisement - but in 3D, *AND* an interactive 3D game for the audience to participate in. The game was set in motion by US advertising agency Razorfish, produced by Audience Entertainment/NCM and the live action was produced by Geneva Film Co. headed by my good friend Director James Stewart.

Here's what Digital Outsider had to say about the new 3D advertising / entertainment:
The campaign will run all summer long across National Cinemedia’s entire network of around 18,000 screens nationwide as part of its FirstLook pre-show package of entertainment and advertising, which should put the budget for the cinema ad component at $20 million or more (NCM wouldn’t comment, but comparisons with other cinema ad campaigns confirm it should be well into eight figures; Ad Age earlier reported that Samsung is more than doubling its 2011 budget for promoting Galaxy products this year).

The centerpiece of the campaign is a two-minute-long 3D spot featuring two of the 20-somethings from Samsung’s earlier campaign promoting the S II, not-so-gently mocking Apple fanboys (in which one of them reminds the other, snarkily, “Dude, you’re a barrista”). This time around, while appearing to wreak havoc on the theater from the projection booth, the guys demonstrate one of the big new features of the S III: users can share content with each other simply by tapping the phones, which employ near field technology.

The campaign also includes a first-of-its-kind 3D interactive crowd motion game, designed by Audience Entertainment, running at a limited number of theaters equipped with the necessary motion sensor technology. In the game, the audience has to work together to make two phones (which appear to be “hovering” in the ether) touch to share content (as seen in the video) -- thus demonstrating the key new feature again, this time with audience participation.

Check out the game below:

We're seeing the beginning of a new phase of theatrical advertising that I hope is much more enjoyable for audiences. Embedding brands and experiences in 3D games that can be played before a movie starts is a brilliant move. Kudos to the companies involved!

Some content from MediaPost

3D Theatrical Commercials Starting To Come Of Age

Thought you may be interested in seeing the new 3D commercial that is running in front of THE LAST AIRBENDER for the new Lexus LFA. Sweet car of course.

Even sweeter for producer/director James Stewart of Toronto (Geneva Film Company) is that in some circles his commercial is receiving higher acclaim than the movie it preceded!

Check out the 2D version:



Nicely done! I want one.