Rear window - 1954

Great movie, another classic, another one that must be watched by every movie-lover. The basic plot is already amazing by itself: a man that I think is called Jeff (James Stewart) broke his leg so he's stuck at home in a wheelchair. To pass the time he watches his neighbors by the window.
Here and now he would most of all see walls and curtains, but there and then he saw a lot of these people's lives. Based on what he saw he believes a man murdered his wife. His girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) doesn't believe him at first, but starts changing her mind when she sees the man closing a big trunk with thick ropes. Apparently this woman was not in good health, but for a whole day nobody checked on her, plus she's not at home anymore, and there's the big trunk and him cleaning his bathroom walls. Jeff talks about it to a policeman friend, but he's not believed. It appears witnesses saw Mrs Thorwald leave to go on holiday, but Jeff is even more sure of it when he sees Mr Thorwald (Raymond Burr, can you believe it? I didn't) with the wife's purse, and her jewels. Lisa is absolutely positive no woman would go on holiday without her purse and her jewels, and is now of his same belief. So much that she sneaks into his house to find some clues, and she finds Mrs Thorwald's wedding ring. Mr Thorwald comes back home too early though, and finds her inside. All Jeff can do is to call the police and watch from his window what happens, feeling worried and helpless. The police arrive in time to save her, but Mr Thorwald now knows about him watching, and goes to him: he tries to strangle him but Jeff screams and the police come to help him. He falls out of the window but he's alive: he only broke his other leg :-p
He was right about everything :-)
I'm very glad to say that at the end we see the 'conclusion' of the other neighbor's stories too. The woman that cried and yelled during the night when she found her dog killed now has a new one. The dancer's boyfriend comes back, the musician has completed his work and I'm happy to say the lonely woman did not kill herself with pills: she was about to but stop when she heard that music. Now they are talking together, the lonely woman and the musician, and she tells him something like 'you don't know what that music has meant for me'. Beautiful movie, very interesting. I think that this 'simple movies' are the best, when well done. This is shot all in the apartment and looking out of it, just like "dial M for murder" was all in the house. Really great school, this is, to make a movie with no distractions or cheap tricks: here it's all about the story and the actors: no special effects, no sex, no nudes, no blood (only a brief, attempted strangling), no songs. It's not easy to make a movie like this and never become boring, keep the attention high, move the story forward keeping it interesting without actually do anything. Masterful.





In Italy: La finestra sul cortile