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<\/a>In-field and out-of-field<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Courtyard window<\/em> may not be Hitchcock's best film, but it's unquestionably his greatest stroke of genius. At least from a technical point of view. Jeff is behind closed doors. He can watch, be moved, gawk, worry, but he can't intervene. Just like the spectator. The viewer observes the action on screen from the comfort of his armchair, but has no way of intervening in the film. In fact, the viewer's gaze is Jeff's own. From his window, he sees everything, without seeing everything. All that's available in his field of vision is what's happening in his neighbors' windows. He does, however, have a good overview, since it's summer, it's very hot, windows are open and people are practically living in their windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This overall view is the view of the spectator, who sees everything that's being filmed as a whole. field<\/em>, In other words, within the shots filmed by the camera. As the walls of the apartments are not just windows, there are intermediaries, from one room to another, that Jeff and the viewer cannot see. This is the off-screen<\/em>. The film's entire plot is based on this. Jeff, without being seen, has seen enough, even more than enough, but he hasn't seen everything. He didn't see the presumed murder, nor the blood, nor the corpse, but he saw everything else. Like the viewer, whose thoughts, assumptions and concerns run parallel to those of the main character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The construction of the field<\/em>, For most of the film, what we see is done in split screen<\/em>. The only moments when this scenography does not intervene are the shots inside Jeff's apartment. The moments when he tries to be present to himself or intimate with his partner. But Jeff is obsessed with the outside, especially as there may, indeed certainly is, a murder at stake. And, of course, there's always something more interesting to observe on the outside: whether it's the dancer, the pianist, the couples, a highly original sculpture, a little dog with a bad ending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whereas at the beginning, it's the spectator who joins Jeff's gaze, it's Jeff who, as the film progresses, adopts that of a spectator condemned to forget himself for the duration of a film session, to see only what the shots want to show him. The plans are drawn up by the director, i.e. Hitchcock, who appears in a cameo for a brief moment in an apartment, adjusting the hands of a clock. He is the master of time. He takes charge of us for the duration of a film he himself has determined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>Split screen<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n