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Rear Window: the courtyard, 1
Following the curtain-raising credits, the camera moves out of Jeffries' window and makes two circuits of the courtyard, both ending with Jeff's sleeping head. The first circuit establishes the space: |
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Below: The second circuit of the courtyard focuses in on several apartments whose inhabitants provide secondary stories within the movie: the songwriter, the couple with the dog, and Miss Torso. |
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| Here for the tour of Jeff's apartment that follows the second circuit. |
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| Other sights and characters are introduced within the next few minutes, with the point of view established as Jeffries': |
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The sunbathing women.
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| The Thorwalds, in their apartment whose two windows (besides dividing the couple) have the proportions of movie and television screens: Jeffries' view of the Thorwalds counterpoints his telephone conversation with his editor: "If you don't pull me out of this swamp of boredom, I'm gonna do something drastic. Like what? I'm gonna get married, then I'll never be able to go anywhere. . . . Yeah, can't you just see me, rushing home to a hot apartment, to listen to the automatic laundry and the electric dishwasher and the garbage disposal, and the nagging wife. . . . In my neighborhood they still nag." |
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| The next view of Thorwald, telling the busybody sculptress to shut up, emphasizes the lack of neighborliness in the courtyard, both spatial and thematic. |
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| Inhabitants of two more apartments are subsequently introduced, with stories that relate more closely to Jeff's and Lisa's: the newlyweds and Miss Lonelyhearts: |
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