Rear Window as an example of Panopticism

Résumé du document

Panopticism is a concept that stems from the work of an eighteenth century philosopher, Jeremy Bentham. He was trying to figure out how to build a prison in which the guards could see the prisoners in such a way that the prisoners could never come to know they were being watched upon. Although his attempt ended up in a complete failure, it gave birth to a debate (which is still ongoing), with regard to the extent of power over people provided by such techniques.

Extraits

[...] “After all, going to a movie is nothing more than opening a window into the lives of others” (James Berardinelli). Although Foucault's work stands as the most developed and comprehensive criticism of the underlying dangers of panopticism, Hitchcock's movie “Rear Window” is likely to have a greater effect on people and help them grow aware of the real significance of panopticism. The perfect editing of the movies serves the political commitment of the director, who fights this modern threat by involving the spectators in a concrete experience of neighbor watching. [...]

[...] Rear Window as an example of Panopticism Panopticism is a concept that stems from the work of an eighteenth century philosopher, Jeremy Bentham. He has been trying to figure out how to build prisons in which the guards could see the detainees without being seen in turn. Although his attempt ended up in a complete failure as to its concrete realization, it gave birth to a debate, still ongoing, in terms of the amount of power over people provided by such techniques. [...]

[...] Hitchcock thus makes the point that there is no place left where people can benefit from the least intimacy and privacy. People are always under surveillance and as they are aware of it, they modify their behavior to the extent of forgetting what being “natural” means. There are a lot of analogies between “Rear Window” and Foucault's depiction of the town infected with plague. Foucault describes the roll call of the inhabitants who have to appear at the window as a way to check who is dead, alive or sick. [...]

[...] Alfred Hitchcock uses a wide range of panoptic techniques that he applies successfully to cinema. He is inspired by many different sources, from philosophy to books and other contemporary or preceding movies. The “photographs with a hidden camera” by Walker Evans is one of these sources. The latter took photographs using panoptic techniques in the early XXth century in the subway and other places. These photographs are considered as the first appearance of “voyeurism”, defined by James Berardinelli as process through which people gain more satisfaction from viewing than living”. [...]

[...] Alfred Hitchcock also uses a big deal of panoptic techniques later described by Foucault. The light holds a crucial role in determining who sees and who is seen. Foucault, speaking about the importance of light in making guards invisible in a context of detainees watching, argues that the effect of backlighting, one can observe from the tower, standing out precisely against the light, the small captive shadows in the cells of the periphery”. In “Rear Window”, the main character precisely lives on the top floor and is protected by the reflection of light so that he can look downwards but his neighbors living in the lower levels cannot see him. [...]