In addition to being very enjoyable and well-executed, Rear Window was very throughout-provoking for me. One interesting question that it posed was whether it is ethical for Jeffries to spy on his neighbors, even if it is for the purpose of catching a murderer. Is he right to spy on Miss Lonelyhearts and observe her very personal despair, even if he does save her from suicide? I'm not sure of the answer to these questions.
This movie also seemed to…
Even though the influence of the expressionist style of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is visible in the mise-en-scene of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, it develops away from this style and more towards a futuristic one. It’s highly stylized sets and lighting are used less to convey the emotions of the characters and instill similar ones in the viewer and more to realize a vision of a futuristic utopia. For this reason, I believe that the mise-en-scene of Metropolis is less…
One sequence that I could write about in my final paper to demonstrate Griffith's influence on the editing of the film would be the last scene of the movie. This is because Griffith was the first filmmaker to prominently use crosscutting, and in this sequence there is a lot of crosscutting between the drummer, the conductor, and various other members of the band, and some trumpet bells. However, the influence of Griffith on this sequence is subtle, as all of the cross-cutting happens between things occurring in the same room (Griffith would cut between events happening at different places).
