How Old Was Jimmy Stewart In Rear Window
Before he became an iconic managing director and spearheaded the French New Wave of cinema, Francois Truffaut was a writer – a film critic. He was also an early admirer, nay obsessive, of 1 Alfred Hitchcock. Truffaut would eventually publish Hitchcock/Truffaut, a book of the interviews he had with the "Master of Suspense," detailing Hitchcock's entire career behind the photographic camera.
Today we're revisiting a Hitchcock'south classic, Rear Window (1954), and there'south no better way to sum it up than the way Truffaut did in his original review 67 years ago: "Rear Window is a film nearly indiscretion, about intimacy violated and taken past surprise at its nearly wretched moments; a film about the impossibility of happiness, about dirty linen that gets washed in the courtyard; a film nigh moral solitude, an extraordinary symphony of daily life and ruined dreams." I might add, it's also a film in which the pb graphic symbol, played by Jimmy Stewart, wears a sure ruggedly conservative Swiss sentinel.
L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) looking out his rear window, with his doubtable squarely in sight in Rear Window. Photo courtesy Universal Pictures
HODINKEE'south Keen Outdoors Calendar week is coming to an terminate, but the terminate of one thing means the beginning of another. It's the commencement twenty-four hour period of October, which puts the states squarely in spooky flavor. To celebrate, nosotros are looking at a spooky movie about a man who can't go outside – a movie in which nosotros see the entirety of the action through his eyes, the lens of his camera, and the literal rear window of his Manhattan apartment.
Just one portion of the view from the Rear Window. Screengrab Courtesy Universal Pictures
Stewart plays L.B. Jefferies, a magazine photographer who's sidelined after an injury on assignment relegates him to a full-leg bandage and a wheelchair. He receives daily visits from an in-home nurse who not but tends to his injury just also gives him back massages because, you know, every cleaved leg is mended by a good massage. Despite his unfortunate injury, he'south lucky enough to be in a romantic relationship with Lisa Fremont, played by the royally beautiful Grace Kelly. After weeks and weeks of people-watching in his building's courtyard, Jefferies has reason to believe that foul play – murder, even – has taken place in an apartment across the style. The motion-picture show takes off from at that place. Throughout every suspense-filled scene in his claustrophobic apartment, Jefferies has on an interesting, and now rare, Tissot wristwatch.
Vintage poster for the picture, showing Jeffries (Stewart) looking through the lens of his camera, wearing his Tissot.
For many, Tissot represents a great entry betoken into sentry collecting. The timepieces aren't too expensive, and they present tremendous value in pattern, build quality, and movement engineering science. What those same individuals don't always realize is that the brand has a pretty robust heritage dating back to the 1850s. One hundred years after, a Tissot scout found its style onto a Hollywood fable's wrist in a Hitchcock film – and that is very cool.
This item Tissot has strong field-scout energy (one last shoutout for Great Outdoors Week), with thick printed Arabic numerals, a curvaceous case design, a cherry arrow-tipped seconds manus, and a wonderfully nearly textless dial – save for the Tissot wordmark (because how else would yous know it'due south a Tissot?).
The Tissot worn by Stewart equally L.B. Jeffries in Rear Window. Screengrab courtesy of Universal Pictures
Like the best cinematic watch wearers, Stewart keeps his Tissot strapped to his wrist for the entirety of the film. It even gets its own close-upward. You can grab a clear glimpse of it as he – Spoiler Alert – hangs off the ledge of his window before falling (safely) to the footing. In 1954, you would wait a watch like this to expect pretty pristine since it wouldn't take decades of utilize on it notwithstanding, but Jefferies's watch has a incomparably worn await to it – a existent aged quality. As a photographer who'south constantly traveling for assignments, a good watch would be a key item to possess. If this is his 1 and only sentinel, then information technology's been well-worn and well-traveled. I'g sure that piddling Tissot never thought the most heady thing it'd ever experience would occur in the confines of a 500-square-foot apartment.
In a climactic scene, Jeffries (Stewart) hangs onto the ledge of his window for love life, and we take hold of a glimpse of his Tissot. Screengrab courtesy Universal Pictures
Afterward the classic Hitchcock opening where he allows the audience to meet its hero through camera movements effectually his flat, we find Jefferies seated in his wheelchair equally Stella enters the apartment for his daily healthcare cheque-up and intensive back massage. The shirtless Jefferies lays on his stomach draped in a towel and begins to chat with Stella about his concrete status as well as the condition of his dear life. As he speaks in his Jimmy Stewart way, he rests his arms on the massage table [00:eleven:24]. Equally he does so, the dial side of his Tissot comes into focus. You tin can clearly run into the stand-out Arabic numerals and the small red seconds pointer sweeping effectually the punch, massaging the time.
Screengrab courtesy Universal Pictures
Roughly thirty minutes into the nearly two-hour film, we find Jefferies doing his voyeuristic all-time. The sun has fix, the rain is falling, and he's peering out the window watching the lives of every one of his neighbors play out in front of him. It'due south the centre of the night. How do we know that? Because his lookout man tells u.s.a. so. In the midst of the steady sound of precipitation, Jefferies looks down at his wrist to bank check the time. At this moment [00:thirty:34], nosotros get quite an intense, full-frame close-up of the watch, which reads ane:55 AM. The watch then serves as a transition device. But as we read the time, the camera fades to black and re-opens with the watch showing 2:34 AM. Ii spotter close-ups, back to back? It doesn't get much ameliorate than that.
Screengrab courtesy Universal Pictures
Rear Wind0w(starring James Stewart, and Grace Kelly) is directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It'southward available to stream on First and to hire on iTunes or Amazon.
Lead analogy, Andy Gottschalk
HODINKEE is an authorized retailer of Tissot. Explore our entire drove here.
Source: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/jimmy-stewart-wears-a-tissot-field-watch-indoors-in-rear-window
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