The hero of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window is trapped in a wheelchair， and we’re trapped， too—trapped inside his point of view， inside his lack of freedom and his limited options. When he passes his long days and nights by shamelessly maintaining a secret watch on his neighbors， we share his obsession. It’s wrong， we know， to spy on others， but after all， aren’t we always voyeurs when we go to the movies？ Here’s a film about a man who does on the screen what we do in the audience—look through a lens at the private lives of strangers.

阿爾弗雷德·希區(qū)柯克的電影《后窗》的主人公身陷輪椅，而我們作為觀眾也被困住——陷于他的主觀視角，陷于他的缺乏自由，也陷于他有限的選擇。當他厚顏無恥地堅持窺視鄰居以消磨漫漫日夜時，我們對他的執(zhí)迷感同身受。偷窺他人不對，我們知道，但是說到底，看電影時的我們難道不也正是偷窺狂嗎？這部電影講述的主人公呈現(xiàn)在銀幕上的所作所為，和我們觀眾的作為并無二致——都是通過鏡頭觀看陌生人的私生活。

The man is a famous photographer named L.B. Jeffries—“Jeff” to his fiancée. He’s played by James Stewart as a man of action who has been laid up with a broken leg and a heavy cast that runs all the way up to his hip. He never leaves his apartment and has only two regular visitors. One is his visiting nurse Stella （Thelma Ritter）， who predicts trouble （“the New York State sentence for a Peeping Tom1 is six months in the workhouse”）. The other is his fiancée， Lisa Fremont （Grace Kelly）， an elegant model and dress designer， who despairs of ever getting him to commit himself. He would rather look at the lives of others than live inside his own skin， and Stella lectures him， “What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change.”

這個男人名叫L. B.杰弗里斯，是一個著名攝影師，未婚妻叫他杰夫。該角色由詹姆斯·斯圖爾特扮演。杰夫原本富有活力，如今卻因為一條腿骨折而不得不在家休養(yǎng)，沉重的石膏一直打到他的大腿根。他從不離開公寓，只有兩個常來的訪客。一個是他的上門護士斯特拉（特爾瑪·里特飾），她預言會有麻煩（“紐約州對偷窺者的判決是6個月勞動改造?！保?。另一個是他的未婚妻莉薩·弗里蒙特（格雷絲·凱莉飾），是個舉止優(yōu)雅的模特和服裝設計師，她對最終得到杰夫的婚姻承諾感到無望。杰夫?qū)幙申P注他人，而不專注自己的生活。斯特拉告誡他說：“人應該走出自己的房子，關照內(nèi)心，尋求改變?！?/p>

Jeff’s apartment window shares a courtyard with many other windows （all built on a single set by Hitchcock）， and as the days pass he becomes familiar with some of the other tenants. There is Miss Lonelyhearts， who throws dinner parties for imaginary gentleman callers; and Miss Torso， who throws drinks parties for several guys at a time; and a couple who lower their beloved little dog in a basket to the garden， and a composer who fears his career is going nowhere. And there is Thorvald （Raymond Burr）， a man with a wife who spends all her days in bed and makes life miserable for him. One day the wife is no longer to be seen， and by piecing together several clues （a saw， a suitcase， a newly dug spot in Thorvald’s courtyard garden）， Jeff begins to suspect that a murder has taken place.

杰夫公寓的窗戶和許多別家的窗戶共享一個庭院（希區(qū)柯克把它們都放在一個單一布景里），隨著時間流逝，他也開始熟悉一些別的租戶。這位是“寂寞芳心”小姐，為她想象中的來訪紳士舉辦晚餐聚會；那位是“窈窕身段”小姐，一次邀來數(shù)位男士舉辦飲酒聚會；有一對夫妻，總是用一個小筐把他們心愛的小狗縋放到花園里；有個作曲家，在擔心他的職業(yè)生涯走向窮途末路；還有一個叫托瓦爾（雷蒙德·伯爾飾）的人，他老婆整天窩在床上，讓他的生活非常悲催。有一天，這個妻子再也見不到了，杰夫通過拼湊幾條線索（一把鋸子、一個行李箱、托瓦爾庭院花園里一處新近被挖掘過的地點），開始懷疑有謀殺案發(fā)生。

The way he determines this illustrates the method of the movie. Rarely has any film so boldly presented its methods in plain view. Jeff sits in his wheelchair， holding a camera with a telephoto lens， and looks first here and then there， like a movie camera would. What he sees， we see. What conclusions he draws， we draw—all without words， because the pictures add up to a montage of suspicion.

他確定結論的方式展示的正是這部電影的拍攝方式。很少有電影這樣大膽又毫無保留地呈現(xiàn)電影的敘事手段。杰夫坐在他的輪椅里，手持帶長距鏡頭的照相機，這兒看看那兒看看，就像電影攝影機做的那樣。他看到什么，我們就看到什么。他下什么結論，我們也下什么結論——一切無需語言，因為這些圖像疊加就構建出蒙太奇式的懷疑。

I sometimes fancy that various archetypal situations circled tirelessly in Hitchcock’s mind， like whales in a tank at the zoo. One of them was fascination of voyeurism—of watching people who do not know they are being watched. Another， famously， was the notion of an innocent man wrongly accused. And many of his films illustrate male impotence or indifference in the face of cool blond beauty. Much is said of Hitchcock’s blonds （Kim Novak， Eva Marie Saint， Grace Kelly， Tippi Hedren）， but observe that they are not erotic playmates so much as puzzles or threats. Lisa， the Kelly character， has a hopeless love for Jeff， who keeps her at arm’s length with descriptions of his lifestyle; a fashion model wouldn’t hold up in the desert or jungle， he tells her.

我有時幻想，各種原型場景在希區(qū)柯克頭腦中盤桓，就像動物園水箱里的鯨魚。其中之一就是對偷窺癖好的癡迷——觀察那些不知道自己正被觀察的人。另外一種，眾所周知，就是無辜男人被錯誤指控。他的很多部電影都表現(xiàn)了男性面對冷艷金發(fā)女郎時的無能為力或無動于衷。關于希區(qū)柯克的金發(fā)女郎們（金·諾瓦克、愛娃·瑪麗·森特、格雷斯·凱利、蒂比·海德莉）的討論多不勝數(shù)，但是請注意，與其說她們是情色的玩伴，不如說是謎團或威脅本身。凱莉所扮演的莉薩對杰夫抱有無望的愛，而根據(jù)電影對杰夫的生活方式的表現(xiàn)，杰夫?qū)λ冀K保持距離。他對她說：“時裝模特在沙漠或者叢林里可撐不下去。”

But perhaps his real reason for keeping her away is fear of impotence， symbolized by the leg cast， and we are reminded of the strikingly similar relationship between Scotty， the Stewart character in Vertigo， and the fashion illustrator played by Barbara Bel Geddes. She， too， loves him. He keeps his distance. She sympathizes with his vertigo， as Kelly nurses the broken leg. Both observe his voyeuristic obsessions. In Vertigo， Scotty falls in love with a woman he has spied upon but never spoken to. In Rear Window， he is in love with the occupation of photography， and becomes completely absorbed in reconstructing the images he has seen through his lens. He wants what he can spy at a distance， not what he can hold in his arms.

但是，或許他拒絕她的真正原因是對無能的恐懼，腿上的石膏則是無能的象征，而我們會聯(lián)想起斯科蒂——斯圖爾特在《迷魂記》中飾演的角色——和芭芭拉·貝爾·格迪斯扮演的時裝插畫師之間那驚人相似的關系。一樣是女方愛著男方，而他對她保持著距離。女插畫師對斯科蒂的恐高眩暈抱有同情，正如凱莉照料著那條傷腿。二者都觀察到男主角對偷窺的癡迷。在《迷魂記》中，斯科蒂為一個他一直偷窺但從未交談過的女人陷入愛河。在《后窗》中，男主角所愛的則是他的攝影職業(yè)，并且完全沉浸于對通過鏡頭所見景象的重構。他想要的是一定距離外能為他所窺探的，卻不想要他可以攬入懷中的。

In Rear Window， Jeff is not a moralist， a policeman or a do-gooder， but a man who likes to look. There are crucial moments in the film where he is clearly required to act， and he delays， not because he doesn’t care what happens， but because he forgets he can be an active player; he is absorbed in a passive role. Significantly， at the end， when he is in danger in his own apartment， his weapon is his camera’s flashgun; he hopes to blind or dazzle his enemy， and as the man’s eyesight gradually returns， it is through a blood-red dissolve that suggests passion expressed through the eyes.

在《后窗》中，杰夫不是個道德家，不是警察，也不是個想做好事的人，而只是個喜歡觀察的人。影片中有些關鍵時刻，顯然需要他采取行動，但他選擇拖延。這不是因為他不在意發(fā)生了什么，而是他忘記了自己可以是一個積極的參與者；他在他的被動角色設定里不能自拔。值得一提的是，片尾，他在自己的公寓里陷入險境，他的武器是照相機的閃光槍；他寄希望于晃瞎或閃暈敵人，而隨著對方視力漸漸恢復，影片通過一片血紅色的畫面疊化來暗示通過眼睛表達的強烈情感。

Kelly is cool and elegant here， and has some scenes where we feel her real hurt. She likes to wear beautiful dresses， make great entrances， spoil Jeff with champagne and catered dinners. He doesn’t notice or doesn’t like her attention， because it presumes a relationship he wants to elude. There is one shot， partly a point-of-view closeup， in which she leans over him to kiss him， and the camera succumbs to her sexuality even if Jeff doesn’t; it’s as if she’s begging the audience to end its obsession with what Jeff is watching， and consider instead what he should be drinking in with his eyes—her beauty.

凱莉在影片中既冷靜又優(yōu)雅，而在有些場景中我們能感受到她的真實傷痛。她喜歡穿漂亮的連衣裙，亮相時非常搶眼，用香檳和預訂晚餐表達對杰夫的寵愛。而他要么沒有留意，要么不喜歡她的關注，因為這意味的正是他想要疏離的關系。有這樣一個鏡頭，部分是主觀視角的特寫，她俯下身親吻他，攝像機都拜倒在她的性感魅力之下，然而杰夫無動于衷；就好像她在懇求觀眾結束他們對杰夫所見事物的癡迷，考慮一下他真正該用眼睛盡情欣賞的是什么——是她的美貌啊。

The remote-control suspense scenes in Rear Window are Hitchcock at his most diabolical， creating dangerous situations and then letting Lisa and Stella linger in them through Jeff’s carelessness or inaction. He stays in his wheelchair. They venture out into danger—Kelly even entering the apartment of the suspected wife killer. He watches. We see danger approaching. We， and he， cannot move， cannot sound the alarm.

《后窗》中遠程操縱懸念的場景是希區(qū)柯克最毒辣的地方：他創(chuàng)造出危險的狀況，然后讓莉薩和斯特拉因為杰夫的疏忽或無所作為而涉身其中。杰夫一直坐在輪椅里，她們卻闖入危險——凱莉甚至進入了殺妻嫌疑犯的公寓。他就那么看著。我們看到危險趨近。我們，和他一樣，不能動，也不能示警。

This level of danger and suspense is so far elevated above the cheap thrills of the modern slasher films that Rear Window， intended as entertainment in 1954， is now revealed as art. Hitchcock long ago explained the difference between surprise and suspense. A bomb under a table goes off， and that’s surprise. We know the bomb is under the table but not when it will go off， and that’s suspense. Modern slasher films depend on danger that leaps unexpectedly out of the shadows. Surprise. And surprise that quickly dissipates， giving us a momentary rush but not satisfaction. Rear Window lovingly invests in suspense all through the film， banking it in our memory， so that when the final payoff2 arrives， the whole film has been the thriller equivalent of foreplay.

這種段位的危險和懸疑比那些現(xiàn)代恐怖片的廉價驚悚高明太多了，以致1954年作為娛樂片攝制的《后窗》現(xiàn)在被當作藝術片欣賞。希區(qū)柯克很久以前曾經(jīng)解釋過驚愕和懸疑之間的區(qū)別。桌子下面有個炸彈爆炸了，這是驚愕。如果我們知道炸彈在桌子下面，但是不知道它什么時候會爆炸，這是懸疑?，F(xiàn)代的血腥恐怖片依賴于出其不意從陰影中跳出來的危險，這是驚愕。而驚愕轉瞬即逝，給我們片刻的緊張，但無法滿足?！逗蟠啊啡荚诩毿闹艿降貭I造懸疑，懸疑在我們的記憶里積存，直到最終的償付來臨，此時整部電影就成了前戲般的驚悚片。

1偷窺者。該典故起源于11世紀的英國。傳說在考文垂鎮(zhèn)有位伯爵夫人常勸丈夫減少領地的稅收，伯爵不堪其擾，提出如果夫人愿裸體騎馬穿過小鎮(zhèn)，就同意她的請求。夫人答應照辦。游街當日，全鎮(zhèn)居民皆關門閉戶以示敬意，只有一個叫湯姆的裁縫從門縫中向外窺視。后來湯姆雙目失明，時人以為報應。后來以“偷窺者湯姆”指偷窺狂和熱衷窺探他人隱私的人。

2 payoff既有付清款項的意思，也有結局、結果的意思。此處是個雙關語，既指影片的結局，也指因結局而了結了觀眾的期待，呼應前句觀眾在記憶中不斷積存的懸疑在結局時得以釋放，由此獲得充分的滿足感。