Che Vuoi?' / 'What Do You Want?' (Theory and Politics; Slavoj Zizek's Plague of Fantasies‪)‬

The Question of the Subject, the Question of Zizek The conclusion of Rear Window involves a typically Hitchcockian reversal of a cinema staple. Usually, in 'horror' or 'suspense' films, the final scene involves a terrified and confused victim fleeing before a callously single-minded aggressor. (Think, for example, of Silence of the Lambs.) In Rear Window, however, the murderer approaches the crippled 'hero' (Jimmy Stewart) in a different manner. As intent as he is on cornering Stewart, the murderer is also discernibly confused as to who this man is whose voyeurism has 'caught him in the act'. As he approaches Stewart, he repeatedly mouths variants on one question: 'What do you want from me?' It is almost as much to allay the force of this question as to halt the murderer's physical approach, that Stewart flashes the blinding light in his assailant's eyes. It is almost as much out of frustration at Stewart's failure to respond to his queries as to quiet Stewart who 'knows too much', that the murderer grapples with him fatefully at the edge of the window.