REAR WINDOW

Few of Ernie Gehrs films are as beautiful as this one, or as delicate. With its telephoto lens it explores a sort of seeing that is more voyeuristic than most of Gehrs urban films, although the distant magnification of its lens recalls the gentle penetration of the world in Untitled (1981) and its view through a window side fire escape has some relation to Shifts window views. With one hand in front of the camera, Ernie Gehr molds light like a sculptor in Rear Window, a luminous view of a Brooklyn backyard.
(Robert Cooper)