10 Directors Who Started Movies The Same Way

Alfred Hitchcock is surely the greatest cinematic voyeur in history, as evidenced no better than by the opening sequences from two of his most cherished movies.

Hitch's 1954 thriller Rear Window famously opens with a sequence peering out of protagonist Jeff Jeffries' (James Stewart) window to survey the surrounding apartment block, before circling back around to introduce us to Jeffries himself.

It perfectly encapsulates the film's primary theme of voyeurism while efficiently acquainting the audience with the characters residing within the sprawling apartment complex.

Six years later, the director opened Psycho in similar fashion, peering around the Phoenix, Arizona skyline before slowly zooming into the window of the hotel room where Marion (Janet Leigh) and Sam (John Gavin) have been spending the afternoon.

Once again, the audience is made to feel like they themselves are a voyeur, as if they operating the gigantic telephoto lens which Jeffries himself uses in Rear Window.