John Belton is currently a Professor of English at Rutgers University

Rutgers University

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

. He earned his PhD from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 and specializes in film history and cultural studies

Cultural studies

Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...

. Belton has served on the National Film Preservation Board

National Film Preservation Board

The United States National Film Preservation Board is the board selecting films for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. It was established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988...

, as Chair for the Archival Papers and Historical Committee of the Society of Motion Pictures and Television Engineers, and is the author of numerous books. In 2005-2006, Belton was granted the Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowship

Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...

 to pursue his study of the use of digital technology in the film industry

Film industry

The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...

.

Work

Belton's publications include:

• (together with Elisabeth Weis) Film Sound: Theory and Practice. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985, ISBN 9780231056366.
• Widescreen Cinema (Harvard Film Studies) - November 1992
• Cinema Stylists (Filmmakers, No. 2) - May 30, 1995
• Movies and Mass Culture. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, ISBN 9780813522272.
• Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000, ISBN 9780521564236.
• American Cinema/American Culture. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994, ISBN 978-0070044661.
• Can Hitchcock be Saved from Hitchcock Studies?: An Article from Cineaste - July 31, 2005

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

Rear Window

Rear Window

Rear Window is a 1954 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by John Michael Hayes and based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder"...

is a 1954 released film by Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

. The thriller stars James Stewart

James Stewart (actor)

James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...

 as an action-seeking photographer who is chair-ridden due to his fast-paced career and Grace Kelly

Grace Kelly

Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...

, playing Lisa Carol Fremont, as Jeffries' ritzy, high-fashion love interest. Jeffries' boredom forces him to spy on his neighbors all day and night, which leaves him and Lisa to find themselves in the middle of a shifty scandal suspecting their neighbor to be a murderer.

In his book, Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, Belton addresses the underlying issues of voyeurism

Voyeurism

In clinical psychology, voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other activity usually considered to be of a private nature....

, scopophilia, patriarchy

Patriarchy

Patriarchy is a social system in which the role of the male as the primary authority figure is central to social organization, and where fathers hold authority over women, children, and property. It implies the institutions of male rule and privilege, and entails female subordination...

 and feminism

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

that are evident in the film. He quotes "Rear Window's story is "about" spectacle; it explores the fascination with looking and the attraction of that which is being looked at." Generally, Belton's book proves that there is more to Hitchcock's thriller than what initially meets the eye. These issues that society faces today are all more than just present in the film, they are emphasized and strengthened.