The 4^th Floor

New York TV weatherman Greg Harrison (William Hurt) advertises himself as signing a pact with the devil to be a national TV weatherman, and in the end that’s exactly what he does.

His girlfriend (Juliette Lewis) doesn’t want to live with him in Westchester. “I need a little space of my own,” she tells him, “is that a crime?” She takes a walk-up in the city, where she is menaced by a malevolent, unseen neighbor. Is it Martha Stewart, “not the famous one” (Shelley Duvall), on the ground floor, the elderly collector (Austin Pendleton) upstairs, the old lady with supersensitive hearing on the floor below her, the deranged super?

The incomprehension of this work of genius, which no critic ever saw (they were all attending a convention, presumably), is a big lacuna. In particular, one would point out the formal perfection of the last shot, which among other things finally pivots the pertinacious Rear Window theme most artistically.

The hand of the artist is everywhere evident, not least in the casting.