Rope film review
Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film Rope is a highly experimental piece of film, based around the 1929 play by Patrick Hamilton. "The play appealed to Hitchcock's sense of the macabre and his fascination with situations involving the inconvenience of dead bodies." Ebert (1984)
Fig. 1 Rope (1984)
What stands out about this film is not its story line, that is one that has been used in many other narratives and ultimately did not belong to Hitchcock, but rather the incredibly groundbreaking methods he deployed in the film's production. "Hitchcock was interested in seeing whether he could find a cinematic equivalent to the play, which takes place in the actual length of time of the story." Canby (1984). This was a highly experimental film, and even Hitchcock declared the film a failure, and refused to let it be released for a number of years. Hitchcock used 10 mins reels of film to film continuous shots; moving between the actors and starting and finishing with shots zooming in on objects, or moving behind objects to prevent the scene appearing to cut or jump. This is actually an incredible idea, although many of the shots were cut down in the final edit. Again it was used to increase the similarity between the film and what audiences would have seen at the theatre.
Fig. 2 Noose (1948)
The suspense is largely based on sequential events. This suspense is the true heart and effectiveness of the film. Having jumps in time would severely damage this. The combination of the raising tension, the sexual undercurrent and theme of death all combine into a thoroughly thrilling experience which, as Croce said, "It's fitting that Hitchcock's themes of death and sex culimate in a pistol's climatic ejaculation out of a window." Croce (2006).
Fig. 3 God Complex (1984)
Croce (2006) Rope At: https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/rope (Accessed on 25/01/18)
Ebert (1984) Rope At: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rope-1948 (Accessed on 25/01/18)
What stands out about this film is not its story line, that is one that has been used in many other narratives and ultimately did not belong to Hitchcock, but rather the incredibly groundbreaking methods he deployed in the film's production. "Hitchcock was interested in seeing whether he could find a cinematic equivalent to the play, which takes place in the actual length of time of the story." Canby (1984). This was a highly experimental film, and even Hitchcock declared the film a failure, and refused to let it be released for a number of years. Hitchcock used 10 mins reels of film to film continuous shots; moving between the actors and starting and finishing with shots zooming in on objects, or moving behind objects to prevent the scene appearing to cut or jump. This is actually an incredible idea, although many of the shots were cut down in the final edit. Again it was used to increase the similarity between the film and what audiences would have seen at the theatre.
The suspense is largely based on sequential events. This suspense is the true heart and effectiveness of the film. Having jumps in time would severely damage this. The combination of the raising tension, the sexual undercurrent and theme of death all combine into a thoroughly thrilling experience which, as Croce said, "It's fitting that Hitchcock's themes of death and sex culimate in a pistol's climatic ejaculation out of a window." Croce (2006).
Bibliography
Canby (1984) Hitchcock's 'Rope': A stunt to behold At: http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/03/movies/hitchcock-s-rope-a-stunt-to-behold.html?pagewanted=all (Accessed on 25/10/18)Croce (2006) Rope At: https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/rope (Accessed on 25/01/18)
Ebert (1984) Rope At: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rope-1948 (Accessed on 25/01/18)
List of Illustrations
Figure 1. Rope (1984) [Film capture] At: https://debbimacktoo.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/rope7.gif (Accessed on 25/01/18)
Figure 2. Noose (1948) [Film Capture] At: https://media.giphy.com/media/Z98ZYtJtAUepq/source.gif (Accessed on 25/01/18)
Figure 3. God Complex (1984) [Film Capture] At: https://betterwithbob.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/tumblr_mmdvg5ccei1qcra4yo4_250.gif?w=344&h=239 (Accessed on 25/01/18)
Hello!
ReplyDeleteSome good observations here :)
Make sure that after your quote, you put both the name and the date in the brackets, so (Canby, 1984) for example.