Cutting Edges 1: Rope (1948)' Film Review

Figure 1- Movie poster

 Rope (1948) was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by  Arthur Lauents, Hume Cronyn and Ben Hecht and  the music was composed by Leo F.Forbstein. The film is about a story of two men called Brandon (John Dell) and Philip (Farley Granger) who kill their friend David for fun during the house party."Good and evil, right and wrong were invented for the ordinary average man, the inferior man, because he needs them," claims Brandon, the deluded mastermind of the murder." (Hutchinson 2015). The film also James Stewart as a good guy.
"He’s in the chest! It’s right there!” For me, it wasn’t enough of a “hook” – I didn’t know whether I was supposed to be rooting for the two men to get away with the crime, or whether I should be cheering on Stewart’s character." (Snow 2011)




When the film was made the camera they were using was so big for the set that they would knock over all the furniture. The film's claustrophobic feel is strengthened trough the coffin-chest that is rarely out of shot and the camera follows the actors around every square inch of the confined set. It shows that in each shot taken the camera would either pass by an object or character, or get very close to a character to help with the storyline.

figure 2- House party

Figure 3-  Rope set

The director Hitchcock decided to shoot the film in this way, where he had to devise an innovative method for moving the camera. Rope was Hitchcock's  first film shot in Technicolour means the camera he used was the size of a small car also followed the actors through the set pieces  of the individual rooms. The furniture had to be placed on the wheels and rolled them out of the way of the monster camera with the film crew to move as coordinated to swoop in and silently roll set pieces away to make room for the camera. 

This film is interesting because of the camera angle and close up shot for each scene in the film to give the viewer a clue as to the mind set off characters.

Bibliography:

CROWTHER, B. (1948) Movie review - rope - THE SCREEN IN REVIEW; ‘ rope,’ an exercise in suspense directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is new bill at the globe. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=980DE3D81630E03BBC4F51DFBE668383659EDE (Accessed: 16 January 2016)

Hutchinson, P. (2015) My favourite Hitchcock: Rope. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/jul/27/my-favourite-hitchcock-rope
(Accessed: 16 January 2016).

Snow, R. (2011) Reviews of classic movies: Hitchcock’s ‘rope’. Available at: https://robertsnow.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/review-rope-1948/ (Accessed: 16 January 2016).

Illustrations:

Figure 1- Movie poster
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34e0f5052ef3ff18b39554babdf6ff8c8ef00c93cbd992fec9fa10f72d877489.jpg
(Accessed 16th  January 2016)

Figure 2- House party
http://thisdistractedglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/Rope%20pic%201.jpg
(Accessed 16th January 2016)

Figure 3- Rope set
https://lisathatcher.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/rope-set.jpg
(Accessed 16th January 2016)