Film Review - Rope (1948)

Figure 1. Rope (1948)

Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948) is a Psychological Thriller, it follows the story of two college students whom have become fascinated over their Professors philosophy of superiority and inferiority. Believing themselves to be "superior", Brandon and Philip find that their friend Dave to be "inferior" to them and therefore carry out the act of strangling him with a rope and hiding the body in the trunk of their apartment, then holding a party and serving food on top of the trunk his corpse is hidden in.

Figure. 2

Whats interesting is how Rope has been shot, taking place in one apartment and watching the events unfold naturally with not interrupted cuts or jumps "All of the events had to take place in one uninterrupted act, and he arrived at the novel idea of shooting the movie without any visible cuts, so that it would look like one continuous shot." (Ebert, 1984) How he would manage this one cut trick is by moving the camera into characters backs or chests enabling a chance to switch out film for new footage and keep the flow going. This initially was inspiration from the play version and there was a natural flow of tension that was un-interrupted and Hitchcock managed to communicate that through film. Another interesting thing to note is the passing of time which is communicated by the windows of the apartment which show a morning city-scape at the beginning of the movie but slowly fall into the deep evening when it reaches close to the end.

Figure 3.

Suspense is a constant theme in this movie, to begin with we already see Brandon and Philip commit the murder and the events that follow, the party, the discussions of David's whereabouts and the presence of Davids loved one all dinning and celebrating around his hidden corpse makes it teeth grit-tingly suspenseful"we know exactly what kind of sickness we're staring at and the only question is how long we can bear to look." (Hutchinson, 2012) It's always a question of when the body will be discovered and the teasing comments other characters make about Brandon and Philip acting strange that add to the climax.

Figure 4.

The movie also expresses themes of Homosexuality between Brandon and Philip, though during its time the showcase of homosexual relationships was frowned upon "though the film was made back in the days when any suggestion of homosexuality was supposedly taboo, ''Rope'' is immediately explicit without actually committing any offenses the Production Code people could object to." (Canby, 1984) Hitchcock communicates these themes through subtle ways to how Brandon and Philip look and talk to each other suggesting the two are lovers. The subtext is subtle and their hidden relationship is much like how they hide the body, making sure that no one finds out about the body and metaphorically them.

Bibliorgraphy:

Canby, Vincent (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: 30/01/2018]

Ebert, Roger (1984) - Rope At: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rope-1948 [Accessed: 30/01/2018]

Hutchinson, Pamela (2012) - My favourite Hitchcock: Rope At:https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/jul/27/my-favourite-hitchcock-rope [Accessed: 30/01/2012]

Illustrations:

Figure 1. - Rope (1948) - Alfred Hitchcock - Movie Poster

Figure 2. - Rope (1948) - Alfred Hitchcock - Movie Still

Figure 3. - Rope (1948) - Alfred Hitchcock - Movie Still

Figure 4. - Rope (1948) - Alfred Hitchcock - Movie Still