24/05/2013

Rope (1948)

Film: Rope (1948)
Release: 1948, theatrical
Starring: James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
IMDB: Link opens in a new window
Description: A seemingly normal party is held by two friends with a dark secret, can they manage to keep it secret from the party guests?

Hans' thoughts:

This movie was based on a play and it shows. The whole movie is done in as long takes as possible (10 minutes were the longest time on a roll back then) and only on one big set, making this entire movie feel like a stage-act. The set, which is three adjourned rooms is that of an apartment and that basically all you see (with the one exception of the street shot which makes up the intro credits sequence.) As always with these kinds of movies the characters are very archetypical but also fleshed out, in a single evening that makes up the movie the characters are able to provide us with personality traits and backstories - through dialogue alone. But not clumsy "screenwriter" dialogue either, everything is pretty much said naturally which is admirable in and off itself. The dialogue is pretty much what saves this movie, as what would've been a pretty good mystery is taken away from us in the first few seconds. That said, the Hitchcock suspense is still there and as enjoyable as ever. I'll probably revisit this movie soon for the dialogue alone.

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