Film Review - Rope

Fig 1. Rope poster (1948)

Is it possible to tell a story in one shot or just in one room? Alfred Hitchcock shows that it is with his 1948 film Rope. A film that tried to pull the viewer in without having to break the flow of the camera moving around the set so that the tension could build at a much slower pace but still have the same impact in the end.

The story of the film is a basic one but at a sudden turn we are pulled deeper and deeper into it by a new piece of information and are left wondering how this will affect the outcome that we know is coming. Rope tells the story of two men who commit a murder, believing that because they are more intelligent than others they will get away with it, and then hide the body in their apartment while they have a dinner party only a few feet away from the chest it is hidden in. However, the boasting of one of the men leads one of the party guests to becoming suspicious about what they are hiding.

One of the ways in which the film plays on the viewer’s mind is the way that Hitchcock tried to make the film in one take. The camera follows the characters around without making us cut back and forth between them, along with cleverly cutting parts of the story out by not showing them with only the actors making references to what is happening in the other room. The problem that Hitchcock had with this type of film making is that there wasn’t the technology to do this so he had to figure out how to hide the change of film, mostly done by going behind one of the character’s backs, or to show the cut anyway. “This clunkiness can be part of the film's claustrophobic strength though: the coffin-chest is rarely out of shot, and the camera follows the actors around every square inch of the confined set.” (Hutchinson, 2012) Another reason Rope was filmed in this way was to be a nod to the play that it was based on as the audience would follow the actors on the stage without pausing or breaking away.

It also makes us look at all of the characters that are in the shot. If Hitchcock had used the typical film making style and used basic cuts in the film we would have lost this, by solely focusing on the actors of a set length of time we would notice when one of them suddenly moves. This also gives us an insight in to the character's way of thinking if they show no interest in the conversation that the others are having. In one shot the camera “… gently pans right to reveal the dead boy’s father looking out the window as he waits for the son we know is never coming.” (Croce, 2006) If the camera was to sudden cut to this we would not know the full context of the action.

Fig 2. Will she, Won't she open the chest? (1948)

Many can call this film a classic “who done it?” but there is one catch – we know who committed the crime right from the start, instead this is a perfect example of Hitchcock’s Bomb Theory. This theory is a very basic one and one that helps Hitchcock remind people why he is called The Master of Suspense. He tells the audience what is about to happen but keeps the characters in the dark, the audience starts to become tense knowing that they cannot help the characters before disaster strikes. In this case the bomb is the body in the chest, we know its there but the party guests have no idea, and the bomb going off is someone opening it.

Rope has another way of playing with the viewer and that’s by the way in which it uses sound to place the audience in the apartment. As there is no soundtrack being used we hear the conversation of the guests in the background while the camera focuses on the part that is of interest to the story. The times that sound is introduced is to show that the characters themselves are becoming tense, like when Phillip is being questioned at the piano and Rupert is speeding up the metronome which in turn makes him play faster as he panics, or that there is a world outside of the room the whole movie has taken place in, notably when Rupert fires the gun outside the window and the police sirens start to become loader and loader as they get closer.

Overall the film, though interesting with the way that it makes you question when the final punch line will be dealt, seems to have not gone down well with many people. Even Hitchcock himself called the film an “Experiment that didn’t work out” (Hitchcock, 1984).

Fig 3. Hitchcock's cameo as a red neon sign (1948)

Illustrations

• Figure 1. Rope poster (1948) [Poster] At: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alfredhitchcock/4710912427 (Accessed on 18/01/17)

• Figure 2. Will she, Won’t she open the chest? (1948) [Film still] At: https://lisathatcher.com/2012/09/15/rope-hitchcock-tricking-you-into-seeing-whats-there-when-its-the-unspeakable-there/ (Accessed on 02/02/17)

• Figure 3. Hitchcock’s cameo as a red neon sign (1948) [Film still] At: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/158540849352349249/ (Accessed on 23/01/17)

Bibliography

• Ebert, Roger. (1984) Reviews – Rope. At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/rope-1948 (Accessed on 02/02/17)

• Croce, Fernando. (2006) Rope. At: http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/rope (Accessed on 29/01/17)

• Hutchinson, Pamela. (2012) My favourite Hitchcock: Rope. At: https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2012/jul/27/my-favourite-hitchcock-rope (Accessed on 24/01/17)