One of the most innovative films of its time, Alfred Hitchcock's Rope introduces a number of filmmaking experiments which, even today, remain widely unexplored in the world of cinema. It is an immensely captivating tale of two men who strangle one of their acquaintances, hide his body in their apartment, and then throw a party to determine the perfection of their crime.

Filmed in a manner that gives the illusion of being shot in a single take, the biggest strength of this film is how effortlessly it manages to engage the viewers in its expertly crafted plot & sustain the tension throughout its runtime even when the audience is aware of how the movie will end. The direction by Hitchcock is…

I often forget how much I love stage. Something about the twisty nature and slow burn pace of most shows kicks in a certain tension not seen in reading or watching.

Filmed stage is harder to pull off, due to how much you want to replicate that feeling while also remaining cinematic enough to justify your own existence. I don't mind most attempts feeling like filmed stage, due to my own bias, but I can see how it could be an issue for some.

However, I think Hitchcock had the best idea when it came to filming a stage show and turning into a movie; by attempting to film it all in one take. Granted, at the time (and even…

“I've always wished for more artistic talent. Well, murder can be an art, too. The power to kill can be just as satisfying as the power to create.”

With the aftermaths of the effects of World War II, Patrick Hamilton’s play seemed like the perfect choice for Alfred Hitchcock’s next film. A plot which centers on two highly intellectual men that decide to commit the perfect murder. The victim being one of their classmates who they consider to be inferior to them. This concept of superiority is handled pretty heavily as there are several discussions about it through the film, and it is easy to compare it to Hitler’s ideal of the superior Nazi race. Rope isn’t subtle at all,…

Not Quite Hoop-Tober: Day 8
Double feature: classic genre-bending thrillers – part 1

Rope is a classic Hitchcock murder mystery best known for its inventive use of long takes and creative cutting to try to appear as a single, uninterrupted shot, and while some audiences may find this distracting, it effectively puts the viewer at the scene of the crime and creates a feeling of claustrophobia or entrapment, as if events are escalating out of control and there's nowhere for you to escape to—likewise, confining the action to a single apartment with a view of the New York skyline increases the anxiety of the situation by creating the sense that we're not allowed to leave (and it's this tense and…

This certainly isn't a classic who-done-it. It's more of a modern will-they-get-caught. So much has been said of this film already, I would not dare revisit the plot points. In the interest of adding some fresh perspective, however, here are ten curious things viewers might not know about the Alfred Hitchcock murder thriller Rope.

1. The script was loosely adapted from a stage play called Rope's End by British playwright Patrick Hamilton.

2. The primary characters, Brandon & Phillip, are homosexual roommates, but in 1948 their relationship could not be made obvious.

3. This was Hitchcock's first film in color, and he had to reshoot many scenes because the hues were too bright.

4. The action was filmed continuously on ten…

I'll get this right put of the way, the movie is more clever than it is entertaining. How it's shot in long takes to make it more like a stage play and the focus on the actors to drive the scenes really gives a stage feel to this adaption of a play. And while this is a critique of Hitchcock himself, I think it works fantastically and lifts what could have easily have been a flat, uninspiring portrayal as there isn't much to the script.

However, one of the things that does take me out of the movie is how they link up the 10 long shots. Even at the time, I think they could have been done a lot…

Though seemingly smaller in scale when in comparison to his other works, Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 thriller Rope shows the director stripping his film down to the bare essentials of a story, something of which the director would see himself returning to a couple years later with his 1954 classic Rear Window , and while that film, in it of itself, remains what I believe to be an improved version of what Hitchcock created here, it nevertheless serves to be another Hitchcock classic, and in a way making it a case for how cinematic tension SHOULD be done, via his own "ticking time bomb" method.

Effectively making use of long takes and creative cutting techniques in order to create a sense…