“Rope” 1948
Director:
Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: adapted by Hume Cronyn from Patrick Hamilton Play. Dialogue Arthur Laurents.
Stars:
James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger
Rope is a film based on a true story, this story is that two men under go the role of god and they decided who lives and who dies as they go kill a man just to see how it feels. Alfred Hitchcock took this story and made it his own. The two men that kill in the film kill there own friend, then as a cover story they pretend to invite him to their own party as well as inviting his parents and other friends and ex lover. From this they act oblivious to his where about's, this is until one of there friends finds the hat of the man of has been killed, he then leaves and comes back pretending to forget his cigarette case. He then starts questioning the two men about him, one of the men crack under pressure and he finds the body.
When analysing this film, there is no thriller conventions, for example there is no fast pacing action, there is no resourceful hero and the bad guys are not villains who are powerful and better equipped they're just two normal people who killed a man with no motive other than to see what it feels like. However there is suspense builders, ones where we don't know if someone is going to open the chest where lay the dead body. Hitchcock built the suspense by getting different characters to go near the chest and question why the food is being served on the chest instead of the dining table, by doing this it makes the audience hang in suspense to see if anyone realises that there is a body in there. As well as this there is dramatic irony in the way that we know the where about's of the missing man and we also know that this person is dead in the chest. I believe myself that the film wouldn't be as affective if we didn't know about the body.
When filming this Alfred Hitchcock wanted it to be a continuous film and it to be a one shot take, however due to how only film reels were only 10 minutes long he couldn't do this. So instead he tried to edited it in the way that it seems like a one shot take. he did the cuts by zooming in on one of the actors backs. By doing this he gave the film the affect of real time and continuos shot, in my opinion i believe that this didn't make the film sloppy or bad, and that it was a good attempted at making a continuous
James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger
Rope is a film based on a true story, this story is that two men under go the role of god and they decided who lives and who dies as they go kill a man just to see how it feels. Alfred Hitchcock took this story and made it his own. The two men that kill in the film kill there own friend, then as a cover story they pretend to invite him to their own party as well as inviting his parents and other friends and ex lover. From this they act oblivious to his where about's, this is until one of there friends finds the hat of the man of has been killed, he then leaves and comes back pretending to forget his cigarette case. He then starts questioning the two men about him, one of the men crack under pressure and he finds the body.
When analysing this film, there is no thriller conventions, for example there is no fast pacing action, there is no resourceful hero and the bad guys are not villains who are powerful and better equipped they're just two normal people who killed a man with no motive other than to see what it feels like. However there is suspense builders, ones where we don't know if someone is going to open the chest where lay the dead body. Hitchcock built the suspense by getting different characters to go near the chest and question why the food is being served on the chest instead of the dining table, by doing this it makes the audience hang in suspense to see if anyone realises that there is a body in there. As well as this there is dramatic irony in the way that we know the where about's of the missing man and we also know that this person is dead in the chest. I believe myself that the film wouldn't be as affective if we didn't know about the body.
When filming this Alfred Hitchcock wanted it to be a continuous film and it to be a one shot take, however due to how only film reels were only 10 minutes long he couldn't do this. So instead he tried to edited it in the way that it seems like a one shot take. he did the cuts by zooming in on one of the actors backs. By doing this he gave the film the affect of real time and continuos shot, in my opinion i believe that this didn't make the film sloppy or bad, and that it was a good attempted at making a continuous
A good start to this Blog. Please try to finish asap.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased you have started this work. Much more detailed analysis is needed. Watch key scenes a few times. Analyse exactly what the Director has done. Think about Camera, Editing, Sound and Mise en Scene.
Mr Williamson
Mr Williamson