To celebrate Hitchcock's birthday I chose to watch Rope. This is a film I have not seen in over twenty years and felt it deserved a second look. It is a unique film and Hitchcock himself called it a "stunt film".
It is also the first time Hitchcock worked with James Stewart and is Hitchcock's first color film.
The film is a stunt because Hitchcock made the film without any edits. Every take is about 12 minutes long, the length of time it takes to expose a roll of film, and the camera never moves away from the characters. To change the film the camera would briefly pause on the back of a jacket or door and then the action would continue. It makes the film more like a stage play than a movie.
In doing this the audience becomes voyeurs to the action. Almost as if we are silent guest at the dinner party, yet we know the secret of what went on, because we were in the room when the murder was committed.
The film is rich in dialogue and Hitchcock's use of imagery to represent the themes of play, sex, food, ritual and murder. The rope in the film has a triple symbolism. It is used to bind up a pile of books, pointing to the boys past, their education and when they developed the idea of murder. It lives in the present, the weapon used to commit the murder and it indicates the future, for they will surely hang for the crime they have committed.
The stagy feel of the film will not be to every one's taste, especially to modern audiences, but the the film is unique even among Hitchcock's work and worth a look.
At The Movie House rating ***
No comments:
Post a Comment