December 14, 2004
Rope
Is this too gruesome? It's pretty much the first thing you see in the movie.
I can't believe I never saw Rope until now! I've always enjoyed Hitchcock movies, and it's only a matter of time until I've seen pretty much all of them. Rope had, somehow, escaped me until I saw it on the tv listings at Ruth's house when we were at her Christmas party (great party, btw). I saw that it was playing later that night, so I came home and TiVo'd it, FINALLY.
In case you're not familiar, this movie is famous for being shot without traditional editing. The idea was to shoot a movie in continuous action, moving within an apartment, with no cuts. The only edits that exist are for the sake of switching reels. Otherwise, this movie runs incredibly smoothly without stopping. I found a website that has a diagram of the action here. Neat stuff.
I also really enjoyed the plot. Two young men kill a friend of theirs, whom they consider inferior to them. They store the body in a chest and then have a party, inviting the dead man's family and girlfriend, and serve the food from on top of the chest, in the middle of the room. As one of the killers gets nervous and some of the party guess something is awry, tensions mount and I freaking LOVED Jimmy Stewart's scene at the end.
I think something I really admired was the thinking behind the movie--not only in the meticulous filming. The actions of the young men bring about a lot of thought--about [excuse me, i just dumped a bottle of water all over my desk] morality, love, society, and words.
I'm very happy I finally got to see it!
Posted by wendytime at December 14, 2004 09:01 AM | TrackBackRope struck me as pretty stagey. Not just the one-room setting or the concept, I mean you could tell from the style of dialogue that it was originally a play. And the acting of the more confident of the two students was the most stagey of all.
Anyway, my favorite shots were when the camera would at something else while somebody was talking off screen, and especially the shot through the two-way kitchen door, when the guy pulls the drawer out and drops the rope in. But it's been a couple years since I saw it so maybe I should see it again, since I've seen more Hitchcocks since then.
Posted by: Jonathan on December 15, 2004 10:49 AM