Alfred Hitchcocks Rope review

Hitchcocks experiment of a play styled film, however using 8 minute tape at a time and treating transitions as a close up of somebodies back or a dark object to hide the jump to the next tape. The story of two men who murder a man, and keep him in a wooden chest within their apartment, planned ahead they have a party consisting of several unique characters testing the abilities of their perfect crime with the guests playing on words, just how close would they get before they realized something strange was going on.

Fig.1 A play of the eyes

In "Rope," Hitchcock is less concerned with the characters and their moral dilemmas than with how they look, sound and move, and with the overall spectacle of how a perfect crime goes wrong. (Vincent Canby, 1984) Rope is a film which shows the attention to detail and emotion within characters, also the technical skill to actually perform this unique style of film to a state of intensity within emotional reality to get the audience believing almost as a play. The aspect of the stylization of being a play affects the film in a huge way, for example the audience is viewing the film from an audience is camera view. In relation to how it affects the storyline is based amongst the characters position such as, within Fig.1 the actors are all in a play based scenario creating the semi-circle of view so they are facing the audience, and so they are not talking away from the view. Another clever aspect within the story is a play of eyes, and the emotional attachment the eyes portray such as within Fig.1 this is also showed clearly, the arrogance intellectual ambition of the character on the left compared to the anxiety within the character to the rights body language and eye focus. This leaves only distressed curiosity the lady in the middle, overall being a play of intelligent acting skills and the emotional control through body language and eyesight.

Fig.2 Suspense camera angle The camera angle that shows the suspense of the reality, about people who are hiding something. This shot gets the audience on their toes wanting to scream SOMEBODY TURN AROUND AND STOP HER! as the maid cleans the objects from the wooden chest the body is concealed within, encouraging the audience to side with the murderers, in the creation of the perfect murder. However unintentional the audience is compelled in feeling suspense and intensity within this one camera shot which stays as static throughout the maids several trips to the other room.The territory is a censors-enforced minefield,

with brutality and sexuality, the plot's main elements, having to be alluded to rather than declared.(Fernando F. Croce, 2006) which shows the emphasis of the effectiveness within the acting and camera placement, alongside the characters interesting personalities themselves which send the audience on a different direction from the plot and focusing on the action and tension.

Fig.3 Poster Art

The emphasis on the macabre in this small story is frightfully intense.(Bosley Crowther, 1948) This aspect of the story is what makes the, tension, suspense and the other feelings which come across throughout the film. The aspect of knowing a secret as only two characters know as well brings the audience into the film much like a play and incorporates emotional response to new characters the same way as the murderers.
Bibliography

Canby, Vincent (1984) Rope Film review http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/060384hitch-rope-reflection.html Croce, Fernando (2006) http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/rope/948 Crowther, Bosley (1948) http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=980DE3D81630E03BBC4F51DFBE668383659E DE
Illustration list Hitchcock, Alfred. (1948) Rope. Fig.1 A play of the eyes http://thisdistractedglobe.com/2007/10/18/rope-1948/ Hitchcock, Alfred. (1948) Rope. Fig.2 Suspense camera angle http://liberalironist.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/rope-the-poverty-of-superior-human-beings/ Hitchcock, Alfred. (1948) Rope. Fig.3 Poster Art http://hitchcock.tv/mov/rope/rope2.jpg Accessed 8/2/12