Monday 22 February 2010

Rope (1948)

Today I watched the film 'Rope', by Alfred Hitchcock, and it is amazing.



It begins with a murder in an apartment. The two killers Brandon Shaw, played by John Dall, and Phillip Morgan, played by Farly Granger, killed their former classmate David Kently and they hid his body in a big chest. The two of them then turn the chest into a table by placing a table cloth on it, candles and food to serve their guests. No one suspect a thing, they felt that the crime they committed was the perfect crime. Until they notice that David is missing and the two host/killers are acting very weird. Soon one of the guests, Rupert Cadel played by James Stewart, stated to suspect that the two hosts did something to David. Near the end of the film he found out that Brandon and John killed David, Brandon said they did it because he lacked the intelligence for living, but Rupert felt there was more to it that that.

I had my doubts when I heard this film was about two killers covering a murder and trying to keep it a secret from their guests and all of this was in one big shot with no editing. But hearing it and seeing it are two different things. When I watched this film it stated with the murder, but when I heard the victim screaming it didn't feel convincing. And at that moment I thought this film would not be too interesting, until when the guest for the party arrive and started to talk to each other. Getting to know the type of people the two killers hang out with. We also get to know the killers them selves, understanding them a bit more. For example Brandon stutters when excited and he always see people who are not smarter than him as inferior and which there was a law to kill them, I don't know if those was a joke or not but it's not funny. What impress me the most is how Rupert at first believe that same way as Brandon but once he actually see David's dead body he realise that what he was thinking is a horrible and sick world. Again I don't know if what he was saying was a joke but Davids dead body was a real eye opener. What I really like about this film a lot though is how Brandon just act normal but at the same time saying in his weird way that he killed someone and you don't know how or were I put the body. It also feels like Brandon is playing a game with Phillip, seeing who will keep quite about the incident the longest. And all this was one big shot with no editing, only the begging was edited but only once
It shows that you don't need to edit films too much as long you have a solid story and an idea of how the shots will be taken.

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