Rope- Thriller Film Reseach

                                                                                                         Rope

Director

Alfred Hitchcock

Date of Release
28th August 1948 (USA)
Production companies
Translantic Pictures
Warner Bros, Pictures
Filming Locations
Warner Brothers Burbank Studios
- 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA


User comments and ratings
From looking at the user rating report on IMDB the information reflects that this film was most highly enjoyed by females aged under 18 and aged under 18.  I found it is surprising that under 18's most highly enjoyed this film because of the early date it was released.


IMDB user comment/review
"Rope is one of the finer films that Hitchcock made. Philosophy, sociology and psychology are contained in equal parts. The plot is simple, the characters are complex and Hitchcock's treatment of the Leopold and Loeb parallel quite deft. The final soliloquy from Jimmy Stewart's character, Rupert, is not only one of the finest examples of Stewart's acting abilities but also of film-making."
Greg Strange, from Fort Worth, Texas


I agree with Greg's comments about Hitchcock's simple plot which completely compliments the complicity of the main characters. Hitchcock  addresses the Leopold and Loeb case though this good plot and superbly exihibited characters. The film is simple and clever, Hitchcock has made such exellent without complication. He addresses philosophyical, sociologyical and psychological strenghts and weaknesses of his characters very cleverly.


External comment/review
Hitchcock could have chosen a more entertaining subject with which to use the arresting camera and staging technique displayed in Rope. Theme is of a thrill murder, done for no reason but to satisfy a sadistical urge and intellectual vanity. Plot has its real-life counterpart in the infamous Loeb-Leopold case, and is based on the play by Patrick Hamilton
By Varity staff


I disagree with Patrick's comment that Hitchcock could have picked a more intresting subject. Hitchcock pressents a extremly intresting story though a simple plot with exceptional acted and intresting characters.





How does Alfred Hitchcock utilise the generic conventions of the thiller  in the film 'Rope'?

In the top of a New York apartment Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan, two well heeled college students have just strangled one of their college acquaintances, David Kentley with a rope. They dispose of the body in a large chest and plan to later get rid of the body that evening. The opening of the film shows images of a bustling street, this is shown using a high angle camera - a bird’s eye view. The camera then follows up through an apartment window; (panning from the high angle shit of the street below the camera is placed on the balcony window) this is a point of view shot and makes the audience feel as if they are coming into the scene. This then cuts straight  Brandon strangling David soon after some surface the pause before going though the window is almost used to steady/prepare the audience for the scene is to follow inside, this creates drama and tention the audience are left to ponder over what is comeing. The rope is a signifier of crime, murder and brutality. The gloves also signify crime, they hind the identity (finger prints) of the criminal, murderer. The close up shots shows the strength of the Brendon and his power over David with his hands taken up a large proportion of the mise-en-scene. The effect of the close up of David's facial expression makes the murder seem very real to audience putting it in right up in their face they are held up in witnessing this cold hearted murder. The curtains in the background connoting that what is happening inside does not need to be seen by anyone else. They are up to no good. The room is not shabby but comfortably arranged these boys come from a good background.

The body is put in a chest which is placed in the centre of the room. Brenden then later plans for his quest to dine on this later. The guests, unaware of what has happened, include the victim’s father Mr. Kentley and Aunt Mrs. Atwater (his mother is not able to attend). Also there is his fiancée, Janet Walker and her former lover Kenneth Lawrence, who was once David's close friend. "Now the fun begins", Brandon says when the first guests arrive. Brandon's and Phillip's idea for the murder was inspired years earlier by conversations with their erstwhile prep-school housemaster, publisher Rupert Cadell (Stewart). While at school, Rupert had discussed with them, in an apparently approving way, the intellectual concepts of Nietzsche's Übermensch and the art of murder, a means of showing one's superiority over others. He too is among the guests at the party, since Brandon in particular feels that he would very likely approve of their "work of art". This chest becomes a focus point throughout the whole film and is in a way a clostiphopic space, with David trapped dead inside and with him also Phillips worries and guilt, he is himself trapped emotional. With Brenden playing and toying with a nervous Phillip as he lays out the buffet upon the chest. The chest is almost constantly in the mise-en-scene. In this screen shot Phillip sits on the chest looking rather nervous. The windows are of the length of the room, the room is flooded with light. This connotes the exposure of Phillip and Brenden and that they are not as powerful as they think and will be found out.

The whole of the film is shot in the upper floor apartment the action is continuous without time lapses. The apartment is a claustrophobic space. The action in the film being shot continuously is a clever way in Hitchcock engages the audience the audience feels as if they are watching in real time. Brendan banters with his guests and acts as if everything is ordanary and not slighty at all like a man who has just commited murder, he believes that is part of the fun whereas Phillips mind cannnot ease as long as the chest is in view.









Rope opening


Opening with high angle shot over the city establishes the streets below and the area setting fairly calm and ordinary, the audience sit calmly as Hitchcock prepers us for the horror that follows. The camera pans round to a window and after a few seconds of suspense building then though the shut curtains, the curtains being shut conates. Then cutting straight to a close up shot (taken up the whole of the mise-en-scene) the strangerling of David inside, the constrast from the quiet streets before is intense and uncomfortable. The camera then pans out to a long shot revealing the chest. The chest becomes a focal point of the film, inside David and Phillips guilt and worry, both are trapped. The curtains are shut and the room is dark connating crime. Brenden is extremly calm compared to Phillip, and is suggested to be the stronger of the two, he is in control of himself and the situation whereas Phillip can hardly talk.