Thelma and Louise - Thriller research

Thelma and Louise

Director
Ridley Scott
Release date
12th July 1991 (UK)
Production companies
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Pathé Entertainment
Percy Main
Star Partners III Ltd. (in association with)
Filming locations
Bakersfield, California, USA

Bedrock, Colorado, USA
Canyonlands National Park, Moab, Utah, USA
Cisco, Utah, USA
Colorado, USA
Courthouse Towers, Arches National Park, Moab, Utah, USA
(scene where Thelma & Louise lock police officer in his patrol car trunk)
Dead Horse Point State Park - State Highway 313, Moab, Utah, USA
Gorman, California, USA
La Sal Mountains, La Sal, Utah, USA
(opening vista)
Moab, Utah, USA
Shafter, California, USA
Silver Bullet Saloon, Long Beach, California, USA
Taft, California, USA
Tarzana, Los Angeles, California, USA
Thompson Springs, Utah, USA
Vagabond Inn - 3101 S. Figueroa Street, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA
(Oklahoma City motel scenes)
Valley of the Gods, Mexican Hat, Utah, USA
West Valley City, Utah, USA

User comments/reviews and ratings

From looking at the user rating report on IMDB the information reflects that this film was most highly enjoyed by female aged 30-44, fameale aged 18-29, and males under 18 who all had the same average (7.8)

IMDB user comment/review
"loved this movie from the first time I saw it, but it wasn't until I sat through it the third time that I figured out why. It is clever, exciting, and funny and is shot in the middle of the breathtaking scenery of the American Southwest. However, the thing that makes it special is its illustration of pure friendship. It may be difficult for some men to cross the gender boundary and connect with Thelma and Louise, yet doing so is critical to appreciating the film. If you can make the connection then you can get its message -- we all need a friendship like the one Thelma and Louise had. This movie will strike a deep emotional chord.....if you aren't afraid to let it. And if you happen to be too emotionally closed off to appreciate what I think the movie says about friendship I think that you will still enjoy the characters, acting, action, and humor. It is a ten out of ten."
Steve from San Antonio, Texas

External comment/review
'The film switches moods violently, and sometimes it just jerks your chain. But this is movie dynamite, detonated by award-caliber performances from Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon in the title roles.'
Peter Travers for Rolling Stone

Thelma and Louise and the main characters in the thriller 'Thelma and Louise'. They are an example of the 'modern' femme fatale, the strong women. Dressed in denim and wearing aviators they are almost the opposite of the classic femme fatale. They are dressed to look strong and confident, masculine andnot for the visual pleasure of men. Ridley Scott challenges the pre-conceptions and conventions of the thriller genre with Thelma and Louise, the main characters, two women in control, powerful and dangerous. This is taken from the scene where they look a policeman in the boot of his own car, Ridley Scott mocks the conception that men have power over women and noticably policeman. The girls take his gun and sun glasses and ride off, very much a 'girl power' moment. They are two women who took the law in there own hands and because of it are now on the run and proving to be clever strong and deviant.

After discovering Louise being assaulted by Hal, a man Louise had got friendly with in a bar, she warns him to back off, and pulls a gun to his neck. Thelma is in control of the situation, she is the one with the power- the gun. Thelma takes up around two thirds of the mise-en-scene, also indicating strength as she takes up more space in the mise-en-scene, pushing Hal out. Thelma is dressed in unflattering, gender neutral clothes, she is covered and not exposed - this makes her look strong and not vulnerable to the exploitation of a drunker man with only one thing on his mind. The lighting is dark and it is raining outside, a generic signifier of the thriller genre. The gun is a generic signifier also, connoting crime and murder.

The damp, dark urban location is a generic signifier of the thriller genre. As Thelma and Louis speed away from the scene of the murder Louise takes control and drives the car. Louise having taken the control of the situation into her own hands and murdering Hal she now has to avoid deal with the consequences, she and Thelma's fate lie in her hands. The dark, damp mise en scene represents the dark and dangerous situation Thelma and Louise are now in, they are on the run, not knowing what will happen next. The darkness could represent the characters uncertainties, anxiety and desperation.

Thelma & Louise tiny car against the huge transport trucks is a metaphor, the trucks representing male dominance. Misogyny means hated or fear of women, this is implied by the directors as he cleverly uses the trucks to symbolise male dominance as they close in on the females, represented by their small car. This could represent the director’s perception of the conforming representation of women in the thriller genre. It could also represent the attitudes towards woman during America at that time and how they are represented, how they do not have the same rights and responsibilities as men.

Primary characteristics and conventions of film noir: Themes and styles

Primary Characteristics and Conventions of Film Noir: Themes and Styles



The primary moods of classic film noir were melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt, desperation and paranoia.

Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains included down-and-out, conflicted hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, cops, gangsters, government agents, a lone wolf, socio-paths or killers, crooks, war veterans, politicians, petty criminals, murderers, or just plain Joes. These protagonists were often morally-ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive - and in the end, ultimately losing.

Storylines were often elliptical, non-linear and twisting. Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, flashbacks (or a series of flashbacks), witty, razor-sharp and acerbic dialogue, and/or reflective and confessional, first-person voice-over narration. Amnesia suffered by the protagonist was a common plot device, as was the downfall of an innocent Everyman who fell victim to temptation or was framed. Revelations regarding the hero were made to explain/justify the hero's own cynical perspective on life.

Film noir films (mostly shot in gloomy grays, blacks and whites) thematically showed the dark and inhumane side of human nature with cynicism and doomed love, and they emphasized the brutal, unhealthy, seamy, shadowy, dark and sadistic sides of the human experience. An oppressive atmosphere of menace, pessimism, anxiety, suspicion that anything can go wrong, dingy realism, futility, fatalism, defeat and entrapment were stylized characteristics of film noir. The protagonists in film noir were normally driven by their past or by human weakness to repeat former mistakes.

Film noir films were marked visually by expressionistic lighting, deep-focus or depth of field camera work, disorienting visual schemes, jarring editing or juxtaposition of elements, ominous shadows, skewed camera angles (usually vertical or diagonal rather than horizontal), circling cigarette smoke, existential sensibilities, and unbalanced or moody compositions. Settings were often interiors with low-key (or single-source) lighting, venetian-blinded windows and rooms, and dark, claustrophobic, gloomy appearances. Exteriors were often urban night scenes with deep shadows, wet asphalt, dark alleyways, rain-slicked or mean streets, flashing neon lights, and low key lighting. Story locations were often in murky and dark streets, dimly-lit and low-rent apartments and hotel rooms of big cities, or abandoned warehouses. [Often-times, war-time scarcities were the reason for the reduced budgets and shadowy, stark sets of B-pictures and film noirs.]

Some of the most prominent directors of film noir included Orson Welles, John Huston, Billy Wilder, Edgar Ulmer, Douglas Sirk, Robert
 
 

Research into Bristish gangster Films

The working class, gritty British gangster film, where such scarcely figure in British cinema until the 1940's. Before this there was a feeling that 'gangsters' were something essentially American and British cinema stuck to the gritty crooks. For some decades, British crime movies tended to feature solo criminals, crooks and often murderers, as in Hitchcock's The Lodger (1926) and Young and Innocent (1937). In the 20's and 30's Detective stories were popular, the famous Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie-style detection stories notably. The less tightened censorship restrictions began the emerging of British gangster films onto the cinema screens. By 1951 the concept of a British gangster movie had become familiar enough for the production of a spoof, 'The Lavender Hill Mob', by Alec Guinness led four years later by another film another by him, 'The Ladykillers' (1955) and gangster comedies such as Two Way stretch (1960) more recent light hearted titles include Rock nRolla(2008).
A popular subject of gangster films are Heist films notoriously having plot twists, and focusing on the characters' attempts to formulate a plan, carry it out, and escape with their attended loot. Two famous examples being 'The Italian Job' with its famous and literal cliff hanger ending and more recently 'Sexy Beast' (2000) with a soon release due of a new film made by the same director: '44inch Chest'.. British gangster films have significantly over the past years having to develope with a changing and diverse society from the early noir gangster thrillers to modern thriller more frequently surrounding the Recent publicity of urban youth crime and violence the 'yob generation'. This has been reflected in a number of films, notably Kidulthood (2006) and its sequel, Adulthood (2008).

Generic Signifiers of British gangster films

British Gangster films settings typically tend to be dark, gloomy, urban streets. On working class derelict estates, neglected apartments/flats warehouses and other locations where criminal activity can take place unseen. The characters usually involve male leads, criminals with little morals and remorse, who are selfish and are out to make money and a living for themselves, though the liberty of something else not caring who they hurt in their way.

 A report by Jane Burnside @ Virgin Media/movies says that the top ten British Gangster films are the following: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Brighton Rock, Get Carter, Villain, The Long Good Friday, The Lavender Hill Mob, The Krays, Face, Reservoir Dogs and Sexy Beast. Looking through various over top tens and research into British gangster films these titles come up again and again as greats of there genre.

Alfred Hitchcock: The Master Of Suspense Thrillers

No list of suspense or thriller films can be complete without mention of English film-maker/director Alfred Hitchcock. He helped to shape the modern-day thriller genre, beginning with his early silent film The Lodger (1926), a suspenseful Jack-the-Ripper story, followed by his next thriller Blackmail (1929), his first sound film (but also released in a silent version). Hitchcock would make a signature cameo appearance in his feature films, beginning with his third film The Lodger (1926), although his record was spotty at first. After 1940, he appeared in every one (in Rope he gets of a bus in the opening) except for The Wrong Man (1956). Alfred Hitchcock is considered the acknowledged auteur master of the thriller or suspense genre, manipulating his audience's fears and desires, and taking viewers into a state of association with the representation of reality facing the character - In Rope Phillips constant guilt and remorse over strangling an innocent friend to death, David. Hitchcock's films often placed an innocent victim (an average, responsible person) into a strange, life-threatening or terrorizing situation, in a case of mistaken identity, misidentification or wrongful accusation (i.e., in Rope, the brutal murder of an innocent victim - David).

The famed director often capitalized on a 'red herring' or gimmicky plot element to catch the viewer's attention - dubbed a McGuffin (or MacGuffin), that would propel the plot along its course.

Hitchcock usually cast leading actors against type (Gregory Peck, James Stewart, Cary Grant) opposite cool blondes (Madeleine Carroll, Joan Fontaine, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Kim Novak, Janet Leigh, Tippi Hedren, Lila Crane - Psycho) who were often subject to misogynistic abuse, threatening humiliation, or murder - femme fatale. Hitchcock would then explore the darker sides of human nature through the situation, including sexuality and voyeurism, guilt and punishment, or paranoia and obsession, an example of this in Rope Brenden becomes obsessed by the intellectual concepts of Nietzsche's Übermensch and the art of murder, a means of showing one's superiority over others, a dark obbession which leads to a brutal murder of one of his college friends. Hitchcock  usually let the viewer know that some horrible event would happen - creating unbearable suspense while viewers waited for the inevitable - the opening of Rope is a hight angle shot over a bustling street below, calm and ordinary, the camera then pans round to a upper apartment window with the curtains shut, the camera sits still for a couple of minutes - creating suspense and preparing the audience for the horrible event behind the curtains.

An example of HItchcocks' cool blondes- Lila Crane from Psycho, Lila runs away with a vast amount of money she has taken from her boss and ends up being brutally mudered at a motel she stays at by a dark twisted man.

Once Upon a Time in America- Thriller reseach

Once Upon a Time in America

Director

Sergio Leone
Date of release

1984

Production companies

Embassy international pictures

PSO international

Warner Bro's, pictures

Filming Locations
Chambers Paper Fibres, Plymouth Street, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy
(studio)


Auidence


User ratings
 From using the figures on IMDB this film is show to be most popular amongst males under 18 and males aged 18-29. This is a demographic of the typical auidence for this film, males between the age of 18 and 29.


User comments


IMDB user:
'A sprawling, deliberately paced, and generally a superbly crafted piece of work'


'It's been said that when one watches a "spaghetti" western (one of the "Man with no name" films with Clint Eastwood) filmmaker Sergio Leone's trademark cinema style and flair for clear storytelling is instantly recognizable. This is no truer than in his most ambitious effort, Once Upon a Time in America, in which his usage of close-ups, concise camera movement, sound transitions and syncs, and the sudden change in some scenes from tenderness to violence.'
Author:
JackGattanella from United States, 19th October 2003.


External review (to IMDB)

'Once Upon a Time in America is an outstanding film on several levels. Its length and its impeccable attention to period detail give it the feel of an epic. But at its heart, it is the story of one man's journey through life, and the price he's paid for the choices he made along the way.'

Author:

Dana Knowles, June 1999.

How does Sergio Leone ultilise the generic conventions of a thriller film in 'Once Apon a Time in America?

Extreme close up, utilised to involve the audience in te action. This is the establishing shot of Eve at the beginning of the film. Her face is illuminated by the glamourous tiffiny lamp, and the audience see her face propably for the first time in portrate. Eve is presented as the 'classic' (thriller) femme fatale; pale skin, red lips, perfectly mangered tightly curled hair and a glamourous hat suitably perched on top. The lamp indicates her glamour and asthetic values, she cares and take pleasure in her appearence.  The shots are simple, and dramatised with the use of chiaroscuro lighting and compostion.

Sergio utilses the theme of murder and crime with this high angle shot of the bed with bullets holes in the shape of a person similar to that of a 'murder etch' it and thus introduces the theme of fear and murder. The high angle shot is used to make Eve look weak, powerless and out of her depth. The bullet holes in the bed are a warning to Eve, a threat. This theart indicates to the audience that Eve is in trouble, and most posibly get murdered. The utilisation of chiaroscuro lighting is used to reinforce the sense of nightmare and suspense.

Eve fits the generic thriller archetype of a femme fatale. Her dress is generic of a  femme fatale, dark red lips, tight skirt, long glamourous coat. Her dress exposers her to the violence of males, she is dressed in a way that  is provoctative and alluring, which is at her weakness. She has high asthetic values and takes care in her appearence. Eve is ultimatly murdered for her reluctence to reveal the where abouts of her lover Noodles, who is a gang member. Eve's relationship with Noodles ingages her into this crime world, in which she does not belong.

Research into Femme Fatale with reference to Femme Fatales from thriller film.

Femme fatale

  Dictionary definition     :
A femme fatale is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations.

In the gangster thriller film 'Once Upon A Time in America' this is the first establishing shot on the femme Eve. Her face is illuminated by the glamorous and expensive Tiffney style lamp. Eve is a 'classic' femme fatale, dark eyes, red lips, and pale skin - 'classic' make up, tight skirt. Tightly curled perfectly presented curled hair and a glamorous hat. She is wearing pearls also a generic signifier of the femme fatale and thought to be unlucky, and could represent her unlucky fate. Her glamour, red lips, tight skirt and blonde hair are elements of objectification. She is also passive, a stereotyped dumb blonde who defines herself through men, she is marginal to the action and a victim. Her deviance is that she is a loose woman and thus pays for her sins.

Thelma and Louise and the main characters in the thriller 'Thelma and Louise'. They are an example of the 'modern' femme fatale, the strong women. Dressed in denim and wearing aviators they are almost the opposite of the classic femme fatale. They are dressed to look strong and confident, masculine andnot for the visual pleasure of men. Ridley Scott challenges the pre-conceptions and conventions of the thriller genre with Thelma and Louise, the main characters, two women in control, powerful and dangerous. This is taken from the scene where they look a policeman in the boot of his own car, Ridley Scott mocks the conception that men have power over women and noticably policeman. The girls take his gun and sun glasses and ride off, very much a 'girl power' moment. They are two women who took the law in there own hands and because of it are now on the run and proving to be clever strong and deviant.

Another modern femme fatale, Jackie Brown, from the film 'Jackie Brown' directed by Quentin Tarantino. As did Ridely Scott in 'Thelma and Louise' Tarantino challenges and smashes the conventions and pre-conceptions of the thriller genre can be seen in 'Jackie Brown' by having his main character as a middle aged, black female. Tarantino twists the audience pre-conceptions of the genre, he plays with stereotypes of gender, ethnicity, sex and age, and with this very controversial ( the thriller genre) leading character pushing the audiences out of their preconceptions and creates a strong, interesting, deviant lead and femme fatale. Jackie Brown is a flight attendant who gets caught smuggling her boss's gun money on the airline she works for. Tarantino turns the audiences preconceptions on there heads with the leads smuggling of her male boss's gun money. Jackie Brown is strong, deviant confident and powerful she knows how to get what she wants and it clever in how she does it, she is in control and makes fools of the male that try and stop her. This movie poster reflects Tarantino's want to challenge the thriller genre and its audiences. Jackie is holding a gun this shows that she is in power and control, she has a large bag filled with money this shows that she is deviant, her tight short skirt and alluring dress objectifies her but also makes her look confident.

Opening to Jackie Brown



The first 1.50
Jackie is on a convabelt and constantly in the right third of the screen, a use of the rule of thirds, a persons eye is said to be drawn to the right, so she is placed on the right to be in constant attention of the audience.
Low angle tracking shot
The use of a low angle shot makes Jackie look powerful and in control, she works confidently with her head held high. The use of tracking means the audiences attention is constantly on Jackie and places the audience in the mise-en-scene, as if they are right beside her.
2.15-2.23
Mid low angle tracking shot
Mid angle shot, she low angle, makes the audience fell as if they are underneath her.
2.23-2.33
Close up, tracking shot


The opening sequence of 'Jackie Brown' is the establishment of Jackie (as a main character), the purpose bring to show the audience what she is like. Without dialogue the audience establish from the clever and powerful use of camera angles, costume and soundtrack Jackie is; confident, strong, powerful, safisticated, dominating, sucessful. The soundtrack played for the durrarion of the opening is upbeat, safisticated and confident, and reflects Jackie.

Essex Boys- Thriller film research

Essex Boys


Director
Terry Winsor
Release Date
14th July 2000 (UK)
Product Companies
Granada Film Productions
Filming Locations
Southend-on-sea, Essex, England, UK
Essex, England, UK
Gray Thurrock, Essex, England, UK


User comments/reviews and ratings


From looking at the user rating report on IMDB the information reflects that this film was most highly enjoyed by females aged 18-29 followed by 18-29 year olds.
IMDB user comment/review

"A good film on several levels. The unflattering comparisons that some critics have made between it and The Usual Suspects are completely misguided as directorial intent and effect in the two pictures are dissimilar. Winsor's film, it seems to me, brilliantly evokes both the drabness and cruelty of the criminal mindset."


External user review

"A gritty and atmospheric gangland drama, with some smart twists, "Essex Boys" purrs along nicely for the first 75 minutes and then suffers a dramatic loss of balance from which it only belatedly recovers."


How does Terry Winsor the generic conventions of the thriller genre in ' Essex boys'?

The setting is damp, gloomy, dark and full of cobwebs. Chiaroscuro lighting injects the mise-en-scene with a sense of illusion, mysterory and crime. Whilst the enclosed space of the garage suggests claustrophobia and vulnerability, intimidation. The cobwebs create a sense of fear, they add to the feeling of mysterory and the presentation of an uncomfortable space. This shot is an excellent example of the use of the rule of thirds; the car takes up roughly two thirds and the boy the remaining third. The car is dusty and filthy and audience assume that the fact it has been in storage for a long time and the fact that it is now only being used that it may be for some kind of criminal activity.

The setting is damp, gloomy, urban and unglamorous; this is heightened by the strong artificial lighting which could connote the characters exposure, vulnerability as they enter the criminal world. These are all generic settings for a thriller film. The shot of the tunnel is clever and powering, the tunnel is shot to look like as if it is a barrel; this references to crime, they are travelling down the barrel of a gun. They are in a white van (another thriller convention) and are trapped, in their fate, and their decision to cross into danger and the criminal world. The audience feels as if they are trapped also, in the tunnel, car with Jason. The tunnel is a claustrophobic space, yet another thriller convention. The vanishing point of the shot leads the audience’s eye, furthermore the point of view shot engages the audience, and the audience feels as if they are in tunnel and car.

The artifical light of the tunnel relects on the windscreen of the car, looking like bars, making Jason and Billy appear behind them, thus indicating there fate - they will end up in jail. The foreground is in focus and the background not, Billy being in the foreground the audiences attention is drawn to him. Jason can be seen with his hands behind his back, relaxed and cool. THe bars also suggest entrapment, Billy is now trapped in his dissision to get involved with Jason, crossing over to crime. The car is a clostrophobic space, Billy is trapped in the car with the powerful, crime guru that is Jason. Billy is in danger of becoming like Jason, and ending up behind bars.

The dull grey open empty Essex marshes, eerie and dangerous and the perfect place for crime. With nothing around for miles and the tide flooding in soon Jason leaves the double crosser for dead. The white van - a generic thriller convention can be seen small yet threatening against this solemn landscape, Jason is at home in the van and the marshes they are his world and reflect his life. The empty marshes suggest a lack of morality and remorse in Jason, like them he is too empty. The marshes featurelessness suggests the society Jason moves in, his world of crime, ruthless people and crime commited without due care or remorse.

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.

Mise-en-scene
Meaning everyting in the scene, refers to all visual aspects of the scene. The process of setting a stage, with regard to placement of actors, scenery, properties and using them to direct the scene.

Connatation
An idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing for example: the thriller film genre holds connations of suspense and murder.

Denotation
Somethings literal meaning without association to something else for example a tree is a tree.