On Monday, May 21, 2012 at 12:12:12 PM UTC-7, calvin wrote:
> This was buried within another thread; reposted
> here with no changes:
>
> (SPOILER WARNING)
>
> I watched 'Rope' again today, and I don't understand
> why people seem to think that Hitchcock's 'gimmick'
> detracts from the movie. I always start by paying
> special attention to the the continuous 8 to 10 minute
> takes, but then get so caught up in the play that the
> gimmick is often forgotten, until it calls attention
> to itself again, as when the camera passes behind
> someone's back, which fills the frame for an instant,
> allowing an end to the take, and the beginning of the
> next one.
>
> In some cases, especially the one that I mentioned in
> the first post, a long take is extremely effective.
> While we listen to a conversation off screen, we
> watch the housekeeper working continuously, clearing
> off the chest, going back and forth, then bringing books
> from the dining room that she intends to put back into
> the chest. The people having the conversation aren't
> paying any attention to her, as she relentlessly
> approaches the critical moment. In high Hitchcock style,
> we are amused and willingly manipulated into hoping that
> the body is not discovered, at least not yet.
>
> The movie is quite effective in showing James Stewart's
> gradually growing suspicions that something is seriously
> wrong with this party. The two gay (not stated, but
> clearly presented) young men are very well played by a
> reptilian John Dall and emotional, paranoid Farley Granger.
>
> What's wrong with this movie is not the gimmick, but the
> hypocrisy of the James Stewart character in the end. He
> was not involved in the murder, but he had been very much
> intellectually complicit in the Nietzschian rationalizations
> that led to it. Earlier in the play he had expressed these
> views to a horrified Cedric Hardwicke. His words in the
> end express proper shame, but his manner is that of an all-
> American crime fighter doing justice for all.
>
> In spite of this flaw, though, 'Rope' is one of the better
> Hitchcock movies, and his difficult-to-film 'real time'
> takes add up to a fascinating and successful experiment,
> in my opinion.

(2023 Youtube upload):

"7 Reasons Why Rope (1948) is a Perfect Movie"