Rope, A review

http://vashivisuals.com/alfred-hitchcock-hiding-cuts-rope/

Rope is a film by Alfred Hitchcock that takes place after two men murder one of their friends, trying to commit the 'Perfect Murder'. They hide the body in a chest containing books. They also host a dinner party, in which they invite another friend, the murdered person's parents (although the mother doesn't attend and his aunt comes in her place), and the two's old housemaster, the one who inspired them to commit the murder in the first place. There are multiple points at which the chest could be opens, but they are always interrupted. The films ends with the house master holding the two at gun point, sitting in a chair next to the chest/body.

In this film Hitchcock is creating suspense, using what is called "The Bomb under the Table" Theory. He says "There is a distinct difference between "suspense" and "surprise," and yet many pictures continually confuse the two..We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let's suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, "Boom!" There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: "You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!"[1]. In this film, the bomb is the dead body and the film takes place in real time. The suspense comes from us not knowing when they will open the chest or if they even will. Personally, I thought they were going to open the chest a few times while watching, especially when we were given a shot of the maid clearing away the food and going to put the books back in the chest however she was stopped from doing so.  

This film was presented to us as being one continuous shot, clever cutting techniques used so that they could move to another roll of film while filming. In total the events that we see in the film happen over a period of 80 minutes and it feels like everything is kind of rushed. Firstly, they hardly eat anything, they maybe have a few bites before they put down their plates and head off to another room. Also the guests don't spend much time at the house, in my estimates the first 20 or so minutes are of the murder and setting up the dinner party, and the last 10 or so are of the housemaster going back to get them to admit to the murder, so they were over for about 50 minutes or so which doesn't seem like too much time for a party.

Overall, this film is a great study on how to do suspense properly.

 
[1] GoodReads, "Alfred Hitchcock > Quotes > Quotable Quote", accessed via https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/728496-there-is-a-distinct-difference-between-suspense-and-surprise-and (23/01/18)