3.46 - ROPE and Intensity

The next in our Hitchcock mini-series is his 1948 masterpiece (can you guess whether or not our reviews were positive?) ROPE. We talk about the importance of the script, the marrying of form and function, and what happens when reality meets philosophical thought experiments.

Next Week Our Hitchcock season reaches its zenith with the 1958 classic VERTIGO, available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxpEj8i2y7Y.

This Week’s Media THE GRIP OF FILM (2017): Richard Ayoade RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION (2012): Paul S.W. Anderson, Milla Jovavich, Michelle Rodriguez

Recommendations THE SECRET HISTORY (1992): Donna Tartt ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944): Frank Capra, Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane HARVEY (1950): Henry Koster, James Stewart, Wallace Ford IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946): Frank Capra, James Stewart, Donna Reed STRANGE DAYS (1995): Kathryn Bigelow, Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett

Footnotes For details on the length of a shot, as outlined by Rob (1000m of film on a reel = approximately 11 minutes), see here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reel. Here are a couple of articles on the film as a ‘triumphant experiment in innovative recording techniques’: lwlies.com/articles/rope-alfred-hitchcock-masterpiece and www.nytimes.com/1984/06/03/movies/hitchcock-s-rope-a-stunt-to-behold.html. On function as a necessary part of form in cinema, this is an interesting piece: nomapneeded.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/5-principles-of-film-form — and this, msufilmandarchitecture.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/function-versus-form, although it talks about a film made nearly 20 years later, is also a good read. Finally, this is an introduction to some of the philosophical theories that get perverted by Brandon and Phillip in the film: https://study.com/academy/lesson/nietzsches-bermensch-concept-theory.html.