Week 3 Post: Rope

I'd like to begin by saying that I enjoyed watching this film, Rope by Alfred Hitchcock, a lot more than the previous Hitchcock movies because it was in color. The color of the movie allowed for a greater sense of contrast and gave a greater depiction of the characters physically as well as emotionally in my opinion. The color also added more depth to the scenes due to the vibrant use of light colors and the damp and a bit more mysterious scenes with more dark colors. I really enjoyed Hitchcock’s use of character personalities throughout the film especially the character Brandon who seems to be a stand-up gentleman but has a bit of a darker side to him as you can see from the beginning of the film.

At timestamp (3:01), the use of the medium close shot really depicted the emotion of the characters in the scene. Brandon is breathing heavily over the box where the stored their murdered classmate David. He looks a bit distraught and confused and the medium long shot displayed him upper body and confused facial expressions. Phillip was standing to the left of him in the shot and almost looked as he was trembling from fear from what he had done. After strangling their classmate Phillip seemed a bit more torn by the event and had very few words to say. At timestamp (3:55) the use of contrast is used and the characters are changed from a dark room to a much lighted room after opening the curtains. The use of contrast really changed the mood from scene to scene. The beginning of the movie they were committing a crime a stashing a murdered classmate, hence the dark lighting for the dark acts that took place in the beginning of the movie. The scene then turns lighted once they lightened up after the murder and begin to justify their actions using Nietzsche’s Art of Murder. They begin to celebrate and invited all of David’s family to the party.

At timestamp (27:18), the use of the long shot is used to show Phillip playing the piano after Mrs. Atwater uses his hands to try to tell his fortune. She then looks upon his piano playing in almost awe as he plays a tune. This really showed the fact that at this time there was no worries of David and that the guests were all enjoying the party. At timestamp (27:24), the using of the pan shot is used to show all the guests at the party from the long shot point of view. It allowed for the audience to see all the members of the party and their interactions and emotions at the time which were very relaxed and calm at the time. Sadly Phillip seems distraught throughout the scenes and really seems to be bothered by the actions of him and his classmate and cannot seem to be at ease.

At timestamp (51:27), the use of the Deep Focus is used to show Mrs. Wilson cleaning the house while the box plays in focus in the front of the shot. This made me extremely anxious because I did not know whether she would open the box at some point after she cleaned the table materials off the top of it. As she is pacing the home the use of deep focus really allows the audience to dive into the scene and really feel how Brandon is feeling at the time that the maid and Mr. Rupert might unveil the murdered classmate in the box.

Overall I believe this film was extremely exciting and the color added a great touch to the cinematography aspect of the film as well as the plot itself. I really enjoyed watching the character Brandon although he was caught in the end. He displayed wittiness and confidence during very hectic points or scenes throughout the film which really intrigued me about the character.