2 young men strangle a former classmate and hide his body in a chest in their apartment. Then they throw a dinner party for the victim's family and friends. The guests include the prep school housemaster whose Nietzschean philosophy inspired the murder. It's Hitchcock's experiment in making a film that plays out in real time.
Rope is a 1948 crime, drama and thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (1 cinematography, 2 narrative and 1 editing), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, North by Northwest uses several of the same techniques.
Shooting almost the whole film in 1 confined place. Set design and camera movement keep it visually interesting, and the space itself takes on meaning as the story goes on.
How this film uses it
Every scene in Rope takes place in the Manhattan penthouse apartment. The layout of the room (the chest, the bookcase, the dinner table, the windows) is all Hitchcock has to build the drama with. In a space this tight, danger and normal life have to share the same room. That is, the way the film is made shows you how calm and in control the murderers are.
Where to see it
The dinner party. The chest with the body in it sits directly behind the guests. The way the room is arranged, the main thing about it is how close everyone is to a hidden horror.
Showing the audience a danger the characters can't see, like a bomb under a table. An ordinary conversation becomes unbearable suspense, where an unannounced blast would only be a surprise.
How this film uses it
You know about the body from the film's first minute. Every scene after that (the dinner, the conversation, the books stacked on the chest) is loaded with something the guests don't know. When the audience knows more than the characters, it is called dramatic irony, and Hitchcock makes it total. You know everything and they know nothing. Since the film runs in real time, you have to sit with that knowledge and get no break from it.
Where to see it
The chest being used as a buffet table. Books and candles get stacked on David's coffin. The party casually uses the hiding place as furniture, and this is the dramatic irony at its most extreme.
Building the story around a clear deadline the hero must beat. The time pressure and the obstacles grow with each scene until the climax.
How this film uses it
The dinner party is the deadline. Every moment brings you closer to either discovery or the party ending safely. If Rupert leaves, the murderers have gotten away with it. His return is the film's climax. Because the film runs in real time, the clock is literal. The film runs out of safe time at the same rate you watch it.
Where to see it
Rupert's return to the apartment. The clock finally runs out. The murderers needed the night to end safely, and it just fails to happen.
Letting a conversation run for a long time with very few cuts. The tension builds from the actors sharing the space and from what is said, almost said and left unsaid.
How this film uses it
The film is made up almost entirely of dialogue scenes with no cuts. The conversations run for the length of an entire reel. Another film would cut between angles, and here the camera moves through the apartment. That forces the actors to keep up the tension through performance, with no help from the editing. The conversations are the film. There is nothing else.
Where to see it
The dinner table conversation. In this long scene, Rupert's philosophical probing comes close to the truth several times. The dialogue does all the work that editing can't.
Questions
Rope: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Rope use?
CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Rope (1948): Single-Location Cinematography, The Bomb Under the Table, Ticking Clock Structure and Unbroken Dialogue Scene.
Who directed Rope?
Alfred Hitchcock directed Rope, released in 1948. CineCode also covers The 39 Steps (1935), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Rebecca (1940), Suspicion (1941), Saboteur (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943).
What films are similar to Rope?
Films that share techniques with Rope include North by Northwest (1959), Marriage Story (2019), Die Hard (1988), Panic Room (2002).
