Rope
The theatre next to my workplace is having an Alfred Hitchcock film festival. Maybe "film festival" is slightly too strong a term, as they're only showing three of his movies over the course of the next week, but that's not a bad deal, especially since you can get a pass to all three for only $10. Apparently they had a Humphrey Bogart festival last month and it was quite successful. Next weekend they're showing Gone With The Wind, next month is a James Bond festival, and apparently they have Robert De Niro and Woody Allen festivals in the works.
So tonight I went down to see Rope, which conveniently started at 5:30. Its premise is that two young men kill a third young man, hide his body in a trunk in their apartment, and then throw a dinner party including the victim's parents, girlfriend, and former teacher (this last played by Hitchcock stalwart James Stewart).
The "gimmick" in this film is that it's almost one continuous shot; at the end of each reel of film the camera zooms in on something such as an actor's back, the scene blacks out for a second, and then returns in an almost-seamless (to the limits of the then-technology) continuation of the action. (This also implies that the film occurs in real time - 80 minutes of action.) There are, however, a couple of cuts in the cinematography.
I enjoy Hitchcock's films partly because the scripts and directing tend to be what I think of as "textbook" filmmaking. They use a lot of standard storytelling techniques and even play up the fact that they're employing these devices. Not that "textbook" storytelling is in and of itself good, but it actually does seem like a different style from most movies I've seen - certainly from most modern movies.
The sense of humor is also decidedly different from today's films - I actually find it more palatable to my own tastes. Hitchcock films always seem to include some delightful (and sometimes morbid) plays on words.
Anyway, Rope gets a thumbs-up from me; I'd never seen it before. Sunday or Monday I'll see Vertigo for the first time, and then next week is North by Northwest, which I've seen several times and which is excellent.
By the way, the inspiration for this idea came from an entry in Diane Patterson's journal. Credit where credit is due, y'know!
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