Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope,” released in 1948, was his first film shot in color. Starring James Stewart, John Dall and Farley Granger, the suspense film follows two young men who murder a former university classmate and hide his body in a chest in their apartment. They then host a party there, inviting friends, relatives and their former professor, none of whom knows what has happened.
The film is also known for Hitchcock’s technical experiment: he wanted it to look as though it had been made in a single continuous shot. Because each 35mm film reel could record only about ten minutes, the movie was actually made in a series of uninterrupted takes, with edits concealed from viewers.
Hitchcock described the approach as a “trick.” To mask reel changes, the camera would move into a close-up of a character’s jacket at the end of a take, then begin the next take on the same close-up. The technique helped create the impression that the action had never stopped.
The story unfolds in real time, from seven to eight-thirty in the evening, and remains in a single apartment. Actors and crew rehearsed for fifteen days to master the movements. The set was also adapted to let the camera travel freely: walls and furniture were moved out of its path and returned to position once it had passed.
Although “Rope” is less prominent in public memory than films such as “Psycho,” “Vertigo,” “Rear Window” and “The Birds,” its approach to filming remains one of the most distinctive experiments in Hitchcock’s work.
Sources: elDiario.es.