drama is life
with the dull bits cut out on average
there are 5 000 cuts in your typical
feature film that means there is a cut
every second in a standard 90 minute
film but in hitchcock's rope outside of
the hidden cuts there are just five cuts
in the entire movie and each has one
specific purpose to ratchet the tension
so before you run to the comments and
tell me there are lots of hidden cuts i
know however these are confined to the
moments in which the camera would have
needed to change its magazine every 10
to 12 minutes or so however there are
just a few moments in the film where
alfred has actually chosen to break his
own rules the seamless feeling of being
entirely present at this dreadful party
with a terrible secret
there's a dead body in the room
[Music]
the first cut brings us into the flat
without needing to remove walls and
windows which would have been an
expensive foray in that era
unfortunately he didn't have access to
the shiny computer graphics that we have
now that would have allowed the camera
to pass through the wall or even a
keyhole
dramatically this cut also speaks
volumes to the audience it tells us
exactly what this movie will be centered
around
this murdered man and the two murderers
hiding his box in their living room it
shocks us as we've just seen a normal
street outside which could be in any
city with normal people walking around
doing
normal things but then we are assaulted
by this cut showing the dying breath of
a man and the unceremonious hiding of
his body alfred really knew how to
choose some wickedly dark scripts on to
the next cut this moment seems slightly
innocuous compared to the previous cut
but it serves the purpose of telling us
that this woman is so important to the
story that alfred will invest one of his
precious cuts in introducing her into
the scene be careful of my hair it took
hours for those of you who don't know
this woman is the aforementioned dead
man's fiancee and is quite obviously a
good human being who doesn't deserve to
lose the man she's very much in love
with compared to the other characters in
the film she is the only other person
outside of the murderers that is given a
cut in the film to introduce her this
helps us empathize with her as her story
unfolds one of the subjects for our
dinner table suddenly rebelled like
lazarus he rose that's a lie phillip
there's no word of truth in the whole
story this moment is what many might
call the midpoint twist the men start to
squabble as the pressure of their
actions seems to weigh far more heavily
on one of the two murderers we fear
therefore that the men might have just
let out too much from the bag as alfred
cuts over to one of the guests reacting
so throughout the movie the camera is
always panned and moved to each
character effortlessly
but this time the cut adds a huge
emphasis and immediacy to the
character's internal revelation forcing
us to ask does he know what did he see
does he suspect anything if it were just
a pan i don't feel we would have felt
anywhere near as tense there's something
upsetting both of you a great deal
something that uh excuse me sir
keeping us on our toes as always alfred
never uses the same cut to do the same
thing twice this is testament to his
directing chops as the cut reveals the
rather mundane entrance of the maid who
has no real dramatic value at this point
however alfred is telling the audience i
know you want to watch how these two men
will keep squirming out of trouble but
now i need you to watch this woman and
only this woman until i say so this is
the ultimate form of directorial control
alfred has chosen to show the maids
excruciatingly slow clearing of the tomb
of their murdered friend check out my
other episode if you want to see how
brilliant this sequence really is now
the final throws of the film are filled
with tension and brilliant blocking but
the choice of one last cut during the
final battle is utter genius so the
murderers have convinced the main
antagonist to describe what he thinks
would have been the way in which their
friend was murdered however when he
seems to be getting rather close to the
truth the more confident of the two
murderers grips a hidden pistol in his
pocket
here alfred cuts straight back to the
party guest's face to see his
recognition well i think i'd get philip
to help me carry him out of the room
down the back stairs and the two of us
would put him into the car
a whip pan would have removed the
immediacy of this recognition and his
smooth covering by changing the story at
the last moment to allay any suspicion
that he knows the actual truth the cut
here also reveals that he finally
recognizes just how dangerous the
situation is therefore he has finally
caught up with the audience and knows as
much as we do this is extremely
cathartic and although he plays the
antagonist we are actually rooting for
him to find the body and stop these men
before they do it again proving that
their twisted logic of the world is
wrong there must have been something
deep inside you from the very start that
let you do this thing
but there's always been something deep
inside me that would never let me do it
alfred hitchcock's rope may be a
brilliant real-time piece of filmmaking
but with just five choice cuts in the
entire film he proves that drama is real
life with all the boring parts cut out