Analysis of Rope (1948)

Rope is a 1948 American crime film based on the play Rope (1929), and was directed by Alfred
Hitchcock. It is the first of Hitchcock's Technicolor films, and is notable for taking place in real time
and being edited so as to appear as a single continuous shot through the use of long takes.

The film opens with two collegial friends murdering a classmate for the purpose of an intellectual
exercise: they want to prove their superiority by committing the “perfect murder”. They then hide
the body inside an antique wooden chest; the two friends Phillip and Brandon subsequently host a
dinner party at their apartment, which has a panoramic Manhattan skyline view. The guests include
the victim’s father. Brandon uses the chest as a dining table for the guests. In this subtle move, when
the guests arrive, Brandon utters the phrase “Now the fun begins”. In this short segment of the film,
we see the chest as a motif; it is almost always in the camera’s view and acts for many purposes
throughout the film.

Segment	Length	Time-Code	Start	Finish
1	09:34	00:02:30	CU (Close-Up), strangulation	Blackout on Brandon's back
2	07:51	00:11:59	Black, pan off Brandon's back	CU Kenneth: "What do you mean?"
3	07:18	00:19:45	Unmasked cut, men crossing to Janet	Blackout on Kenneth's back
4	07:08	00:27:15	Black, pan off Kenneth's back	CU Phillip: "That's a lie."
5	09:57	00:34:34	Unmasked cut, CU Rupert	Blackout on Brandon's back
6	07:33	00:44:21	Black, pan off Brandon's back	Three shot
7	07:46	00:51:56	Unmasked cut, Mrs. Wilson: "Excuse me, sir."	Blackout on Brandon
8	10:06	00:59:44	Black, pan off Brandon	CU Brandon's hand in gun pocket
9	04:37	01:09:51	Unmasked cut, CU Rupert	Blackout on lid of chest
10	05:38	01:14:35	Black, pan up from lid of chest	End of film

The film is known for its use of long takes to give the effect of one continuous shot. Hitchcock shot
for periods lasting up to ten minutes continuously panning from actor to actor, though most shots in
the film wound up being shorter.