"Rope" analysis

During this blog I’m going to be analysing the film "Rope". The film "Rope" was produced in 1948 in the United States of America. The genre that the film is based on is a thriller. Also, the director of this film is Alfred Hitchcock and the writers of this film were adapted by Hume Cronyn from Patrick Hamilton play. Likewise, the dialogue was done by Arthur Laurents. Also, the people that where the main stars in the film were James Stewart, John Dall and Farley Granger.

Firstly, the trailer is important for the audience to see before viewing the actual film due to the fact that it will give them a brief idea of what it is about and it will make them want to watch the film as the trailer always spells some of the story and therefore it makes the audience want to know more about the film. The trailer is effective because it gives the effect of a cliff hanger. For example: when the man looks into the box and he shows extremely shocked facial expressions. Also, the trailer is showing the audience some of the main parts of the film and therefore the audience will want to watch all of the film due to the fact that if the audience have already seen some of the main parts of the film then they will be intrigued to watch the rest. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NLsbzhOEHg)

Secondly, in the opening scene it starts of with a gentle bright sunny day and the colours shown are not represented to indicate danger. Also, the music being played at the beginning of the play is non-diegetic as the characters within the play cannot hear it. However the music is slow and deep as it builds up tension and represents that there will be danger. Correspondingly, as the scene continues it stops and stares at a window. When looking at the window you hear a voice scream. The sound is then diegetic and it shows that something has happened to a person within the play. Likewise, the sound of the screaming comes from a man being strangled to death by two men and they are using a 'Rope'. When the two people are strangling the man the colour of the scene is very dark and this represents danger. Also, the two men that are strangling the man are both using brown leather gloves. Both of the men were using brown leather gloves, this shows that they are both killing the man together and have set him up. Start after the two men have killed the man one begins to speak to the other man and asks him to open the box, therefore the sound is diegetic. Moreover, the two men put the dead body in the box and the at this point the music then changes to a very threatening powerful off screen sound that represents that something bad has happened. Soon after the man in the navy blue suit starts to talk to his partner and he then turns on the light. However his partner finds it hard to talk and tells him not to put on the light. The person in the brown suit says "lets stay this way for a minuet". This indicates that he is scared and is tired. We can tell this because after they killed the man they were both breathing very heavy. As soon as they both calmed down one of the men began to light a cigarette as if nothing had ever happened. This shows that the man was behaving like an ordinary man as he was smoking a cigarette. As the man in the navy blue suit is smoking he stops and begins to talk to his partner and dialogue is used for this to show conversation between the two killers. The opening scene ends with the man in the navy blue suit opening the curtains in the room that they are in to brighten up the place and make them fell better. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJo5ih2HkxE)

Thirdly, the background context for 'Rope' is adapted from Patrick Hamilton's 1929 play which itself was said to be based on the grisly Leopold and Loeb case of 1924. Also, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were upper-class Chicago law students who murdered of a teenage boy. Furthermore, similar to snobbish Brandon and Philip in the Hitchcock film, the real life murderers considered themselves 'Nietzschean' supermen whose superiority of intellect exempted them from laws that govern the rest of us. Likewise, "good and evil, right and wrong were invited for the ordinary normal man, the inferior man, because he needs them," claims Brandon, the deluded mastermind of the murder.

Finally, thriller conventions within 'Rope' are used. Also, devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers are used extensively within the film rope. For example: a cliffhanger is used right at the very end of the film when all the men are sitting in the room waiting for the police to come. Additionally, there are certain thriller conventions that are used in 'Rope' such as Dramatic irony for example: when the audience know that the person has been killed by the two killers and the other people in the scene don't. This wouldn't be more effective if the audience didn't know because this way the audience would are interested in finding out whether the two killers get caught or get away with the murder. 'Rope' was done by 'Technical Features'. Hitchcock wanted to film a 'Continuous play'. Also, 'Rope' pretends to be a one-shot film, also known as: an experiment in real-time. Equally Hitchcock filmed this is ten minuet sequence which is efficient. However, it made it harder for the film makers to make the film as they would have had to add colour to it and this would have token a lot of time. Also, another technique that is used by Hitchcock is this method of editing part of the film's 'Claustrophobic strength'. For example: the coffin/chest is very rarely out of shot and the camera follows the actors around every square inch of the confined set. Therefore, the actors are trapped and so is the audience. 

North by north west

Firstly, the film is about an 'innocent' New York advertising executive is mistaken for a government agent by a group of foreign spies and is pursued across the country while he looks for a way to survive. The crop duster scene one of the most iconic scene in film history. It gives the audience a shock and plays a major part within the film "North by north west". Also, Hitchcock, said thrillers allow the audience, “to put their toe in the cold water of fear to see what it’s like”. On that point he believed it was important to change the appearance of the screen into the minds of the audience. Moreover, Alfie Hitchcock uses Media Language to analyse the film sequence. Also, he had every scene planned in advanced. However, before shooting Hitchcock learned all the dialogue and rarely needs to look at a script. Likewise, Hitchcock likens it to a conductor conducting an orchestra without a score. Similarly, when directing, Hitchcock didn't look at the camera once this is because he always imagined he was looking at a cinema screen.  

Secondly, the scene has a variety of different analysis starting from editing. The scene starts off with a slow shot and is set in an unknown area that is full of crops, country life and country roads. However, at the beginning of the scene there is a man standing about lost and in the middle of nowhere and then a crop duster that is shown flying in the open but a distance away, this shows that the crop duster will play a part in the scene, also as the crop duster is introduced the speed of the shot is increased this represents the speed of the crop duster. Furthermore, deeper into the scene a car comes into role and a man gets out then the car drives off, this leaves the two men staring at each other and confused. After a while the man that came out the car makes conversation with the other man standing there and at this point the speed of the shot gets slower and as they get more in depth with the conversation the speed of the shot gets faster. The man that got out of the car had got onto a bus and the other man was left by himself and he looks into the open and the crop duster comes down towards the man, the editing speed is increased and there are plenty of short cuts from this. Moreover, the takes have a different variety of long and short takes but there are more short takes then long takes.

Thirdly, there are different groups that are represented in "North by Northwest" one of the groups that are represented in particular is gender (Men/Women). Gender is shown through Mise-en-scene in "North by Northwest". An example of when this is shown is when the New Yorker is running away from the police because he was involved in the scene of the crop duster crashing into the lorry full with oil. Nevertheless they catch him and take him to a random man who Roger O. Thornhill had never met before and he doesn't get into any trouble. However, the blonde attractive women who was involved in the film always had a lot of trouble and two men had took her and were on the run with her, one of the men was her other half but she didn't like him how he liked her, she had feelings for another man and the other man chased after her and got himself into a lot of trouble with the other two men. This indicates that women are "trouble". We know this because the hot, young blonde women got a her lover A.K.A: Roger O. Thornhill, into trouble with the man she was dating. Additionally, the representation of women in "North by Northwest" is shown by the male glaze as women were viewed as the 'objects of male erotic desire' within the film and to the audience. Also, within this film men are seen as active and women are seen as passive. Equally, the cinema reflects a patriarchal society as the males are dominated for example: when the two men are dragging the blonde women around with them and she can't say or do anything to leave them hence why Roger O. Thornhill goes and rescues her.

Finally, in the crop duster scene the sound is expressed in many different ways. The sound is shown to relate with what is actually happening in the scene for example: when the crop duster is chasing Roger O. Thornhill from a distance you can hear the sound of a war fighting airplane getting closer as the crop duster gets closer to Roger O. Thornhill and the sound is diegetic. However when the crop duster crashes into the lorry full of oil the sound changes and the mood of the scene changes as well. The sound becomes serious and it is an orchestra playing a tune that makes the scene look like something terrible has happened and this sound is non-diegetic as the characters in the play cannot here it. Also, when the lorry full of oil blows up its makes a sound that sounds like a major explosion the sound is also diegetic.

Blog 1 Thriller conventions

Blog 1 Thriller conventions

Firstly, the ‘Thriller’ is a comprehensive category of literature, film and television that comprises abundant and often overlapping sub-genes. Thrillers, contain fast pacing and frequent action. This is because thrillers are often about death, crime and gangs ETC. Likewise, they also contain resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more commanding and improved equipped villains. A thriller is a villain driven plot. The villain presents difficulties that the hero must overcome. During thriller conventions
devices are used. The devices that are used are “suspense, red herring and cliff-hangers”. These are used to make the film more attractive, over-whelming and to make it more dramatic for the audience.

Secondly, a flexible genre is where the genre is flexible and can participate with the audience through a dramatic translation of psychological, social and political tensions. Furthermore, Hitchcock once said thrillers allow the audience “to put their toe in the cold water to fear to see what it’s like”. This implies that Hitchcock is trying to introduce the audience with the film to have a taste of what it feels like to actually be involved. Additionally, thrillers frequently take place in interesting surroundings such as foreign cities. Also, the heroes in most thrillers are frequently “Hard men” familiarised to danger. An example of this is: policemen and big built men that protect their women and men that have no fear and try their best to get what they want. However, they might also be commonplace citizens that are dragged into danger by coincidence. Correspondingly, although such heroes have traditionally been men, women lead characters have become increasingly common. An example of this is shown in the film movie ‘Alien’ that was produced in 1979 and to get even deeper into looking at women leading characters there is an early example being ‘Sigourney Weaver’s’.

Thirdly, thrillers differ from mystery stories. Thrillers habitually overlap with mystery stories but are distinguished by the construction of their plots. Equally, in a thriller, the hero must frustrate the future plans of an enemy, rather than expose a wrongdoing that has previously happened. Nevertheless, a murder mystery would be spoiled by knowing the murderer’s identity. Whereas, in a thriller the individuality of a murderer or a villain is characteristically recognised all length-ways.

Moreover, thrillers appear to happen on a much grander scale than mystery films. This is because the crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination or the revolution of administrations. In addition, vulnerability and violent confrontations are standard plot elements of a Thriller. Also, the climax of a mystery is when the mystery is solved. A thriller climaxes when the hero finally comes to an end and defeats the villain and by doing this he/she saves their own life and often the lives of others.

Finally, there are all different types of thrillers and thriller. For example: legal thriller, spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller and military thriller ETC. As a matter of fact, this ingenuousness to development is one of the genre’s most continuing characteristics. Thrillers can be defined by the primary mood that they create
being fearful and excited. Therefore, in short terms if it ‘thrills’ it is indeed a thriller.