Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with today’s Behind the Scenes Pic!
I’m not a big fan of experimental filmmaking, to be quite honest. It’s fine, it has its place, but on the whole I find it very hard to sit through them. But movies like Hitchcock’s ROPE I find to be the perfect combination of experimental and classic storytelling. His hiding of the edits to give the impression of one long, continuous take isn’t showy and seems to be there to serve the claustrophobic feeling of the film. He uses it like some directors use basic camera movement, to slowly draw you, the viewer, into this story of two murderous young men who decide to tempt fate and flaunt the evidence of their crime right in front of just the man who could put all the pieces together.
The point of this execution is in service to the storytelling, not vice versa and that’s why it works and is one of my favorite Hitchcock pictures.
Especially when you see today’s image and you see the kind of equipment Hitch was working with. Today’s pic will make you appreciate the magic trick Hitchcock pulled off even more, I reckon. I know I do. It’s one thing doing one of these long take/single shot type movies today with a Steadicam and a light weight digital camera, but look at the monster Hitch and his crew had to work with (the camera, not Jimmy Stewart)!
Thanks to Adam Stevenson for passing this image along! Happy (belated) Birthday, Hitch! We miss you! Click to embiggen!
If you have a behind the scenes shot you’d like to submit to this column, you can email me at quint@aintitcool.com.
Tomorrow’s behind the scenes pic does the hustle.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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Click here to visit the complete compilation of previous Behind the Scenes images, Page One
Click here to visit the complete compilation of previous Behind the Scenes images, Page Two!
