Rope: An Unedited Film
ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S Rope (1948) is famous for being the only unedited film commercial film ever made. With the exception of the opening cut there are no other cuts in the film*. Since film magazines hold only ten minutes of film, Hitchcock had to periodically stop the camera on a solid color to make the cut invisible. Because there are no cuts, Hitchcock could not use the resources of intercutting on dialogue, parallel editing, cuts on scale, action, etc. Instead, he had to use camera movement (dolly and pan shots), constant reframings, elaborate blocking, and off-screen sound to mark important moments in the film. He does this brilliantly, making this one of his greatest films.
This film is also a classic study in subtext, because the two young killers are coded as homosexual, but neither the word nor the idea was acceptable to Hollywood censorship codes of the time. So the relationship between the two killers was disguised in a subtext of dialogue, actions, and even set design.
For example, the phone in the bedroom suggests the two men use the phone while in bed. The woman remarks, "How cosy!" when she's told of the phone in the bedroom. The dominant-submissive relationship between the two killers suggests a homosexual male-female relationship.
Besides the absence of editing, in this segment note the brilliant use of a point-of-view camera as the teacher, Rupert (James Stewart), explains how he would have killed the dead boy, David. In the process, the POV shot makes him assume responsibility for a murder he himself was partly responsible for in his cynical teaching of Nietzsche's superman concept.
To view this film segment, click here. A study picture is attached.
*NOTE: There is dispute over how many many cuts are in the film and how many were invisiblly matched on a solid color. The segment here has one cut, after Rupert explains how he would have murdered David; but that cut may be from a television edit to allow a break for a commercial. It has been traditionally assumed there were no visible cuts in the film. Regardless, Rope is the only feature film constructed mainly of sequence shots. (A sequence shot is a lengthy shot with elaborate camera movement and complex blocking or movement of actors within the frame.)
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