Jan 18, 2010

24th Jan 2010; Hitchcock's ROPE

ROPE
A film by Alfred Hitchcock
Country:USA
Year ; 1948
Run time :80 minutes
English with English subtitles
24th January 2010; 5.45pm
Perks Mini Theater
Perks School , opp Boat House,
Trichy Road, Coimbatore
Call: 94430 39630
http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.com/

Opening with a 30 minutes documentary film on Alfred Hitchcock receiving American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award with talks by the Master, James Stewart and Ingrid Bergman.

Rope is a complex and dazzlingly unique picture. Subversively based on the Leopold and Loeb murder case. More macabre writing you aren't likely to find, and a more interesting way to tell the tale you won't likely see. Based on a British play, Hitch opted to shoot the film as if we were indeed watching a stage performance -- seemingly in one long take from beginning to end.

Self-proclaimed “superior beings” Phillip and Brandon (Farley Granger and John Dall respectively) throw a party for their friend’s father, aunt, girlfriend, and former schoolmaster, during which they serve a cold chicken supper. The cast revolve around the two men, blissfully unaware of the horror of the situation they're in.
Venerable actor Sir Cedricke Hardwicke plays the victim’s stuffy father, and the former schoolmaster Rupert Cadell – in a part that is more James than Jimmy – is Mr. Stewart himself, in the first of four brilliant performances for Hitchcock. With the tension established from the opening frame , showing the strangled face of young David and his subsequent concealment in an Italian chest, the suspense of the movie becomes, “will somebody lift up the lid and peek inside?”
The audience is suddenly in that ethical quandary familiar to Hitchcock: extremely hopeful that the body is never discovered and the smarmy killers can get away with their perfect crime. In "Rope," Hitchcock is less concerned with the characters and their moral dilemmas than with how they look, sound and move, and with the overall spectacle of how a perfect crime goes wrong.




ALFRED HITCHCOCK
He was known to his audiences as the 'Master of Suspense' and what Hitchcock mastered was not only the art of making films but also the task of taming his own raging imagination. Director of such works as Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds and The 39 steps, Hitchcock told his stories through intelligent plots witty dialogue and a spoonful of mystery and murder. In doing so, he inspired a new generation of filmmakers and revolutionized the thriller genre, making him a legend around the world. His brilliance was sometimes too bright: He was hated as well as loved, oversimplified as well as over analyzed. Hitchcock was eccentric, demanding, inventive, impassioned and he had a great sense of British humor.

He was born Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, his father was a green grocer called William Hitchcock (1862 - 1914), his mother was Emma Jane Whelan (1863 - 1942) and he had two older siblings, William Hitchcock (Born 1890) and Eileen Hitchcock(born 1892). He grew up in a very strict Roman Catholic family. He attended St Ignatius college and a school for engineering and navigation. In 1914, when Hitchcock was 15 years old, his father died.

It was around 1920 when Hitchcock joined the film industry, he started off drawing the sets (Since he was a very skilled artist) and he met Alma Reville, though they never really spoke to each other. It was only when the director for "Always tell your wife" fell ill and Hitchcock had to complete the film, that he started off in the directing part of the film world, then Alma Reville and Hitchcock began to talk to each other.

Hitchcock had his first shot of being the director of a film in 1923 when he was to direct the film "The Number 13", though the production was stopped. Hitchcock didn't give up then. He directed a film called "The Pleasure Garden" in 1925, a British/German production, which was very popular. In 1926, Hitchcock made his first notable film, "The Lodger". In the same year on the 2nd of December, Hitchcock married Alma Reville. They had one child called Patricia Hitchcock (born 7th July 1928).

His success followed when he made a number of films in Britain such as "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) and Jamaica Inn (1939), some of them which also made him famous in the USA. David O. Selznick, an American producer at the time, got in touch with Hitchcock and the Hitchcock family moved to the USA to direct an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca (1940).

It was when Saboteur (1942) was made, that films companies began to call his films after him; such as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot, Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy.

During the making of Frenzy (1972), Hitchcock's wife Alma suffered a paralyzing stroke which made her unable to walk.

He retired soon after making Family Plot (1976). He started to write a screenplay with Ernest Lehman called "The Short Night" then later David Freeman who completed the script. Though due to Hitchcock's failing health the film was never made. Freeman published the script after Hitchcock's death.

In late 1979, Hitchcock was knighted, making him Sir Alfred Hitchcock. On the 29th April 1980, 9:17AM, he died peacefully in his sleep