Rope (6.4/10)

Starting the Alfred Hitchcock movies with this 1948 film. I'm sure for it's time it was revolutionary but watching it today, I thought it was fine. The biggest thing that stood out is how much it feels like a stage play rather than a traditional movie. That’s not necessarily a flaw. The confined setting and long, uninterrupted takes give the film a theatrical quality that may not resonate as strongly with modern audiences. Of course, considering the limitations and style of cinematography in the late 1940s, that approach makes sense. "Just before hosting a dinner party, Philip Morgan (Farley Granger) and Brandon Shaw (John Dall) strangle a mutual friend to death with a piece of rope, purely as a Nietzsche-inspired philosophical exercise. Hiding the body in a chest upon which they then arrange a buffet dinner, the pair welcome their guests, including the victim's oblivious fiancée (Joan Chandler) and the college professor (James Stewart) whose lectures inadvertently inspired the killing."