Rope

Shot to look like one continuous take and using only a tiny set, Rope was dismissed by many as a gimmick at the time of its release. In Roger Ebert’s 1984 review, he quoted Alfred Hitchcock as saying “Rope was an ‘experiment that didn’t work out’, and he was happy to see it kept out of release for most of three decades.” However, Ebert claims that “Rope remains one of the most interesting experiments ever attempted by a major director working with big box-office names, and it’s worth seeing.” Today of course, movie-goers can appreciate the boundary pushing aspects of Hitchcock’s achievement and his inspiration on legions of filmmakers since. If he could have, Hitchcock surely would have attempted to shoot the entire film in a single continuous take. However, he was limited by the size the film magazines, which only held 1000 feet of 35mm film (roughly 10 minutes worth of footage). As a result, there are only 10 edits in the entire film and most are disguised to be unnoticeable to the viewer. And of course, this is Hitchcock we are talking about so in addition to the masterful technical aspects of the film, there is a gripping suspense film hiding underneath as well.

This first release Rope poster makes great use of the unique, slender format — including large headshots of both star James Stewart and the famed director himself, Alfred Hitchcock. And at only 20″ wide it would be easy to integrate into any decor.