ROPE (PG) Presented in 35mm Film

Rope at The Revival House Perth

Two brilliant young men, Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Farley Granger), commit the "perfect murder" of a former classmate—not for gain or passion, but purely as an intellectual exercise to prove their superiority. In a twisted display of arrogance, they hide the body in a wooden chest in their Manhattan penthouse apartment, then host a dinner party with the victim's family and friends, serving buffet from atop their macabre secret. Among the guests is their former prep school housemaster Rupert Cadell (James Stewart), whose philosophical musings about the "art of murder" once inspired their deadly experiment. As the evening progresses and Brandon grows increasingly reckless with hints about their crime, Rupert begins to suspect something is terribly wrong.

Alfred Hitchcock's daring 1948 thriller unfolds in what appears to be a single continuous take, with the Master of Suspense using innovative long takes (cut only when reloading film magazines) to create unbearable tension in real time. Shot entirely on one claustrophobic apartment set with a moving cyclorama backdrop showing the New York skyline transitioning from afternoon to nighttime, the film traps the audience in the same space as the killers and their unknowing guests. Stewart delivers one of his darkest performances as a man confronting how his intellectual theories have been corrupted into justification for murder. Adapted from Patrick Hamilton's play and loosely inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case, Rope remains one of Hitchcock's most audacious formal experiments and a chilling examination of moral philosophy taken to its horrifying extreme.

Original format and audio experience of this film faithfully reproduced by The Revival House. Presented in 35mm film unless noted otherwise.

When: Sunday, January 25th at 4:50PM
Where: The Revival House at the Como Theatre
Rating: PG (Mature themes and tension)

Hitchcock's most experimental thriller will leave you breathless—experience this masterclass in sustained suspense on 35mm film.