This time, I watched it on my (wide-screen) computer. It was like having a ringside seat - except Hitch's camera is always in amongst the action. Yes, it's like a foretaste of Rear Window - but I was also reminded of Rosemary's Baby, where we seem to be there with the cast. Immersive theatre, all right!
Often, our viewpoint is low. We are peering past Chinese celadon vases converted into lamps, looking through the bars of an iron bedstead at the actors looming above us. It's almost a child's eye view.
Notice the colour - Margo first appears as a moving patch of vivid scarlet.
The Wendice's apartment, Scotty's flat in Rear Window, the spacious flat in Rope - nearly all the action is confined to a claustrophobic space. Yes, here we are with the actors, and once we've watched the movie a few times and got a handle on the plot and the characters, we begin to notice our surroundings.
Am I the only viewer who tries to draw a floor-plan? Who notices the art on the walls? Margo and Tony, Scotty, Brandon in Rope - they all have an eye for art and antiques.
Notice that sunlit landscape that appears so often in Dial M - a mid-century artist inspired by Ruysdael. There's a shaft of sunlight but very black shadows.
This time, too, I noticed the way the film starts. No dialogue. Margo peers over the Times at Tony as he spills salt - bad luck! - and throws a pinch over his shoulder. What happens to their breakfast table? Does it fold away? Where does Margo keep her clothes? Where is that red and black Chinese cabinet?
Tony setting the scene isn't the only overhead shot - we are still up on the ceiling when the police arrive. (Why don't the coppers in the passage get any tea?)
I always enjoy the scene with Anthony Dawson. Again notice how the camera moves around, dips and circles. Swan is a spiv. He's been inside. What did he do during the war? He's probably killed once and is willing to murder for money. But I feel rather sorry for him.
I agree that Williams seems to be repeating his stage performance - along with some farcical business like wrestling over the bank book and combing his moustache as he rings the Home Secretary.
Just occasionally lines that would have worked on stage don't work in the film version. Williams asks Tony sarcastically "You ARE coming with us? Well, I just wondered." Tony has been looking round the room checking that he has left the "evidence" in place. On the stage he'd been on the other side of the set.
Every time one the keys is passed from hand to hand, hidden, dropped in a handbag etc it emerges from the screen - or would have, in 3D. But the juggling might have looked different on stage where we would have also seen who was NOT seeing the sleight of hand. Just a minor quibble. This is a work of art.
Often, our viewpoint is low. We are peering past Chinese celadon vases converted into lamps, looking through the bars of an iron bedstead at the actors looming above us. It's almost a child's eye view.
Notice the colour - Margo first appears as a moving patch of vivid scarlet.
The Wendice's apartment, Scotty's flat in Rear Window, the spacious flat in Rope - nearly all the action is confined to a claustrophobic space. Yes, here we are with the actors, and once we've watched the movie a few times and got a handle on the plot and the characters, we begin to notice our surroundings.
Am I the only viewer who tries to draw a floor-plan? Who notices the art on the walls? Margo and Tony, Scotty, Brandon in Rope - they all have an eye for art and antiques.
Notice that sunlit landscape that appears so often in Dial M - a mid-century artist inspired by Ruysdael. There's a shaft of sunlight but very black shadows.
This time, too, I noticed the way the film starts. No dialogue. Margo peers over the Times at Tony as he spills salt - bad luck! - and throws a pinch over his shoulder. What happens to their breakfast table? Does it fold away? Where does Margo keep her clothes? Where is that red and black Chinese cabinet?
Tony setting the scene isn't the only overhead shot - we are still up on the ceiling when the police arrive. (Why don't the coppers in the passage get any tea?)
I always enjoy the scene with Anthony Dawson. Again notice how the camera moves around, dips and circles. Swan is a spiv. He's been inside. What did he do during the war? He's probably killed once and is willing to murder for money. But I feel rather sorry for him.
I agree that Williams seems to be repeating his stage performance - along with some farcical business like wrestling over the bank book and combing his moustache as he rings the Home Secretary.
Just occasionally lines that would have worked on stage don't work in the film version. Williams asks Tony sarcastically "You ARE coming with us? Well, I just wondered." Tony has been looking round the room checking that he has left the "evidence" in place. On the stage he'd been on the other side of the set.
Every time one the keys is passed from hand to hand, hidden, dropped in a handbag etc it emerges from the screen - or would have, in 3D. But the juggling might have looked different on stage where we would have also seen who was NOT seeing the sleight of hand. Just a minor quibble. This is a work of art.