10 Best Movies That Play Out In Real Time
8. Rope
Though not quite held up there with Alfred Hitchcock's strongest works, his 1948 experimental thriller Rope is nevertheless one of Hitch's most creative and boundary-pushing creations.
The delicious premise follows two young intellectuals, Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Farley Granger), who strangle a former classmate to death and, in an attempt to prove themselves capable of executing the perfect murder, stage a dinner party with the corpse still inside the apartment.
In addition to having their scheme play out in real time, Hitch also shot the movie in a series of 10 long takes which he stitched together with state-of-the-art editing to imply that the film transpired in a single unbroken shot.
The "invisible" transitions are of course obvious to modern eyes, but still remarkably impressive considering Rope's age. Even in a time where such feats are now relatively commonplace, the real time mode immeasurably enhances the film's pulse-quickening suspense.