10 Filmmakers EMBARRASSED By Their Own Movies

Everyone screws up. Everyone. All the time, in fact, seeing as how life is just a long stream of tripping up with the occasional instance of someone managing to land on their feet and make it look intentional. So it stands to reason that even the most talented among us have projects that make their ears turn red with embarrassment.

Likewise, a filmmaker has at least one film under their belt that they would rather fake their own death than acknowledge having made the thing. Regardless of the quality of the director in question, this is one experience that is universal. But embarrassment, like all emotions, is a spectrum, and some filmmakers are more ashamed than others.

Whether it's because outside events caused their film to fall apart during production, or because directors are fallible human beings like the rest of us and just flat out made a bad product, these filmmakers have at least one movie under their belt that they would really just rather not mention in polite company. And, truthfully, it's probably for the best that way.

Alfred Hitchcock, whatever his (numerous) personal failings, was a fantastic director, always trying to push boundaries of what film was capable of while still trying to deliver an enjoyable movie-going experience. And Rope was easily one of his most ambitious projects.

Shame he didn't agree.

Rope is often cited as the first film to tell a whole story in one continuous shot. However, in retrospect, Hitchcock wrote his own film off as just not having much going on behind the eyes, too defined by its single gimmick.

Now, whether or not you agree is up to you, but Hitchcock has other good reasons for not wearing the rosiest glasses when looking at this movie. Being a brand new way of telling a film narrative, naturally shooting the thing was an absolute nightmare. Pretty much no one knew what they were doing, seeing as how they were doing something no one had done before. It was particularly difficult for actor Jimmy Stewart, who later expressed similar issues with the movie.

Rope isn't Hitchcock's worst movie, but it's totally understandable why this one was the one he was the most embarrassed about.