Mizuki and I watched Rope (1948) tonight. One of my all time favourite films. It is about as close as it gets to watching theatre on the silver screen.

Watching it again, coupled with a certain amount of tension at work, has put me in a loop thinking about conformity, about how we all batter each other into the shapes that our culture allows. We’re all complicit.

In the end Rupert feels only shame at the sight of his ideas taken to their end. Brandon is perhaps more hurt by his mentors shame than by the puncturing of his ‘superiority’ or the end of his freedom. Phillip’s agony at the realisation of what his love for Brandon blinded him too finds some relief in the justice of his approaching punishment.