comment #1

Nick X says ...

Rope.

comment #2

Howlingman says ...

Rear Window

comment #3

jaymoh says ...

Marcelo Pineyro's "The Method" uses a similar confined-space setting to great effect. very good performances too.

comment #4

nemo says ...

Philip Baker Hall as Richard Nixon getting plowed on Scotch and blaming everybody but himself for his troubles in Robert Altman's Secret Honor.

Obviously and proudly from a stage play. A great performance bottled up like a spider in a confined space.

comment #5

mutinyco says ...

Don't forget Lawrence of Arabia...

comment #6

bfm says ...

Phone Booth comes to mind, but it fails on the "really good film" criteria. Any film on a submarine or plane - Das Boot ranks up there surely.

comment #7

Howlingman says ...

Downfall.

comment #8

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Soul Plane - I keed.

Panic Room - You think I keed (but I really don't)

Straw Dogs - Just cut out a few short scenes near the beginning, and I think it's all on the same property (if memory serves...)

comment #9

BurmaShave says ...

The theater influence has been diminishing for a long time because every time a film like this comes out all the bitches whine that it's not cinematic enough.

comment #10

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Eric Bogosion adapted a couple of his plays directly into very confined bigscreen endeavors.

I'm quite fond of Talk Radio...I'd stop just short of calling it "great," but I do think it's "really good."

Great call on Das Boot, for its time, it's probably as innovatively shot as any film on this list, save for perhaps Rope.

and lol@LoA.

comment #11

scooterzz says ...

'deathtrap' and 'misery' might qualify....

comment #12

cinefan says ...

Sleuth.

comment #13

cinefan says ...

Also, Clue (which apparently is going to get a remake soon).

comment #14

BurmaShave says ...

PHONE BOOTH, ugh. Also MY DINNER WITH ANDRE is a special thing, because not only is it in that limited setting, but everything is merely being discussed not shown. Brilliant film.

comment #15

Josh Massey says ...

Glengarry Glen Ross.

comment #16

Renfield says ...

Death and The Maiden

comment #17

Renfield says ...

Actually, I'd add Dog Day Afternoon to that category as well,

comment #18

nemo says ...

Dial M for Murder.

Pretty good, though far from great: Wait Until Dark. Only one or two utterly dispensable scenes take place outside Audrey Hepburn's apartment.

comment #19

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Renfield's first choice got me thinking of Polanski...he's had a few classic keep-me-cooped-up-and-I'll-go-mad flicks.

Repulsion probably fits the bill the best for me in this particular instance.

comment #20

jaymoh says ...

seconded on dog day afternoon. absolutely.

comment #21

jaymoh says ...

incidentally, read this:
http://www.slate.com/id/2212953/

comment #22

nemo says ...

Dog Day Afternoon is an excellent non-obvious choice.

comment #23

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

Reservoir Dogs. Okay, maybe a bit of a stretch, but almost all of the onscreen action happening in real time (a.k.a. not in flashbacks) happens in that trademark dingy, rundown warehouse.

More in keeping with the spirit and not the letter here.

comment #24

CMAC says ...

Run Silent, Run Deep (We just watched it last night, what a cool film. Clark Cable rocked)

The Wales of August (Based on the play) With Bette Davis and Lillian Gish (Who spoke at my Theatre school Grad...just braggin'...on the other hand? shows me ancient-ness)

The Dresser (based on the play) With Sir Albert Finney and Tom Courtney. (Just a handful of exteriors, mostly inside the theatre)

comment #25

nemo says ...

Like Reservoir Dogs, the non-flashback parts of Barbara Stanwyck's Sorry, Wrong Number are also all confined to her hypochondriac's bedroom. Enjoyable, but not great.

One of the reasons Dog Day Afternoon is not so obvious is because there is so much movement back and forth between the bank interior and the street outside. But even together those two spaces become a confined pressure cooker.

comment #26

Rich S. says ...

Evil Dead. No, really.

comment #27

nemo says ...

All the scenes in 2001 A Space Odyssey with HAL and the two astronauts. It's only one part of a four-part movie, but it's the main backbone. The confinement and the isolation ratchet up the tension.

comment #28

Clay says ...

Hard Candy with Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson. After the initial pickup at the coffee house, the entire film takes place in Wilson's house. A pre-Juno Page was fantastic here.

comment #29

Doug Pratt says ...

The Exterminating Angle celebrates it. Knife in the Water, Dead Calm, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Sorry Wrong Number, The Thing from Another World, September, Through a Glass Darkly, The Silence, Cries and Whispers, Autumn Sonata, and, um, The Diary of Anne Frank

comment #30

lipranzer says ...

OLEANNA. The movie is opened up from the play a little, but it is mostly just the two of them in a classroom at three different times.

Oh, and I should give this PSA: avoid 12 (the remake of 12 ANGRY MEN) at all costs.

comment #31

Gordie Lachance says ...

It's a pretty small list of films that don't leave a single room.

These are some more I like that don't have more than 2 or 3:

Misery
Funny Games
Bound
Night Of The Living Dead

comment #32

jaymoh says ...

oh and if no one's mentioned it already,
Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped. most of the story plays out in a single prison cell, which makes the actual escape sequence all the more thrilling

comment #33

Chase Kahn says ...

I immediately thought of 'Rear WIndow' (slightly less confined, but a one-set film) and 'Dial M For Murder' (which I don't really care for).

With some deep thinking: Andrei Tarkovsky's 'Solaris'

comment #34

pm123 says ...

"Die Nacht," by Hans Jurgen Syberberg. Six hours. One actress, one empty set, no props. A masterpiece...

comment #35

Clay says ...

Kiss of the Spider Woman and Breakfast Club.

comment #36

moveable hype says ...

I second (third?) Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope". And the first two "Evil Dead" movies. I think it is the second one where the camera chases the hero between the walls.

I don't think this counts, but "Stop Making Sense" is one of the best filmed stage presentations. The stage design, lighting design and use of slides makes the concert very cinematic.

comment #37

Circumvrent says ...

Glengarry Glen Ross shouldn't count. At least a third of that film takes place outside of that office.

What about Clerks? Especially if you consider New Jersey as a whole confined and claustrophobic.

comment #38

Kyle_D says ...

The Smith-bashers may call me out on this one, and on some days I'd agree with them, but today I'll toss the first Clerks in for consideration.

comment #39

Chase Kahn says ...

Wow, it's a photo-finish, but Circumvrent beats Kyle_D by a hair!

comment #40

Scott Feinberg says ...

Not to call either of these "really good," but two airplane movies -- "The High and the Mighty" and "Red Eye" -- come to mind.

comment #41

bluetide says ...

Red Eye was a solid little genre flick when it came out. I remember enjoying it quite a bit. There aren't enough movies like that.

comment #42

Cadavra says ...

What an amazing coincidence. Just this afternoon I watched the original STUDIO ONE version of 12 ANGRY MEN. Really well done given the technical limitations of early live TV, but the feature version is still superior, especially given that Bob Cummings, good as he is, is simply no match for Henry Fonda in the gravitas department.

comment #43

vansmith says ...

i finally was able to sign in, what a journey from the darkness, now what are we talking about??

comment #44

jamesD says ...

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comment #45

Marty Melville says ...

I think Hitchcock directed every frame of his films like a one room play, it's what gives them their immediacy... even the wide open Vista-Vision of North By Northwest seemed intensely suffocating... there are four walls around every sequence in that pic.

comment #46

Chris Willman says ...

Not too much openng up in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf."

comment #47

Sabina E says ...

the 1951 film A Streetcar named Desire, but duh, it was originally a stage play by Tennessee Williams.. however it has been remade for TV a few times, so I guess it counts.

comment #48

shawn says ...

Bertolucci's "Beseiged" w/David Thewlis and Thandie Newton.

comment #49

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

I love how almost everyone threw out the "their entire length" rule, which I guess proves... something.

I'll second Rear Window as just about the only one that is good enough to include.

comment #50

BoshBarnetWonkyDonkey says ...

What's wrong with Panic Room? Never understood why that film gets panned so frequently. I guess maybe following up Fight Club everyone expected a film about something, so were disappointed with what Panic Room isn't rather than appreciating it for what it is.

comment #51

Howlingman says ...

Panic Room is fine for what it is -- a paycheck film Fincher needed to make after the money loser that Fight Club was. Same as Benjamin Button. It's the Start Trek movie rule -- it applies to Fincher Films as well.

comment #52

qwiggles says ...

Bruce McDonald's newest, Pontypool, is a terrific example for its first three quarters. Check it out. Should be outside of Toronto by May 25.

comment #53

ksmred3 says ...

Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes.

comment #54

Joshua Mooney says ...

What, no love for "Cube"?

It's so cool when the dude gets "cubed."

comment #55

CitizenKanedforChewingGum says ...

I thought about Cube, which is quite good & innovative s.f. for its budget, but mentioning it here is a bit of a cheat, I think.

Yes, they're using the same set over and over again, but isn't the idea that every room they encounter is new, and unique from the last? Ah well, I suppose that's splitting hairs...it still gives off a claustrophobic feeling, albeit a fresh one for every "room" they encounter.

I'll throw in Rio Bravo and Carpenter's Assault from Precinct 13. I actually didn't find the '05 remake awful, but there really should be some sort of law against remaking a film that was already a re-imagining of another film, which itself was based on an original short story.

Hollywood is getting waaaay too removed from the creative process these days.

50 years from now, Hollywood's just going to be down to steady remakes of King Kong, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Robin Hood, and Romeo & Juliet in one vicious endless cycle.

comment #56

crazyeight says ...

On HBO so probably doesn't count, but I've always been impressed with the Branagh-Tucci movie "Conspiracy". If you take out the establishing exteriors, everything in the movie takes place in exactly four rooms, with most of it in the conference room.

It always felt like it would make a FANTASTIC play.

comment #57

bachelorcool says ...

Malefique.

comment #58

BurmaShave says ...

crazyeight I couldn't agree more, and in senior year some friends and I actually thought about trying to stage it.

comment #59

dana k says ...

My favorite film of this type is "The Member Of The Wedding" with Julie Harris.

Second favorite: "Rear Window".
Dana Kaminski
Hollywood Actor Prep

comment #60

hcat says ...

Dogville and Vanya on 42nd Street

comment #61

prairie_oysters says ...

Sidney Lumet did it again with 'The Offence' in 1972. Apart from an establishing crime scene pretty much the entire film takes place in a police interview room between Ian Bannen & Sean Connery.