Grode notes that before such films as
1917 and
Birdman, the idea of experimenting with long uninterrupted takes had a history of over 80 years, with
Alfred Hitchcock being a pioneer. Aside from early experiments like
Young and Innocent and
Notorious, the most famous early example of a film that extensively uses long takes is the 1948
Rope, which was shot in mainly seven-to-ten–minute continuous takes (the physical limit of
film stock at the time) that appear as four
long takes of around 15 to 20 minutes each, close to the maximum length allowed by the cinema projectors of the time. Reportedly,
James Stewart, star of
Rope, did not like the long takes and apparently muttered on set that the cameras were more important than the actors. Grode also examines the 1958 film
Touch of Evil as an example, though only its three-minute opening sequence is shot in
real time. However, the use of a real time ticking bomb through the single shot is seen as a standard. In a 2019 article, discussing the award-winning film
1917 (2019), Eric Grode of
The New York Times wrote that very long takes were becoming popular in more mainstream films "as a sobering reminder of temporality, a virtuosic calling card, a self-issued challenge or all of the above", also citing the
Academy Award-winner from several years prior,
Birdman (2014). == Notable examples ==