Is the introduction of Snake Eyes a reference to Rope?

While I guess it isn't a big secret that Alfred Hitchcock has always been a huge inspiration for Brian De Palma, one possible connection between both of them has only occurred to me recently. The introduction of De Palma's Snake Eyes is famous for being shot continuously without any visible cuts. Another movie that famously exhibits this property is Hitchcock's Rope (as also discussed in this question). Add to this that the story of Snake Eyes unfolds in real-time, which is more or less the case for Rope, too.

Now is there any information (or at least further indication from the respective movies) if the introduction of Snake Eyes is a direct reference to Rope or am I just making things up here?

Best Answer

Well, Brian De Palma is a known fan of Alfred Hitchcock (1) (2).

In this interview he explains:

We didn't set out to do a "Brian De Palma Signature SteadiCam Shot".

I wanted to show the whole universe that the Nick Cage character was in. I wanted to show HIS world, I wanted to show it really fast, and I wanted to show it whole, in an exciting venue: with that particular fight night, and the money stuff before the fight and the murder during the fight and the aftermath of the fight AND of the murder, he has a lot of problems to solve, and they're all tied up, in a way.

[...]

I wanted the movie to start with a long, incredibly long shot. I wanted it to start on the boardwalk and end on the boardwalk. With a very long shot.

[...]

It's actually four SteadiCam shots. They don't make twenty-minute camera magazines, so we had to use four or five of them. Basically it's like three or four five-minute shots.

You're not supposed to see the seams, but they're there. The cut is there. I faked it the same way Hitchcock faked his real-time no-cuts thing in "Rope".