Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Rebecca (1940)

You had me at Hitchcock.  And if that wasn't enough you can also throw in the great Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine.  These three mainstays of Golden Hollywood are all involved with the mysterious Rebecca.

Rebecca is the story of an unnamed girl who marries the wealthy Maxim de Winter who was ruined after the death of his first wife Rebecca.  Upon entering the estate of Manderly the second Mrs. de Winter is constantly being compared to the first wife of that name and is petrified by her maid and still devotee of Rebecca, Mrs. Danvers.

Rebecca was filmed in an eerie light making the most mundane things creepy, such as the opening of a window, a portrait in the hall or an embroidered pillow case, goosebumps were sent up my spine.

 I've seen this movie many times and still manages to catch me off guard.  I think this is because there are gaps of questioning left in the conclusion, leaving this storyline as unfinished or unsolved, as somethings must stay unearthed.

2 comments:

  1. I love the end of the novel, though it would never work in the film - I had myself paging forward, because I couldn't believe that this was the end! Just great - and I also love the film - I adore Joan Fontaine!

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  2. I don't think the novel's ending would have translated well on screen either. The stylistically would be too hard to capture, and I don't think that's Hitchcock's style anyway. The film was still great and Joan Fontaine is too cute!

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"It's important right now that we talk, killer to killer."

Unlike Addison DeWitt I would not like to talk killer to killer but rather as movie lover to movie lover. What do you think?

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