{"id":16166,"date":"2011-11-27T16:57:32","date_gmt":"2011-11-28T00:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=16166"},"modified":"2011-11-27T17:06:39","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T01:06:39","slug":"135-rebecca-alfred-hitchcock-1940-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=16166","title":{"rendered":"#135 Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 Judging from the title, one might assume that the main character of this film is indeed Rebecca<\/a><\/em>, but not so.\u00a0 The central character is so unimportant and insignificant, that she has no first name.\u00a0 An orphaned\u00a0ingenue who steps from a world of servitude into an abyss of\u00a0immense wealth and scrutiny, only to be subjected to\u00a0cruel degradation and self-doubt.\u00a0 “I, she” and finally\u00a0“Mrs. de Winter,” is portrayed unassumingly, instinctively, and perfectly by Joan Fontaine.<\/p>\n

Rebecca was the beautiful and much accomplished deceased wife of Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier), the heir of an enormous estate in Cornwall, England.\u00a0 Brooding and deep in thought, Maxim is on holiday in Monte Carlo when he crosses paths with a gentle young woman (Joan Fontaine) and her obnoxious but wealthy benefactor, Mrs. Van Hopper (Florence Bates).\u00a0 When the repulsive Van Hopper takes ill, she stuffs her gob with chocolates and snuffs out her cigarettes into\u00a0a cold cream jar, while Maxim seizes the opportunity to lavish attention on her\u00a0much oppressed “paid companion.”<\/p>\n

After several days of\u00a0tennis, long drives along the coast, meals and moonlit dancing, the two fall in love, but to the chagrin of the unkindly Van Hopper, who scoffs at\u00a0her young companion.\u00a0 They soon marry and quickly return to Cornwall and the grand estate\u00a0of Manderley.<\/p>\n

Manderley is staffed with a full line of dedicated and loyal servants, with the lead housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Judith Anderson) gainfully employed by the first Mrs. de Winter.<\/p>\n

The nondescript second Mrs. de Winter is uncomfortable in her new surroundings and the sudden position as mistress of Manderley.\u00a0 The overpowering presence of Rebecca lingers everywhere\u00a0in the mansion, thanks to Mrs. Danvers, who keeps her dead mistress’ bedroom, office, and all her belongings fully intact, as if she’s on holiday and expected to return at a moments notice.\u00a0 Instead of delineating her own\u00a0persona into the marriage and new\u00a0situation, the\u00a0young wife\u00a0panders to the memory of Rebecca – when asked to decide on the menu for the evening, timidly she replies “lets have whatever you think Mrs. de Winter would’ve ordered.”<\/p>\n

She desperately tries to please Maxim, but through innocence and inexperience, she becomes bait for Mrs. Danvers, who constantly sets her up for failure – taking Danvers suggestion for a costume in an upcoming\u00a0ball, she is horrified to discover that Maxim detests it.<\/p>\n

The turning point occurs when a ship is wrecked\u00a0along the jagged coast and the rescuers also discover\u00a0a small boat containing the body of a woman.\u00a0 After an official\u00a0inquest is held it is determined to be the body of Rebecca, whose death was brought about prematurely and suspiciously.\u00a0 This initiates a shift in the\u00a0new Mrs. de Winter, who\u00a0begins to reclaim her dignity and develop her own persona.<\/p>\n

Rebecca<\/em>\u00a0signifies the first of\u00a0Alfred Hitchcock’s\u00a0American films, and is the only one to receive an Academy Award for Best Picture.\u00a0 It also won an Oscar for Best Cinematography, Black and White, and rightly so, because Rebecca <\/em>is very much a visual experience in light and shadows – as Rebecca’s persona is cast in light, so is her bedroom, “the loveliest room you’ve ever seen.”\u00a0 And while the second Mrs. de Winter is constantly overshadowed by the memory of Rebecca, we are reminded of this in nearly every scene as the shadows appear to\u00a0follow her\u00a0from room to room.<\/p>\n

Joan Fontaine<\/a> was instinctual and perfectly cast as the second Mrs. de Winter.\u00a0 Like walking a tightrope, she downplays her performance much as her character did\u00a0with regards to Rebecca, for the first half of the film, and then lifts herself from the mire of self-deprecation to self-respect for the second half\u00a0– but make no mistake, though understated,\u00a0it is a brilliant performance which led to an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress.\u00a0 The following year she actually\u00a0won, for\u00a0her performance in Suspicion – <\/em>the only actor to receive an Oscar\u00a0in a Hitchcock film.<\/p>\n

Producer David O. Selznick wanted Hitchcock to stay as close to the Daphne du Maurier novel as possible, even using much of the same dialogue.\u00a0 He introduced\u00a0the\u00a0film in the title credits as “Selznick International presents its picturization of Daphne du Maurier’s celebrated novel Rebecca,” but had to alter the consequential death of Rebecca, due to the Production Code, however having read the novel I can\u00a0confirm that\u00a0it plays out very well.<\/p>\n

Judith Anderson is at\u00a0her peak, as the pouncing Mrs. Danvers, in her cat and mouse game with the second Mrs. de Winter, and received an Oscar nomination as well, for Best Supporting Actress.<\/p>\n

Many cite Citizen Kane <\/em>as the best film of all time – I cite Hitchcock’s Rebecca<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD. \u00a0 Judging from the title, one might assume that the main character of this film is indeed Rebecca, but not so.\u00a0 The central character is so unimportant and insignificant, that she has no first name.\u00a0 An orphaned\u00a0ingenue who steps from a world of servitude into an abyss of\u00a0immense […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}