Rebecca

Rebecca

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Written by Daphne De Maurier (Novel), Robert E. Sherwood, Joan Harrison, Philip MacDonald, and Michael Hogan

To date I've only seen two of Alfred Hitchcock's films, Vertigo and Rebecca (no, I haven't seen Psycho. Yes, I am ashamed). I found with Vertigo that Hitchcock has a very slow, deliberate style that takes a certain amount of patience to really appreciate. Don't get me wrong, Vertigo is a fantastic film that explores themes like obsession and trauma with a great cast of actors led by the classic movie star James Stewart. For Rebecca, his first Hollywood film, he has the acting legend Laurence Olivier as the headlining talent and leads the cast in a psychological thriller that is a exceptionally acted, flawlessly atmospheric and sometimes a bit too slow for it's own good.

Rebecca follows a young woman (Joan Fontaine) who meets a wealthy widower named Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) in Monte Carlo. They get married after a brief romance and they return to Manderly, his large estate, where she discovers that Maxim's first wife Rebecca died in an accident and everyone, especially Maxim, is still haunted by her passing. Over the course of the film she meets a cast of interesting and mysterious characters as the shadow of Rebecca looms over the manor, as if the ghost of Rebecca herself is tormenting the denizens of Manderly.

The story is very well told and atmospheric, as is the Hitchcock standard. Hitchcock is a master at slowly building up the suspense, tension and mystery and he is in peak form here. This isn't a horror movie, but at times it almost feels like it. Mrs. de Winter is tormented by the memory of Rebecca that everyone clings to and while a lesser director might have had an apparition of her or even just what de Winter imagines Rebecca to be appear Hitchcock doesn't need to do this. He builds the tension flawlessly scene after scene, each cut of the camera making the viewer more and more afraid for de Winter and consequently of Rebecca herself. It's the stuff of legends, to make the audience fear a character who is already dead, another example as to why Hitchcock is so celebrated even today.

My only issue with the story is it's pacing and I don't think it's necessarily a flaw in and of itself. The film is incredibly slow, it runs just over two hours and while it makes every single second of that runtime count I found it a bit of a sit-through. After watching what I believed to be an hour and a half I looked at the time and realized I was only an hour into the film. It's one of those movies. I don't doubt that Hitchcock intended to make a very slow paced picture but as I said before I think it slows down a bit too much, especially in the first half.

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The acting on display in this film is nothing short of spectacular across the board. I've never seen any of Laurence Olivier's films before and as my introduction to him I was completely impressed. Maxim is a deeply troubled widower who hasn't gotten over the death of his wife but wants to in order to be happy with his new one. He does his best to accommodate her but when things set him off he can go from calm to livid in the span of seconds, this is best exemplified at the costume ball scene (to avoid spoilers I'll leave it at that). He was an absolute joy to watch in every scene and had Joan Fontaine not done such an extraordinary job in her role he would have been the highlight of the entire film.

It cannot be overstated how good Joan Fontaine is in her role as Mrs. de Winter. She is dynamic and sells everything she does. Watching her steadily become more scared and paranoid over the course of her time at Manderly is believable and she is perfectly cast, a thing I can say for everyone in the entire picture. She's sympathetic and as I've said before really makes you feel frightened for her as the film progresses. I suppose my only complaint is that in the last half hour or so I wish she had more to do. At that point Laurence Olivier is essentially the main character and while I understand the reason for that I still hold the opinion that she was the focus of the movie, not him. This is really only a minor fault I had though and really didn't impact my enjoyment much.

The supporting cast is great as well but I wanted to shout out Judith Anderson's character Mrs. Danvers in particular. She is great, she plays a caretaker for the estate who was very close with Rebecca and is immediately antagonistic towards Mrs. de Winter. She has this almost horror villain air around her that is very effective at increasing the suspense and tension. Everything from her glare to her Morticia Addams-esque design to the way she very calmly and deliberately moves was all either the work of fantastic acting or fantastic directing and I feel that it is probably a bit of both. She was one of my favorite parts of the entire movie.

The direction, as I've stated before, is flawless. Hitchcock knows how to set a scene, how to block it, and how to make it more effective than almost anyone else. The way he is able to wring every last drop of atmosphere out of every shot is truly something to behold and he is at the top of his game in this film. I really don't think I can impress upon you just how good the staging is here, I guess it's just one of those things you need to see for yourself.

At the time of writing it's been a few days since I've seen this film and I can't remember any of the music or how it was used so I don't want to comment for fear of messing up my thoughts on it.

This film is great. There is a reason Hitchcock is still so beloved today and this movie is a prime example as to why. Everything from the acting to the atmosphere is as good as it possibly can be. The thing I see really putting people off of this movie is it's pacing, I think it's just too slow for most people today. Hell, I like slow movies and even I was checking the clock to see if I was almost done watching it. But that's the only major blemish on what otherwise is a near-perfect film. Definitely a strong recommendation from me if you can stomach the slow pacing.