World Cinema Classics: Rebecca (1940)

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Cast: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, Judith Anderson

Plot: A beautiful young woman marries a rich widower. Only to find out his mind is still quite occupied with memories of his charming dead wife.

Rebecca is wholesome cinematic education. Even after so many years it is an unparalleled experience in terms of shrewd direction. Alfred Hitchcock's trademark suspense is there as always. The subtle representation of characters is backbone of the movie.

From the beginning till almost the end Mr. de Winter (Laurence Oliver) maintains an eccentric and somewhat unpredictable persona - which has been credited to the death of his beloved, well bred, sophisticated and perfect wife Rebecca. But there is so much more to it. Nearing the end you get to see some never thought of twists. This was the class of Hitchcock. You don't even dream there will be any unforeseen developments now-only some hidden secret about a particular character will be revealed. So you aren't involved in any guess work and suddenly there is the bolt from the blue. Watch the movie and you will struck too!
The evil aura around Mrs.Danvers is what Maestro wants the audience to focus at and they do. She completely adores Rebecca and a slight lesbianism can't be denied. Her fling with Rebecca's cousin makes it even more interesting. You become a detective and Hitchcock laughs! What a genius!

The best thing about the movie is character of 2nd Mrs. de Winter and its perfect representation. This is something you do associate Hitchcock with. His movies always study the female characters in-depth.

Joan Fontaine's (2nd Mrs. de Winter) portrayal of character is perfection-personified. She plays a middle class girl who suddenly gets married to a rich man and has to move into the huge Manderley mansion. Her awkwardness is so real-while transiting from middle class living to a high society. Fontaine's body language makes you wonder whether it's acting or actually happening with hidden cameras fitted around!

The Director's strength has always been his implicit narration, at times it is too much and seems baseless (like it was in case of The Birds).

Here this implicit representation is accurate and very abstract. For Example, 2nd Mrs. de Winter's name isn't even used once in the whole movie. All such background details have been left to the audience's discretion.

World Cinema won't be complete without this masterpiece.

8.8/10