Rebecca Review

[alobear]

In an attempt to drive last night's cinematic experience from my mind, I thought I'd go and see "The Devil Wears Prada" tonight, but it turns out it's not released until this weekend. So, I was left with my current DVD rental - Hitchcock's Rebecca, not exactly the film to ease a traumatised mind!

However, at least it was really good. Laurence Olivier will always be the perfect Mr Darcy to me, but it was interesting to see him doing something else. He makes rather a stilted Maxim de Winter - in fact, the whole film seemed very distant and stylised, which I suppose is a sign of the period and also a clever technique to engage our sympathies with the heroine more. That character is almost painfully sweet at the beginning, and certainly works very well as an island of fearful despair within the forbidding environs of Manderlay and the servants who remain devoted to the previous mistress.

Mrs Danvers is never portrayed as anything other than wholly evil, but makes an effective contrast to the clueless, timid heroine. I, like Maxim, was sorry to see her innocence destroyed, but glad to see her find her strength of character to stand up to the events in the latter part of the film. The characters managed to develop into real people towards the end, so it was a shame that the ending was so abrupt (a common problem I've found in the old classics). It was rather chilling to end on Mrs Danvers and Rebecca's room being consumed by the fire, rather than the satisfying and long-awaited reunion of Maxim and the heroine, finally released from the shadow of Rebecca.

All in all, very creepily and effectively shot - Hitchcock certainly knows how to do tension. It's just that now I need a romantic comedy to calm down!