Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...only it wasn't a dream after all

The gothic romance film reached new heights in 1940 with the release of "Rebecca," based on Daphne du Maurier's bestseller and helmed by Alfred Hitchcock. Revisiting this picture all these years later, consensus holds that it still retains its power to captivate visually and thematically and ensnare you in its mysteries. CineVerse drew back the curtains from the west wing last evening and took a closer look at this classic. Here's what we found:

WHAT THEMES ARE EXPLORED IN REBECCA?

• The struggle for identity. Consider how the new Mrs. DeWinter isn’t given a name and is constantly compared to her predecessor.
• Envy. The protagonist is jealous of Rebecca’s beauty and prestige as well as the respect and awe she continues to generate from the servants and friends she left behind.
• The power of the past. Max and his new bride seem prevented from being able to progress forward in their relationship because of the haunting legacy Rebecca has left behind. Rebecca’s power is represented in the Manderley mansion itself – once it burns down, Max is truly free of the past and can begin his life anew with his new wife.
• An unfulfilled Cinderella. This is a rags to riches tale for the main protagonist, who seems to get her prince and fairytale happy ending early in the story. Yet she experiences much doubt, frustration and unhappiness after becoming a princess.
• The illusion of happiness. It’s interesting that the only time we see Max and his new wife truly appearing happy together (smiling, laughing, acting playfully) is in home movie footage; and what is a movie but an illusion at 24 frames per second?
• A flimsy relationship: we see their marriage certificate paper blowing precariously in the wind, suggesting how vulnerable their coupling is.

REBECCA HINTS AT DARK AND DISTURBING PSYCHOLOGICAL SUBTEXTS THAT THE CENSORS WOULDN’T ALLOW TO BE SPELLED OUT CLEARLY. CAN YOU IDENTIFY ANY?

• There was a possible lesbian relationship between Mrs. Danvers and Rebecca. 
• Max DeWinter represents a domineering patriarchal order and masculine drive to control, subjugate and punish females.
• This type of character, the controlling male protagonist, is revisited by Hitchcock in films like Vertigo, Marnie and Notorious. 
• Some experts theorize that there’s a subconscious pedophilic urge on Maxim’s part in his effort to keep his new bride as childlike as possible and an Elektra complex suffered by his new wife. 
• Maxim is the father figure, while Mrs. Danvers, Mrs. Van Hopper and Rebecca herself represent threatening mother figures that the heroine must overcome.
• The film’s heroine is often visually depicted as inferior and fragile to Maxim in camera angles and setups we see. In compositions with Max, she’s framed as lower than or equal to Max’s height throughout the movie until the crucial later scene in the boathouse when Max confesses and she towers over him—a sign of her newfound maturity.
• She skips, fidgets with her hands, acts clumsily and is referred to as a child again and again.

WHAT IS INTERESTING ABOUT THE HEROINE’S NAME AND WHAT STATEMENT DOES THIS MAKE ABOUT THE CHARACTER?

• She is nameless throughout and thus has no identity or importance until she marries Maxim and later, declares aloud: I am Mrs. DeWinter now.”
• References to her as the second Mrs. DeWinter underscore how she’s second banana and inferior to the titular character.
• Max often mentions how he prefers her to look young and childlike: “It’s a pity you have to grow up,” he tells his new wife.

WHY IS “REBECCA” AN APPROPRIATE TITLE FOR THIS STORY?

• We don’t see the first Mrs. to winter at any time; we are shown no photo, painting or flashback scenes. 
• Yet, she casts a dark pallor over the entire story, like a ghost haunting us from the grave.
• Naming the tale after an unseen character is ironically appropriate, considering the real main character is shown but yet not named.

WHY IS REBECCA AN IMPORTANT MOVIE FOR HITCHCOCK, YET NOT CONSIDERED BY FILM CRITICS, SCHOLARS OR HISTORIANS A TRUE HITCHCOCK PICTURE?

• This was Hitchcock’s first American film since emigrating from Britain a year before.
• It won the Academy award for Best Picture and was highly popular.
• However, the producer was David O. Selznick, a domineering and micromanaging Hollywood mogul who imprinted his statement more strongly on many of his films than the directors he hired to shoot them.
• Consider Selznick’s previous achievement, “Gone With the Wind,” which endured four directorial changes at Selznick’s whim and also won the Best Picture Oscar; Selznick is considered to be that movie’s auteur. The same is arguably true of “Rebecca,” although it’s obvious that Hitchcock’s style and design are prevalent throughout the movie.
• This Hitchcock film doesn’t explore many of the themes and motifs used in many subsequent and previous pictures, including the icy blonde, the wrong man, the MacGuffin, a dysfunctional mother-son relationship, guilt and obsession, etc.
• It’s also much longer in duration and more romantically focused than films Hitchcock had made up to this point.

OTHER FILMS THAT REMIND US OF REBECCA:

• Suspicion
• Dragonwyck
• Jane Eyre
• Marnie
• Laura