Oscar Week: Rebecca
One of the biggest cinematic upsets is Alfred Hitchcock without that coveted Best Director Award. By far the one of greatest director of all time, Hitchcock not only provided legendary tense thrillers and horrors but he has influenced a whole sleuth of directors; inspiring them to kick start their own careers. Recently, someone compared Psycho to being over acted and thus dismissed a lot of good about Hitchcock and his stunning career. Psycho was a taut and scary movie that still creeps down the spines of viewers today. It carried on into films as brilliant as North by North West, The Birds and Vertigo. It is shocking that Hitchcock never scooped that golden statuette for Best Director.
But luckily, he has an Oscar notch on his belt when Rebecca won the Best Picture Oscar in 1940. Based on a book by Daphne du Maurier, it tells the story of a young woman who meets aristocrat Maxim De Winter and falls in love with him. They soon marry and she moves into his lavish house. However, things soon turn sour when she discovers that his previous wife’s remnants haunt the house and residents. It doesn’t help that the Head of the Housekeep Danvers keeps reminding the new Mrs De Winter of the old and better Rebecca…
This movie is so brilliantly tense that it is impossible to not feel the fear of fright. The outstanding thing about Rebecca is that it is a haunted house affair with no ghost. Not once does a spectre appear and there are no bumps in the night. But what is scary is that this film has Danvers putting some incredible mental stress on the new Mrs De Winter that the young woman is pushed to breaking point. The infatuation that Danvers has becomes this ball of menace that rings loudly through the house. Pushing Mrs De Winters to the edge of her mentality, Rebecca soon becomes this twisting thriller. Hitchcock’s keen eye for suspense and the way he sets up his scenes makes each moment iconic and truly terrifying.
It helps that his main player here is Joan Fontaine (who sadly passed away last year.) She stands her ground with illuminating actors such as George Sanders (playing his usual slimeball self) and Laurnece Olivier but still exerts innocence and intrigue. Coming from an unknown background, this new Mrs De Winter is thrust into a lifestyle she is clearly unknown world. As the story progresses, Fontaine develops her character to start to harden against Denver’s tirade and it makes for compelling watching.
Hitchcock deserved his Best Picture Award and rightly one it. This movie is so haunting that it sticks with your mind. One of those films that changes with every watch because something new comes out of the woodwork, Rebecca indeed is a genius film and one everyone needs to see; especially to see exactly how psychology and mind games can be portrayed in cinema
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