Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca

Rebecca was a movie that was based off of a book written by Daphne Du Maurier’s. The novel was written a few years before the 1940’s release of Rebecca. A film about a wealthy man marrying an orphaned women who only knows the wealthy life through her job as a companion. The young women is haunted by her new husband’s late wife. Maxim de Winters (Laurence Olivier) is a very calm and knowingly cool character. He knows how to take control of a situation like he did when Mrs. deWinters (Joan Fontaine) had to tell Mrs. Van Hopper that he was going to marry her “companion”. Although he is a strong male character he falls for the awkwardly shy girl that only goes by Mrs. De Winters. We never find out her first name making it easier …show more content…
The audible cues allow for visual cues to be noticed a bit faster. The scene where Mrs. deWinters catches the dog after he ran away to the beach cottage is paired with fast high pitched music this allows me to realize that Maxim is not pleased with her actions. When she confronts him the music stays the same until he hands her a hankie that is monogramed with Rebecca’s initials the music darkens, when this music cue happens you realize how many items in the house still belong to his late wife. Hitchcock fades in and out of scenes to note the end of one scene to the next, almost always during a dramatic or a detrimental scene. When he does this it tends to mark a tense feeling of uneasiness that needs to be remembered. Every scene seems to use the same camera angles until you really look into it, you begin to see a gothic melodramatic film unravel in front of you simply by using different camera shots. When the music creates emotions like this it leaves the narrative …show more content…
An example of this would be when Mrs. de Winter is walking towards Rebecca’s old room, the shot takes place between Mrs. deWinters and a large white door. This shot helps bring fear into the audience. Alongside the reverse tracking Hitchcock uses three-dimensional shadows this helps show the interiors of the room as well as what the character may be doing at the time. Shadowing in a black and white film are very important, you must find the balance of black, white, and greys because in this film it helps define a moment. An example of this would be when Mrs. deWinters walks into Rebecca’s room for the first time it is dark and dingy looking and all you can really see is the silhouette of the items of her room; the room lightens up and seems to be welcoming once the curtains are pulled open. The camera stays on Fontaine’s face allowing you to grasp the emotions she is feeling, the camera also pans with her every movement. The music in this scene screams louder and louder building up anticipation of the ghostly story Anderson is