Premise: A young woman marries a rich man who seems haunted by the death of his first wife.
I saw this movie back in the 8th grade. My teacher required everyone to watch and write about an older movie from a list he compiled*. Looking back on that, I have two thoughts: 1) That was a cooler assignment than I realized at the time, which isn't surprising, because 8th graders are the worst. Even me when I was one. 2) I really wish I still had that list. I'd love to see what he pulled from or judge his assessment of worthwhile older movies. Regardless. I chose Rebecca, because it happened to be on the night I remembered about the assignment. I can't say it made a huge impression on me at the time, but I think I liked it.
*For that same teacher, I had a project on India where I needed to find a TV program to watch about it. I found one called Land of the Tiger that covered a different aspect of Indian nature each episode. I caught episode 3, "Unknown Seas" and got a point deduction on my assignment because what I wrote about had nothing to do with tigers. That happened 20 years ago and I'm still not over it. I didn't name the damn show, Mr. Trueblood.
One thing I love about getting older is remembering things. I think it's so cool to completely forget about something, then have an image or video unlock so a cache of memories. It's not quite nostalgia, because the purpose isn't to long for those times. It's more about indexing memories that were just images floating in your head before that. And that's what it was like watching Rebecca. I didn't think I remembered it all until certain scenes would trigger recollections. I think I liked this movie just a little bit extra because of it.
This is famously Alfred Hitchcock's only Best Picture winner, which is something that is as perplexing as it is understandable. Because, for all the praise we heap on Hitchcock for his brilliance, so many of his movies are experiments in some way. Rope is the single-take(ish). Rear Window is the stationary protagonist. The Birds is the mystery of the bird attacks. Generally, with a Best Picture winner, you can't reduce it down to the idea that it began with, which you seemingly always can do with Hitchcock movies. So, I'm actually somewhat surprised Hitchcock ever won Best Picture. It's much more surprising that he never won Best Director. Rebecca makes sense as his one though. It's a pretty lavish production. Before we get to the big twist, there's a love story, especially during the first 30 minutes, that is a more traditional studio romance. Hitchcock isn't steering too hard into the gimmicks yet (and I say "gimmick" lovingly).
It's weird. Watching this, I realize I haven't seen that many Lawrence Olivier movies. Just Spartacus and this, I think. I can't say I see why he's such a legend yet, but I'm excited to eventually get to some of his Shakespeare movies. Similar story for Joan Fontaine. I've only seen her in this and as part of the ensemble in The Women. She is stunning in this movie. And it's a pretty impressive performance for someone who was only 23 at the time.
This is just a really solid movie all around. I like how it literally turns into a different kind of movie 30 minutes in, then still finds time for a twist later the shakes everything up again. I don't know that I love the way Maxim is able to get away with it all, but a lot of that has to do with my modern understanding of the burden of proof.
Verdict: Strongly Recommend
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