Alfred Hitchcock's Film Rebecca

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Alfred Hitchcock's film Rebecca, the 1940s film based on Daphne du Maurier’s novel, contains themes like death, murder, adultery, and incest. The film is also organized in a manner that is meant to be enjoyed by mature people or people who would take the film seriously. However, looking at the organization of the film in terms of the cinematic techniques, the director of the film made the right decisions regarding lighting and camera movement. The film attempts to explore the relationship between present and past, Mrs De Winter and Rebecca. In the chosen sequence, a defining character is Rebecca, a dead woman whose presence is dominant. Mrs De Winter is Maxim De Winter’s new wife who is placed into the position of lady of the house —a position …show more content…

Both characters seem to break down to their most vulnerable selves. The couple shares Rebecca’s small shack and exchange more embraces than in any other scene. Maxims wife begs him to stay with her even though she knows he still loves Rebecca, and Maxim puts down his wall, and decides to tell her the truth about his feelings for Rebecca that he has been hiding all along. One of the craziest parts about the story Rebecca is this sequence. The entire story we believe that this is a story about the main character working on her gripe with Maxims late wife whom she can’t seem to amount up to; until this scene. In this sequence we learn that Maxim never really loved Rebecca and not only that, he’s the one who killed her. In the revelation the Maxim never loved Rebecca, the main character can finally stop comparing herself to her and can recognize that Maxim loves her for who she is. This overwhelming passion to be with him is displayed in the desperation you hear in Mrs. De Winters voice when she tries to reason with her husband, saying the only ones who know of Maxim’s secret is them and that it can stay that way. One reason I chose this sequence was because it was peculiar to me, the reason that the director took the most shocking plot twist and changed it. In the novel, Rebecca was murdered by Maxim’s shotgun, but in the film she's explained to have tripped and fallen to her …show more content…

Because the scene was shot in the small cottage, there was little room for different focal lengths, so most of the shots are jumps between the characters to create drama. All of the shots in this sequence are medium shots and close ups, giving the audience the perception of a cramped space that's over occupied with forgotten objects. The camera also follows Maxim’s movements, like a person eyes would, but not the eyes of the heroine who is slightly to the side, like the eyes of a third party. Mise-en-scene arrangements are also evident in the sequence. Because the film is in black and white, it was pivotal in this scene to use lighting to create drama. Hitchcock has put different components into different scenes and he arranged them in a meaningful way. Rebecca’s room was said to have been exactly how she left it, in this scene Maxim describes how Rebecca walked across the room as she spoke to him, the ash tray that he described her having use is still there, as if she had just put out her cigarette. Then Maxim walks back and leans against the wall, and stumbles to open the door to reveal where Rebecca died. Within the clip, it can be seen that eerie music is used when Maxim is telling Mrs De Winter about the night that Rebecca died. The director used music as a way to illustrate the torment Maxim feels when speaking about the past, which is significant to the film narration. This is

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