Alfred Hitchcock and the film Rebecca 0 1
Alfred Hitchcock and the film Rebecca >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
Alfred Hitchcock • 13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980 • British filmmaker and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in his native United Kingdom in both silent films and early talkies • Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades • At the end of the 1930 s, David O. Selznick signed Hitchcock to a seven-year contract beginning in March 1939, when the Hitchcocks moved to the United States. >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
Hitchcock’s film style Over a career spanning more than half a century, Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognizable directorial style. Viewers are made to identify with the camera which moves in a way meant to mimic a person's gaze and which forces viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to manipulate the feelings of the audience and maximize anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing to demonstrate the point of view of the characters. >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
• Hitchcock made his first American movie Rebecca with the prestigious producer David O Selznick in 1940 (one year after Selznick made Gone with the wind) • Rebecca was set in England based on a novel by English author Daphne du Maurier. • The film starred Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. This Gothic melodrama explores the fears of a naive young bride who enters a great English country home and must adapt to the extreme formality and coldness she finds there. >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
Rebecca • Hitchcock filmed Rebecca with his unconventional 'cutting in camera' technique, where the action of the movie is filmed in sequence, rendering it virtually impossible to edit. Hence the blend of generic signifiers and mood that characterise this film. >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
Hitchcock explaining suspense >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
About the film The title, Rebecca, is emphasised by the frequent recurrence of the signature or initial 'R' as a motif, bestowing power on the absent woman. The film is most remarkable for: • the heroine who has no name • the dominant character who is dead • the lesbian overtones in much of the third female character’s portrayal >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
• Feminist readings of the Danvers character suggest that her clothes and demeanour are coded, her tone and emotion deviant (for a servant). They cite as evidence a faraway look in her eyes when she talks of Rebecca and her urging of the heroine to jump into the sea, coded psychoanalytically as a sea ‘of sexuality’. >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
Mise-en-scene • The primary mise-en-scène in this movie is the interior of a large English country mansion, the significance of which is foregrounded in the opening sentence by the heroine, "Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again. " Hitchcock creates a Gothic exterior, and utilises a system of lighting that casts long intimidating shadows around the nameless female narrator, which are iconographic of Gothic visuality >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
Mise-en-Scene He exploits the house interior as a visual narrative device, setting camera angles and lighting that make: • mantelpieces appear higher • windows become imposing • the shadowed staircase intimidating • furniture that isolates the central female character >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
• By dwarfing his heroine against architectural features early after her arrival at Manderley, he exploits the audience experience of myth and fairy tale, making her appear lost, vulnerable and mystified, like Alice in Wonderland, Red Riding Hood or Cinderella. >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
Censorship • Maxim De Winter is coded as a particular hero simply by being played by Lawrence Olivier, a great Hollywood romantic star at the time. One major alteration to the original plot of the novel was imposed by Hollywood censorship. The Hays Code would not allow a hero who had killed his wife whatever the provocation. >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
Time • Time plays a great importance in Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca (1976). Du Maurier makes numerous references to clocks, hours, and the passing of time to signify the nature of change and the loss of youth. >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
• Youth is also snatched away by time as innocence and awkwardness dims with experience and suffering. Feelings become less intense, pain begins to sedate. The narrator, from early in her relationship with Maxim, feels her youth ebbing away. The most evident depiction of this is when the narrator is an ally to Maxim after he confesses to the murder of his first wife, Rebecca. Speaking of the naivety that he fell in love with, Maxim explains that: ‘It’s gone in 24 hours, you are much older’. Just as the time and routine of daily life slowly take away youth and naivety, intense suffering makes the process speed. >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
Joan Fontaine – the girl • Hitchcock, known for terrifying his actresses, told Joan Fontaine that everyone on the set of the film hated her, in order to magnify the required shyness and unease of the role. >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
Awards • The film was a huge success and received 11 Oscar nominations • Won 2 – Cinematography and Best Film (presented to the producer) >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
Hitchcock’s cameos • When Hitchcock needed a few additional people "to fill the screen" he cast himself as an extra. The "Hitchcock cameo" came to be a legend in itself, but he didn't appear in all his movies. >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
• The Birds - Gas station scene • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=Id. OF 7 xg 5 lug • Psycho – shower scene • https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=8 VP 5 j EAP 3 K 4 >> 0 >> 1 >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >>
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