Rebecca

Rebecca was filmed in 1940 and was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It was his first Hollywood project and the only one to win a best picture oscar. It has been decribed as a psychological thriller/romance and is based on a novel by Daphne Du Maurier. Hitchcock wanted to keep the dark atmosphere of the novel so insisted that it be shot in black and white.

The film starts with the soft and urgent voice of the unnamed heroine of the film, it is a voice over as she decribes Manderley as if it is like a dream and then states that they can never go back there in person, only in her dreams. She then says 'I do go back to the strange days of my life which began for me in the south of France' this statment ends the 'dream' opening and starts the film.

While the unamed heroine talks the camera movement are very origanal, the camera pauses at the tall iron gates of Manderley, an English country mansion, and then moves through them. The camera then twists up the drive that has become overgrown with plants. At the end of the drive, the camera tracks to the right through Manderley. The mansion's forbidding, burned-out ruins are seen silhouetted in the mist, viewed in shadow and moonlight. This makes the audience feel uneasy and makes then want to know what happened at Manderley that was so bad to make it look as it is now. A fire had happened but why could they never go back? The voice over also makes the audience want to watch more as the unamed heroine sounds uneasy also as if this place holds bad memory's for her but she is still drawn to it (as she visits it in her dreams).

After this and her last line 'the strange days of my life which began for me in the south of France' You the see a rocky coastline where waves crash against the rock cliffs, the camera pans left and then up to a well-dressed man wearing a black suit, he stands at the cliff's edge, staring at the sea and he also appears to be distracted. As he moves toward the edge you then see the woman who was talking in the 'dream' opening as she is walking near by and shouts 'No, stop!' as she fears he is going to jump.

You can tell the genre of this film by the uneasiness of the womens voice, how Manderley looks and how distracted the man is. Also you get the idea that is could also be a romance and the two main characters are interduced.

I really enjoyed this film though while watching it i got a bit freaked out, it is very effective on making the audience feel uncomfortable.