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Rebecca
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Movie
| Book
| Author
| Director
& cast
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Movie: Rebecca (1940)
Book: Rebecca (1938)
Premise
movie:
"A shy ladies companion is staying in Monte Carlo
with her stuffy employer when she meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter.
Max is still troubled by the death of his wife, Rebecca in a boating
accident the year before. She and Max fall in love, get married and
return to Manderlay, his large country estate in Cornwall. The
second Mrs. de Winter meets the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers and
discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at
Manderlay."
from:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032976/plotsummary
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Premise
book & Author:
"Daphne du Maurier was one of the twentieth-century's most accomplished exponents of Gothic fiction. Her most
famous work, Rebecca, takes a familiar literary device - the arrival
of a second wife in her new husband's home - and turns it into an
occasion for mystery, suspense and violence. On a trip to the South
of France, a lady companion is swept off her feet by handsome
widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Whisked
from Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs.
de Winter finds Max a changed man, haunted by the memory of his dead
wife Rebecca that is kept alive by the forbidding housekeeper Mrs.
Danvers. When Rebecca's body is discovered at sea, it becomes clear
that Mr. de Winter is concealing far more than grief. The enigmatic
heroine in a hostile environment, hero tormented by a guilty secret
and rugged seacoast setting have invited comparison with the work of
the Brontė sisters and are now considered staple ingredients of
modern romantic fiction. She also published a number of plays and
biographies, including those of Branwell Brontė and her father
Gerald du Maurier, and had a number of her works adapted
successfully for the cinema. Alfred Hitchcock in particular was keen
on du Maurier's work and filmed both Jamaica Inn and Rebecca as well
as The Birds, which was based on a short story. In 1973 Nicolas Roeg
made his haunting film of Don't Look Now based on her novel Not
after Midnight." "Daphne du Maurier was part of a creative and successful family; she
was the grand-daughter of the artist and writer George du
Maurier, and daughter of Gerald, the most famous theatrical actor manager of
his day. She grew up in London with her sisters Angela and Jeanne
and was educated at home by a governess. It was a lively household
where friends like JM Barrie and Edgar Wallace visited frequently.
She went to schools in London, Meudon in France, and Paris. She was
indulged as a child and enjoyed enormous freedom from financial and
parental restraint. She spent her youth sailing boats, travelling in
Europe with friends and writing stories. She had a close
relationship with her father and he encouraged her when she began
writing stories and poetry at an early age.In her childhood she was
a voracious reader, she was fascinated by imaginary worlds and
developed a male alter ego for herself. Her uncle, a magazine
editor, published one of her stories when she was a teenager and got
her a literary agent."
from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/books/author/dumaurier
/index.shtml
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Director:
"Alfred Hitchcock was the son of East End greengrocer
William Hitchcock and his wife Emma. Raised as a strict Catholic and
attending Saint Ignatius College, a school run by Jesuits, Hitch had
very much of a regular upbringing. His first job outside of the
family business was in 1915 as an estimator for the Henley Telegraph
and Cable Company. His interest in movies began at around this time,
frequently visiting the cinema and reading US trade journals. In
1920 Hitch learned that Lasky were to open a studio in London and
managed to secure a job as a title designer. He designed the titles
for all the movies made at the studio for the next two years. In
1923 he got his first chance at directing when the director of
Always Tell Your Wife (1923) fell ill and Hitch completed the movie.
Impressed by his work, studio chiefs gave him his first directing
assignment on Number 13 (1922), however, before it could be
finished, the studio closed its British operation. Hitch was then
hired by Michael Balcon to work as an assistant director for the
company later to be known as Gainsborough Pictures. In reality Hitch
did more than this - working as a writer, title designer and art
director. After several films for the company, Hitch was given the
chance to direct a British/German co-production called Pleasure
Garden, The (1925). Hitchcock's career as a director finally began.
Hitchcock went on to become the most widely known and influential
director in the history of world cinema with a significant body of
work produced over 50 years."
from:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000033/bio
Cast:
Laurence Olivier (Maxim de Winter), Joan Fontaine (The second
Mrs. de Winter), George Sanders (Jack Favell), Judith Anderson (Mrs.
Danvers), Gladys Cooper (Beatrice Lacy), Nigel Bruce (Major Giles
Lacy)
from:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032976/fullcredits
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