Rebecca is an enticing suspense thriller disguised by a romantic tinge about the past’s—or trauma’s —ability to be all-consuming. It follows a young, naive paid companion (Joan Fontaine) as she meets well-renowned aristocratic widower George Fortescue Maximillian “Maxim” de Winter (Laurence Olivier) at a Monte Carlo hotel. Romance quickly buds, to which de Winter asks the once paid companion to be his unpaid wife. She agrees and the two move to Manderley, de Winter’s seaside mansion. While the pair experience brief joy and loved the now new Mrs. de Winter learns quickly of her predecessor Rebecca’s grasp: a demanding, curt housekeeper and Rebecca’s close confidante constantly reminds the current Mrs. de Winter of the shoes she must fill; in attempt to please Mr. de Winter, she instead gets cold glares and crisp yells as if she’s no Rebecca; details around the estate—from simple date mismatches to the vagueness of Rebecca’s death—both confuse Mrs. de Winter and plague the rest of the house as reminders. Mrs. de Winter must find her footing as deserving of the title and discover the truth before her marriage drowns like her predecessor.

Escaping the past can be a fickle journey. People suffer from regret, loss, and nostalgically wistful thinking regardless of their personal situations. Guilt and years-long pain is unavoidable, but when improperly dealt with or ignored, it bleeds into others’ lives. Mr. de Winter is the embodiment of this easily passable trauma. Because of his first wife’s death, he cannot move on, he cannot live and he cannot love. While Mrs. de Winter gives her all immediately, he himself must move past the complexities and dread such loss brings. Loss only gets compounded further when the pre-death relationships are complicated, as ends up being the case between Rebecca and Maxim: “Rebecca has won. Her shadow has been between us all this time,” he leaks after admitting his true feelings for Rebecca to Mrs. de Winter. When people become so entangled in each other’s lives and such entanglements end, they do so messily and abruptly.

Mrs. de Winter, though without her husband’s grueling past, is alone and young. She clings onto de Winter even as a friend, merely because she has nothing else. A sharp observation of women’s roles (though potentially unintentional in Hitchcock’s creation), and a similarly resulting contrast to Mr. de Winter: both are alone and need someone to live life with. Because of her unwavering loyalty, she learns quickly what it means to be a true companion and have one herself: to love one another until death do them part requires unrelenting acceptance and togetherness. Through complicatedly layered tension building, encapsulating performances, and a multitude of symbolic reinforcement makes Rebecca a stolid romantic tragedy where, even though love blossoms, Rebecca still wins.

Rebecca
1940
dir. Alfred Hitchcock
130 min.

Screens Friday, 8/9, 6:00 pm @ Brattle Theatre
Double feature w/ Saboteur
Part of the repertory series: Hitchcock in 4k