Rebecca

maxim de winter might be the most attractive male protagonist ever. rebecca is a story which holds a special place in my heart, and has since i first read it when i was 14. the netflix adaptation from 2020 left a lot to be desired; it was a decent adaptation, but it didn’t capture any of the soul which daphne du maurier imbued within her novel. hitchcock’s film does a much better job of bringing the romance and terror of du maurier’s suspenseful story to the screen. i have so much praise i could share for this film, from the set design, to the actors, to the careful dialogue choices picked directly off the pages of rebecca,… it is really a stunning adaptation, and more movies based on books should follow this example. when i first read rebecca, it was for a british literature high school course that introduced me to many of my favorite novels to this day (most notably, i first read and fell in love with frankenstein in that class, as well). as part of the unit on rebecca, my peers and i watched several scenes from this film and discussed how they differed from the novel and why that case may be. it was fascinating and advanced my love for film, as well, especially film from the era of rebecca. i highly recommend looking into certain choices* hitchcock made with this movie to get a better understanding of its impact and creativity. *i’m not including spoilers in my review, but there are several artistic liberties that had to be taken due to censorship and restrictions of particular elements which are present in du maurier’s novel. also, the choice to never show the character rebecca in this film is such a good one. i expected to see her in flashbacks at the very least, and still, there is not a single frame where her character appears.