Rebecca

Rebecca (2020) written by Jane Goldman, Joe Shrapnel, and Anna Waterhouse; directed by Ben Wheatley is a Netflix original, based on a novel of the same name. The creators were adamant in saying this is not a remake of the Alfred Hitchcock rendition. I can’t speak on the relation to the Hitchcock version but I can speak on this one.

The opening is ominous, dark, and blue. We are under water with a voice over from the main character, Mrs. de Winter (played by Lily James). The light changes to red while entering a massive house and we realize we are in a dream, and immediately color and lighting are going to be important in this movie.

We are moved to Monte Carlo and there is a clear distinction between real life and the dream world. The lighting is more “natural” and the colors are more-true to life. The costumes are superb. They draw the eye as the colors pop from the rest of the world because most of it is rather white and subtle earth toned so small things are accentuated.

Green is jealousy. In the beginning Mrs. Van Hopper (played by Ann Dowd) is in green when around her other, presumably just as greedy, rich friends. We see it again when Mrs. de Winter sits in a green chair, or adopts a green coat both after hearing more information about Rebecca, the late wife of Maxim de Winter (played by Armie Hammer).

Mrs. de Winter is in a wonderful burgundy which sets her apart from the rest of the world bright colorful French world. They see her as dull and different, coming from England and her actions reflect that.

Maxim his in such a bright yellow, putting him in place with the world they exist in, but so much more than it, brighter, better.

Blue is fully for Rebecca. It is the color of her book of poetry left in Maxim’s car, it is the color plastered all over her room, and the one worn by her allies and those attempting to adopt her position.

In the beginning the music is purely instrumental, and is reminiscent of some soft kind of far-away land. The lighting looks natural, while also being dreamy. Natural accentuated into the dream. The meeting of Mrs. de Winter and Maxim, is a montage-like sequence that feels like a dream. Everything is like a dream. The scenes intercut and blend together at times, using jump fades and jump cuts. It feels quick and quite frankly unattached, emotionally. Where we are at minute twenty-five, I would have imagined us to have gotten to at the half-way marker. Though I believe it could’ve worked if the montage scene was less and longer scenes. As it currently stands, I believe it moves too quickly for us to get emotionally attached, or to really grasp Lily James’ character attachment to Maxim.

The creators do use this technique really well later on in the movie, when dreams and reality starts to blend together.

When they do get to Maxim’s house, Mrs. de Winter is now dressed in a light blue, the house keeper, Mrs. Danvers (played by Kristin Scott Thomas) is in a dark blue, and we hear the first song with singing. Singing here becomes the sign of a major change, often misguided. And the dreaminess disappears. The lighting is highly contrasted, the colors are less bright, more earth-toned, yet just as saturated.

Mrs. de Winter is again out of place, having adopted the bright colors of France, now finding herself in a green carpeted room, attempting to live up to the ghost of Rebecca. The whole house is shrouded in the idea of the old Mrs. de Winter, and how much Maxim is holding onto her.

Maxim loses his mustard yellow suit in favor of an OD green corduroy one, more fitting to the house, his home, while Mrs. de Winter can’t keep up. It is like she is always a step away and behind as everyone keeps moving at their own pace.

Here, about half an hour in, Rebecca turns into a bit of a mystery movie, with her actions and the music compliments that though it just feels like we are turning around in circles as she is too. Again, this feels much too rushed with very little keeping us attached. She follows the dogs to clues about Rebecca that Maxim wouldn’t want her learning. From them she finds dolls and the shack on the beach. But that’s the extent of the part that the dogs play.

At the beach she is back in red, as is Maxim. This is also the first time Maxim yells at her. He showed he didn’t want to go in the ocean before but now he’s yelled at her and we see our first super wide shot as she chases the dog along the beach. We learn she looks like Rebecca, and has inherited all of her things. The coat, the handkerchief, the brush, the bed, the staff. But has she gained the true love of Maxim? It doesn’t feel like love anymore, and it certainly isn’t a dream.

Unfortunately, all of her actions feel as though she could have done them at any time, and bear little to no relevance. It feels like we are waiting, and waiting, which is what we should understand she is doing without having to feel that way ourselves. She just stumbles into Rebecca’s pale-blue room.

The act of Danvers’ old friend Jack Favel (played by Sam Riley) come for tea is at first odd. Then I realized his inclusion is supposed to be odd, and was just not placed rightly through the story. His colors connect him to Max or at least a similar position to Max, being a lover of Rebecca. Favel character could have been used so well, but instead his inclusion aren’t, as it doesn’t totally change the way we see things. He should be the major twist bringer and he’s not. It feels like everything here want’s to be good information given at dramatic times, but it doesn’t seem to work. Things move and people change sides without much understandable reasoning, but what is worse is that Mrs. de Winter just accepts them.

It is slow, and kind of misguiding, but it does have good moments. All of the flip flopping make Mrs. de Winter seem like an idiot in the field of emotional intelligence and feeling of human beings, and if it were done well then it probably would have blown people out of the water. But it is no easy thing, and feels as though it was rushed.

Issues in character motivation and reaction come up most frequently but the acting is still a great change from both James and Hammer. It is subtle, but when zoomed out the difference is obvious. Mrs. de Winter is drawn far from and close to Maxim time and time again, but often does not feel natural. It is more of an unnatural situation rather than with the performance.

We do see things come back and get reused, but it is not nearly as strong as it could be, which could never be “saved” by any amount of acting.

There are obvious themes that are meant to be important, for instance the dreams of water are meant to show the drowning later in the movie, but again, it feels as though there was nothing really in between to get us from one to the other, and so, it falls desperately short.

Shots are used well. An extreme close up and extreme wide are both used only once which allows them to really communicate the deep intensity, and massiveness of these moments. Aside from the color, those two moments are really only the ones that have stuck with me, because the movie was just that, a collection of moments which had noting connecting them together. Technically, and art department wise, Rebecca is a beautiful movie. But the story structure of this rendition leaves much to be desired.

November 5, 2020