Rebecca

(Paperback)

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Description

The 1940 film adaptation of Daphne du Mauriers gothic romance Rebecca begins by echoing the novels famous opening line, Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. Patricia White takes the theme of return as her starting point for an exploration of the films enduring power. Drawing on archival research, she shows how the production and reception history of Rebecca, the first fruit of the collaboration between Hollywood movie producer David O. Selznick and British director Alfred Hitchcock, is marked by the traces of womens contributions. White provides a rich analysis of the film, addressing the gap between perception and reality that is constantly in play in the gothic romance, and highlighting the queer erotics circulating around I (the heroine), Mrs Danvers, and the dead but ever-present Rebecca. Her discussion of the films afterlives emphasizes the lasting aesthetic impact of this dark masterpiece of memory and desire, while her attention to its remakes and sequels speaks to the ongoing relevance of its vision of gender and power.

Reviews

White pays ample and poetic attention to the films aesthetic dimensions, beautifully highlighting both Hitchcocks style and cinematic experience ... Whites marvelously observed, meticulous monograph offers fitting tribute. * Hitchcock Annually *
This in-depth look at [the] celebrated 1940 film adaptation of Daphne du Mauriers gothic romance draws on archival research to consider themes of returning and appearance and reality. * Choice *
Patricia Whites study of the 1940 goth romance turns a salutary spotlight on the women who steered it to the screen. Ben Wheatleys re-do gets a nod, but theres a more fruitful comparison with Paul Thomas Andersons Phantom Thread. * Total Film *
[Patricia White has found] an autonomous and brilliant path in the wide range of readings of the film that have accumulated over the years, managing to provide an original contribution and to open up further interpretative possibilities. (Bloomsbury Translation) * Imago: Studi di cinema e media (Bloomsbury Translation) *
In Rebecca, Patricia White lends her voice to the womenamong them, Daphne du Maurier, Irene Selznick, Joan Harrison, and Alma Reville, as well the films criticswho have contributed extensively to the making and understanding of Hitchcocks classic film. In a sense White brilliantly stages yet one more return of the dead woman, Rebecca, who haunts the unnamed heroine and so many fans of the novel and the film, and in lucid and compelling prose testifies to the undying appeal of the ghostly character and her magnificent maleficence. * Tania Modleski, University of Southern California, USA *

Author Bio

Patricia White is Professor of Film and Media Studies at Swarthmore College, USA. She is author of Womens Cinema/World Cinema: Projecting Contemporary Feminisms (2015) and Uninvited: Classical Hollywood Cinema and Lesbian Representability (1999), and is a member of the Camera Obscura editorial collective.