Rebecca (1940)

**One of the greatest films of Hitchcock's career.**
Alfred Hitchcock was truly a master, and there are not many directors who can present a CV so vast, so rich and so deserving of acclaim. Ironically, he did not win a single Oscar for his work as a director and even this film, which was one of the most awarded in his work, only won two Oscars (Best Film and Best Black-and-White Cinematography) at the 1941 ceremony.
The film was produced by David O. Selznick through his own studio, which was then busy completing and releasing “Gone With the Wind”. He had acquired the film rights to the original novel, by Daphne du Maurier, and hoped that Hitchcock would be faithful to the material. He reluctantly agreed, but imposed his deeply detailed working methods, significantly delaying filming, which was just one of the points of friction between producer and director. Things got to the point where Hitchcock banned Selznick from “his” studio and prevented his interference, filming only what he thought he was going to use in order to restrict the final cut.
It goes without saying, I believe, that Hitchcock gave us another memorable work worthy of every cinephile's bookshelf. The cinematography, in black and white, is modeled with great care and beauty, using some very innovative techniques for the time. The soundtrack also works wonderfully and is very atmospheric. The mansion's sets and costumes were also points in which the production invested a lot and applied itself, in order to provide greater realism. It appears that the exterior of the house was, in fact, a scale model.
The script is impressively effective: after a quick courtship, a very rich man marries a young woman from modest origins and takes her to his impressive mansion. However, he was a recent widower, and the house is filled with disturbing memories of his previous marriage, as if his first wife still roams around, and could become a palpable presence that threatens to tear the couple apart. There are more elements in between, such as the housekeeper's strange obsession with her previous boss, to whom she devoted a bizarre loyalty, and the deepening of the mysteries leads to a surprising ending, so it's worth not reading anything about the film before watching see it in its entirety. Of course, if we think about it, it becomes incomprehensible that, with a new wife, that man kept the housekeeper in his house, along with all the objects that belonged to the deceased...
Joan Fontaine was chosen for the main character, giving us a quality, very convincing performance. She seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown for a huge period of time and that is what certainly earned her the Oscar for Best Actress for this work, one of the best in her career. Laurence Olivier also does a good job and, despite hating Fontaine's choice (he pressured the production to give the role to his real-life partner, Vivien Leigh) and not having a good, friendly relationship with her colleague, he is extraordinarily competent when they are on stage together. Judith Anderson also deserves praise for her work.

A good movie and interesting plot but the characters are a little bit exaggerated and the outcome is quite expectable.