"Rebecca" in the #MeToo Era

[mallorys_camera]

The UK divorces Europe.

Trump did it, sure, but Republicans just don’t care.

And it only gets worse from here because Pluto/Saturn conjunction in Capricorn.

Time to bury your head in the sand! It’s how the mammals survived the asteroid that took out the dinosaurs, after all.

La, la, la, la, la! I can’t hear you!

###

My head-burying took the form of back-to-back viewings of ancient BBC dramatizations of Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca.

I have a thing for Daphne DuMaurier. Her life and personality are utterly fascinating to me, plus I think she was a damn good writer, a brilliant storyteller and a subtle stylist.

Rebecca, as the antimatter Jane Eyre, is particularly fascinating.

I am a total devotee of what I suppose you’d call the Big House genre of English novels. Brideshead (Brideshead Revisited) is my absolute favorite, but Brandham Hall (The Go-Between) is a close second. So, Manderly! Right up my alley.

Of course, the meme of young-girl-swept-off-her-feet-by-man-old-enough-to-be-her-father-or-grandfather (depending on casting) is total anathema by today’s social mores where sexual attraction is strictly segregated by age categories, kind of as though our culture has become one big elementary school.

(I can just imagine all those creepy commenters on ohnotheydidnt going, Ewwwwwww.)

Then there’s Mrs. Danvers and the lesbian subtext.

Most interesting of all, though, is Rebecca herself whom we’re supposed to feel revolted by because she wanted to have an independent sex life and talked trash about the English class system.

Rebecca, to me, seems like an absolute heroine! Every time I reread the book, I am rooting for Rebecca! Burn it down, yes-s-s-s-s! I say on that third-to-the-last page as Maxim and Nameless are driving back from London, and they catch a glimpse of Manderly ablaze reflected on the drifting mists. Fight the power!

I’m actually rather surprised that no one has thought to rewrite Rebecca from Rebecca’s perspective the way Jean Rhys rewrote Jane Eyre from the perspective of the madwoman in the attic in Wide Sargosso Sea. Though I suppose Daphne DuMaurier’s estate would never allow it.

###

I would eliminate the 1940 Alfred Hitchcock film from the Rebecca canon. While a very fine film, it isn’t actually Rebecca at all but a standard Alfred Hitchcock lady-in-distress movie that borrows Rebecca’s status detail.

BBC Dramatization 1 (1994) stumbles on casting. Charles Dance was recruited to play Maxim deWinter, and he is physically wrong for the role being one of those redheads whose collagen degenerated as he aged, which is fine for playing a steely despot in Game of Thrones but not fine for a romantic lead. A very young Emilia Fox plays the second Mrs. deWinter; she is waay too self-possessed for the role. Diana Rigg won a BAFTA for her Mrs. Danvers, and she is Whatever-Happened-to-Baby-Jane levels of insanity. Fun to watch. But not Mrs. Danvers.

Manderly in this version of Rebecca is perfect, though.

BBC Dramatization 2 (1979) is cast perfectly. Jeremy Brett is insanely attractive as Maxim and Joanna David is very, very good, too. (Nameless is actually a hard role to pull off since it must simultaneously capture the audience’s focus while maintaining that sense of What-could-he-possibly-see-in-her? ) And Anna Massey as Mrs. Danvers was a real revelation, utterly brilliant in the role.

This is by far the best version of Rebecca although badly directed and with an awful orchestral soundtrack. Hard to find, though: It only exists in pirated copies of very poor quality on YouTube. But worth tracking down if you’re a Rebecca purist like me-e-e-e-e!

Comments

[asakiyume]

Point me to the pirated links! I loved Rebecca in both its book and Alfred Hitchcock incarnation. I saw the movie first as an impressionable teen and was wowed by it, then read the book and liked the book even better. ... I did see one made-for-TV dramatization that I enjoyed; it'll probably have been one of the BBC ones, but I won't know which until I see this 1979 one you're talking about.

[asakiyume]

(It's okay--I can find the links on Youtube myself)

[mallorys_camera]

😃😃😃

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8XdXIVVA0c Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7N0-Cwa0VnY Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1ZW6UzeXD8 Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaIJ6jBpYns

The pirated copies are edited weirdly; you'll have to hunt and peck to get the full version. Worth it, though.

[asakiyume]

Yes, this is the one I saw! I'm going to watch it again. The protagonist is much more genuinely mousey, unlike Joan Fontaine.