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Chester's Replies
You’re assuming Rex should not have gone through with Lemorne’s offer, but the film has a deeply spiritual obsession with fate.
Right from the beginning Saskia, and later Rex, are plagued by dreams of Saskia encased in a golden egg in space, terrified of the loneliness until Rex, also in a golden egg, crashes into hers and they are reunited, ending her loneliness.
As Rex perishes in his wooden coffin, his final image is the glowing face of Saskia with a beaming smile. Rex vowed never to abandon Saskia at the beginning, and after three years of delirious obsession he has joined her in the afterlife, finally bringing peace to her soul and his.
Whether or not you believe in such things, this film certainly does. So what is the most grim, disturbing, random fate in the physical world, is a blissful, fated reunification in the spiritual realm. The final shot features smiling images of Saskia and Rex in their ‘eggs’ in the newspaper, while Lemorne is sat there hollow and unfulfilled, surrounded by his family, living a lie, terribly alone.
Yes, To Catch A Thief was great fun, and you're right about the South of France being a great setting, and of course Grace Kelly is transcendentally gorgeous - Hitchcock’s ultimate blonde. I think it was the ‘action’ ending that kept it from greatness for me. I’m just a sucker for the deep, dark, psychological horror notes that Hitchcock hits so well.
I was surprised how much I liked Marnie, I’d heard mixed reviews but I thought it was captivating and Connery was impressive as a kind of hero-villain-thing. It’s not often you get a hero rapist but Hitchcock somehow sells it! Speaking of rape, I could not believe how brutal the rape and murder in Frenzy was. Hitchcock is normally tastefully restrained and leaves it to the imagination, but I guess this was the nasty 70’s and he puts it all on front street. It was an interesting experiment and very effective but I’m in no hurry to watch it again.
I still count Vertigo as Sight and Sound’s No 1, they only crowbarred Jeanne Dielman - a foreign film directed by a feminist lesbian - into first place to appease the woke mob in what is nothing more than a grotesque box-ticking exercise. Vertigo is still the king and we all know it.
Gibson has many friends in the industry, including blacks and jews, maybe some of them agree with the things he said relating to black crime and jewish power. I’m glad he hasn’t been cancelled. I don’t approve of what he said and I’m sure most don’t either but that shouldn’t deny a great director and movie star a career worthy of his considerable talent.
How does Gibson waving at Trump say anything about whether or not he regrets what he said?
You’re not meant to empathise with Rebecca beyond having some sympathy for anyone taken before their time, but you are meant to care about - as in be impacted by - the ‘ghost’ in this story and I wasn’t especially.
Perhaps Fontaine was so radiant she outshone her predecessor.
Vertigo is my favourite - that one goes deep and strange, like a David Lynch film, with a haunting ending. That’s closely followed by Psycho. Of the Hitchcock’s I’ve seen, those two are in a league of their own. They’re utterly captivating and pull the rug from under you so expertly you're left twisting in the dark for days.
The Wrong Man, Rope, Shadow Of A Doubt, Dial M for Murder, Saboteur, Marnie and Frenzy all stayed with me and I would consider buying them.
I actually find NbyNW to be a bit thin, rather like an old Bond film. Nothing wrong with it, plenty to enjoy, but didn’t get into my subconscious like his best stuff and I found it overrated. Rear Window is fantastic but let down by the ‘twist’ that what looked like a crime… was exactly as it seemed. The Birds was great but tripped up by those special effects - nobody’s fault but just too ambitious for the time and they ‘plucked’ me out of the film. Suspicion was superb… until the botched ending.
As for Rebecca, I like the concept of a ‘ghost story without a ghost’ and I was strung along by the storytelling and Fontaine’s radiance… but the spectre of Rebecca didn’t especially intrigue me, and by the end I found it somewhat underwhelming, just because it’s been so hyped up by audiences and critics and I was hoping to be left quivering as with Vertigo and Psycho. Hitch was in total command when he made those, whereas Rebecca was his first American studio pic and perhaps that came with restraints.
The others you mentioned I all found enjoyable in the moment but they didn’t make a lasting impression, and I’m yet to see some in your list, namely 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Spellbound and Foreign Correspondent.
I get all that and I appreciated the film’s constituent parts and enjoyed it, but when I compare it to Hitch’s best work it fell short for me.
I guess I just wasn’t swept up in this Rebecca person. Everyone thought she was great, turns out she was a conniving slag. Nice twist I guess but I never got to meet and experience her myself so I only cared about that up to a point.
I never read the novel but it just seems that the story itself was lacking, like it didn’t have a real point. Lots of build-up to… not a great deal.
Was the implied lesbianism of Mrs Danvers supposed to be some kind of shocking revelation? Perhaps in 1940 it was the equivalent of seeing horns suddenly burst out of her head.