Rebecca
Film history is the story of films constantly building on one another. If one contemporary director knows this, it’s Paul Thomas Anderson, PTA for professional purposes. In PTA & HIS MASTERS we take a look at the unofficial filmic predecessors of Paul Thomas Anderson. We place the director – arguably one of the most important directors of his generation – next to the influences he unabashedly cites in his work. In PTA & HIS MASTERS we link PHANTOM THREAD to Alfred Hitchcock’s REBECCA.
A timid young woman meets a rich widower in Monte Carlo. They marry shortly after their first meeting and move to his desolate estate. There, the woman discovers that Rebecca, her husband’s first wife, has a spooky hold on her new household, which is ruled with an iron fist by the intimidating housekeeper Mrs. Danvers.
Hitchcock’s first American film immediately earned him his only Academy Award for best movie. With its haunting atmosphere and intense build-up, REBECCA clearly underlines why Hitchcock is called ‘the Master of Suspense’.
For his movie PHANTOM THREAD, PTA looked at the style of Gothic classic cinema, like Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological thriller REBECCA (1940). From narrative themes like doomed love and distant and domineering husbands to the Gothic atmosphere that shrouds the images. But PTA breaks with the Master of Suspense on an important level. “I love Hitchcock’s REBECCA so much, but I watch it and about halfway through, I always find myself wishing that Joan Fontaine would just say, ‘Right, I have had enough of your shit.’” But still she continues to put up with her husband’s behaviour. PTA gives his rebellious heroine the agency he wished for Joan Fontaine. But why does Fontaine – whose character isn’t even given a name except for the Second Mrs. de Winter – stay with her cold husband? According to PTA the two of them are connected in a profound way and that idea intrigued him enough to make PHANTOM THREAD. “We can’t lose each other now. We must be together always, with no secrets, no shadows,” begs the second Mrs. de Winter.
