"Rebecca" (1940) by Alfred Hitchcock

Majority of the old movies are nothing new for me - they are not called "classics" for no reason - but they might be a very new experience to a new generation of kids who had no such luck to actually watch them in cinema or were raised on blockbusters and left in total ignorance of film history. Recently I talked to a friend's daughter, a sweet young thing very self-assured and opinionated, who knows everything about current movie stars, hit movies and what's hip but she is not familiar with anything from black-and-white era. With everything the market offers - and there is a healthy dose of ubiquitous romantic comedies - the girl was mesmerized with Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" and could not stop talking about the thrill of it all, how much she enjoyed it and loved the experience of diving into something different. "Wait until you see "Rebecca" was my answer. So I treated myself with it, again.

So glad that DVD format makes the old, classic movies available - this, now elderly 70+ years old masterpiece is and always was breath-taking experience.
From the very first, legendary opening lines to the very end this is one of the cornerstones of a cinema history, but where some other old movies are simply, well old, this is something gripping and involving, truly magical, gothic and strangely faithful both to du Maurier and Hitchcock. Even if director himself was not completely happy with being under someone else control (David O. Selznick was simply not a man to ignore) it has his signature all over the screen, from complicated characters hiding secrets from each others to evil lurking in the shadows, morbid fascination with death, innocent heroine (it never occurred to me earlier that she is never called by her name) lost in the imposing majesty of Manderley to twists and turns of a fascinating story itself. And - the best of all - this is a movie with Mrs. Danvers (magnificent Judith Anderson). Now I can finally admit that I always found her the true owner of Manderley and if anybody asked me, I would drown both Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier, in my version Mrs. Danvers would live on and on forever, bringing fresh flowers in Rebecca's bedroom and occasionally even try those silk stockings and underwear made by nuns from convent. (What kind of nuns knew how to sew sexy underwear?) Hitchcock would have been amused to find that audience of the future find the villainess the most appealing character in the movie. I got a lot of fun ideas involving Mrs.Denvers and me but will keep them for myself.