Rebecca
Rebecca was another Film Noir film I decided to research as the storyline is quite similar to mine in terms of a psychological thriller. Again, this film was on IMDb’s list of “Most Popular Film-Noir Feature Films” (and it got a 8.2/10 rating by the film site), hence why I decided to research it, as I thought this could be a very good film to base our final film on. This film is a 1940 American psychological thriller-mystery directed by Alfred Hitchcock which tells the story of a young woman that falls in love with Maxim de Winter. de Winter is still troubled by the death of his first wife Rebecca (who died before the story starts), but her reputation and recollections about her are a constant presence to Maxim, his new young second wife, and the housekeeper Danvers. Below are the notes I have taken on the film:
In this two shot below we can see a contrast in the lighting between Maxim de Winter and his young wife. We can see that she has a very soft lighting on her portraying her innocence, while the lighting on Maxim de Winter darkens half of his face, illustrating an image of mysterious character. This is also shown in their clothing, as he wears a dark suit while she wears a white, bright dress. We can also see in this shot that the background is blurred out, emphasising to the audience that their attention should be on the two main characters.
In this shot we can see that the lighting has created a halo effect of the second Mrs de Winter, creating the image of her glowing. Her purity and innocence is highlighted again through her wearing the white dress. The composition of the shot is very well thought out, as there is an obvious difference between foreground and background, with them being bright and dark respectively, which emphasises the importance of the foreground within this shot. A medium close up shot is used here to show the audience the expression of the character as well as show them what is within the rest of the shot. With some of her body posture being shown her as well, this can further help the audience understand her feelings and emotions.
The close up here is executed very well due to some very nice camerawork. In the first part of this scene an over-the-shoulder shot was used to give the audience Mrs de Winter’s perspective of the conversation she was having. Once the person she has a conversation with says something that triggers a reaction from Mrs de Winter, she turns her head to the side (like in this shot) with the camera throwing focus from the background to the foreground, something which I want to recreate within my film.
It it shown in this shot that Maxim de Winter gets a letter from Edythe Van Hopper. In order for the audience to see what is written on the letter, the camera first starts off at a still then manoeuvres into the whole camera slowly moving down the page so that the audience can read the contents of the letter, a movement which will be recreated within our film. This is a key shot as it is also acts as a transitional shot, i.e. a shot put in to indicate a change in scene. This is shown through cross dissolves between this shot and the ones that appeared before and after it.
In this shot of Maxim de Winter, the lighting used creates a chiaroscuro effect that darkens most of his face, something we plan to adopt into our film as we feel it creates a sense of mystery and if pulled off well, will get the audience very interested and engaged. This can be done by shining a light directly onto one side of his face, which creates a shadow on the other side. In addition to this, his facial expression enhances the power of the shot as it makes him look very intimidating, as the left side of his face is the only thing that you can see within the entire shot, as the rest of it is black.
I found this shot towards the end of the film very fascinating as the silhouette of Danvers within the burning building creates a very engaging and interesting ghostly effect. This is done through the fire being the main source of light and her standing directly behind it, placing the fire in between her and the camera. Fire is a very interesting way to create shadows and silhouettes, however sometimes it can be quite distracting. Although, I think that the cinematographer has done a very good job in making sure that the composition of this shot does not cause the fire to mislead the audience's attention, as in this shot I feel the fire enhances it.
