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REBECCA REBOOTED
Then don’t miss the reboot of Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier’s classic tale of obsessive love. Here its stars tell how they brought their characters to life
Lily James and Armie Hammer on how they gave Daphne du Maurier’s classic novel a fresh movie makeover
Voted the nation’s favourite novel three years ago, Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca is the ultimate romantic gothic horror tale. There have been several TV adaptations, and Alfred Hitchcock turned it into an Oscar-winning film in 1940 starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine, but now a starstudded movie on Netflix gives the tale of love, jealousy and destruction a fresh makeover. Lily James is the girl who goes to Manderley, Hollywood hunk Armie Hammer appears as her new husband Maxim de Winter and Kristin Scott Thomas plays the indomitable housekeeper Mrs Danvers. Sound enticing?
Nicole Lampert tells you everything you need to know... A STUDY OF JEALOUSY
Rebecca was written in 1938 by Daphne du Maurier (below), who called it ‘a study of jealousy’. Beginning with the famous first line, ‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’, it tells the story of the unnamed narrator, an orphan who works as a lady’s companion. While in Monte Carlo she meets Maxim de Winter, a widower with a large house in Cornwall where he used to throw lavish parties with his late wife Rebecca, who died in a boating accident.
The two fall for each other and Maxim asks the girl to marry him. She returns with him to Manderley, his Cornish mansion, which is haunted by Rebecca’s shadow. The housekeeper Mrs Danvers was devoted to the first Mrs de Winter, and soon makes that clear, doing everything she can to trip the new bride up. Insecure and out of her depth, the young woman is soon convinced that her husband is still madly in love with his late wife. It all comes to a head at a lavish ball.
This new film focuses more on the whirlwind romance than previous adaptations and there’s a different ending that may prove controversial...