Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again... and this morning I woke up to the first trailer for Rebecca, Netflix’s adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s lush and juicy gothic novel, starring Armie Hammer and Lily James. Forget Tenet — to me, this is the movie event of the year. Sex, drama, spooky mansions, beautiful clothes, and dark corners? Count me in.
Told from the perspective of the new Mrs. de Winter (James), a shy young lady's companion who meets and marries the handsome and elusive Maxim de Winter (Hammer, whose British accent is light enough not to be distracting) during a whirlwind French Riviera romance, the story begins as a fairy tale. The trailer is full of saturated shots of the Mediterranean, picnics on rocky beaches, diamonds and candlelight — all the seductive scenes of early courtship in the 1930s. But as soon as the newlyweds return to Manderley, Max’s estate in Cornwall, England, things start to get dark. The memory of his first wife, Rebecca, haunts the new Mrs de Winter, and housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (a steely Kristen Scott Thomas) isn’t about to let her forget it.
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This isn’t the first time Rebecca has been adapted for the big screen; in 1940, Alfred Hitchcock made his American debut as a filmmaker with his version of Du Maurier’s novel starring Joan Fontaine and Laurence Olivier. The film received 11 Oscar nominations, winning Best Cinematography and Best Picture. In 2018, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Director Ben Wheatley’s take looks like a cross between Atonement (some of the costumes will give Keira Knightley’s green dress a run for its money) and The Haunting Of Hill House — a ghostly family drama, but make it chic!
Watch the full trailer below:
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