蝴蝶夢電影解析英文版

Ⅰ 蝴蝶夢《Rebecca》Rebecca在電影中的意義是什麼

故意的吧……只能說是作者為了增加呂蓓卡的神秘感吧（←大概噢），讓讀者有更多的空間來遐想這個書名人物啊，如果她的形象已經呈現在女主角和讀者的眼中了，那全書的懸念感神秘感就大打折扣了
話說看40版的電影，呂蓓卡的卧室的梳妝台上的發梳旁倒是放了一張 很英俊的男主角的照片- -話說看那張照片時女主角還很傷心呢。話說那時這邊就想過，怎麼沒呂蓓卡的照片，不過想過之後還是覺得沒有比較好……s
喜歡給人一種神秘感朦朧美？還是怕被別人在畫像和照片中，會不小心看出她的殘缺的丑惡的真實的一面，完全不是人們想像中的美好
不過弗蘭克倒是很由衷地說過一句「她是我見過的最美的女人」（當然此不排除他對呂蓓卡有特殊感情哈）
沒有呂的照片是達夫妮的匠心獨具。雖然在蘇珊，希爾的後續中有對呂照片的詳盡描寫，但我們覺得不能滿足我們的獵奇心理並降低了哥特式作品的陰森恐怖，成了傳統的故事，是敗筆。總之，這是一篇百看不厭的小說。

Ⅱ 美國電影《蝴蝶夢》主要是什麼內容

劇情簡介：在法國南部海濱的一座懸崖上，一個精神恍惚的男人來回徘徊著。一聲驚叫打斷了他的沉思，來到附近畫畫的一個年輕女子懷疑他有自殺的傾向而上前喝止。這個魯莽的舉動讓兩人很快結識，甚至很快成為一對親密的戀人。這位英俊瀟灑的貴族富豪叫梅西·文德斯，幾年前的喪妻令他沉痛不已，而那個年輕女子只是一個貼身使女。

他們開始在外面約會，但每次年輕的姑娘問起德文特久負盛名的曼德利庄園時，文德斯先生總是顯得憂郁而沉默。文德斯先生逐漸愛上了這個天真、善良的姑娘，就在她要隨主人離去的時候，他向她正式求婚。很快，梅西·文德斯帶著他新婚的妻子回到了自己在英國的庄園。 庄園里嚴厲的管家丹弗斯夫人明顯流露出對文德斯夫人的厭惡和對前任文德斯夫人麗貝卡的崇拜。

麗貝卡雖然死了，卻影響著庄園里的一切，庄園到處都是帶有里貝卡名字縮寫的物品。文德斯夫人嘗試著熟悉環境，卻一次次碰壁，所有這些痛苦經歷似乎都在給她一個暗示：她的丈夫只愛麗貝卡。但是逝去的麗貝卡彷彿隱藏著很多的秘密，遠遠不是表面上看起來那麼聖潔、美麗。終於，為了挽迴文德斯夫人的心，梅西承認是他殺死了麗貝卡，並把麗貝卡沉屍大海。

就在這時，麗貝卡的屍體被人發現，她的死因重新引起了人們的關注。經過調查，最終還是真相大白：麗貝卡是自殺死的，卻把一切布置得象是被梅西親手殺死的樣子來報復他。最後，丹弗斯夫人在絕望中點起大火，與曼德利庄園一起化為灰燼。

(2)蝴蝶夢電影解析英文版擴展閱讀

創作背景：

《蝴蝶夢》改編自英國女作家達夫妮·杜穆里埃的懸疑小說《麗貝卡》。1939年，好萊塢製片人塞爾茲尼克買下了小說《麗貝卡》的改編版權，並由羅伯特·E·舍伍德創作電影劇本。該片的劇本忠實於原著小說《麗貝卡》；影片中有關心理方面的材料也都取材於原著小說。

獲獎記錄：

第13屆奧斯卡最佳影片

第13屆奧斯卡最佳攝影（黑白片）

第13屆奧斯卡最佳編劇提名

第13屆奧斯卡最佳男主角提名

第13屆奧斯卡最佳女主角提名

第13屆奧斯卡最佳導演提名

第13屆奧斯卡最佳原創配樂提名

第13屆奧斯卡最佳剪輯提名

第13屆奧斯卡最佳藝術指導（黑白）提名

第13屆奧斯卡最佳女配角提名

第13屆奧斯卡最佳視覺效果提名

Ⅲ 請問哪裡可以下到電影蝴蝶夢的原著，英文版的啊

電驢,非verycd版

Ⅳ 急求《蝴蝶夢》英文原版電影的網址！！！

導演：希區柯克
主演：瓊.芳登、勞倫斯.奧利弗

謝爾茲尼克國際影片公司出品
影片從夢中的女主人公---第一人稱的"我"回憶往事開始。夜裡，我又夢回曼德利。面對這堆被焚的中世紀建築廢墟，我又想起很多過去……
那是從法國開始的。做為"陪伴"的我隨范霍夫太太來到蒙特卡洛。
一天，在海邊我看到一個在陡崖邊徘徊的男子。我以為他要投海，就叫出了聲。他向我投來憤怒的一瞥。我知道我想錯了，他可真是一個怪人。
很巧，他竟同我們住在同一個飯店裡。從范霍夫太太那裡，我知道他是著名的曼德利庄園的主人德文特先生。他的妻子——美麗的麗貝卡去年劃船淹死了。也許這就是他這樣怪的原因吧。
因為感冒，范霍夫太太又請了一位護士。我自由了，同德文特先生見面也就多了。我們共進午餐，一起散步、跳舞。我告訴他我的一切，他卻淡淡地提起他的曼德利……多次的見面，多次的交談，我們彼此吸引著。愛就這樣萌發了！

可是，范霍夫太太卻要趕著去參加女兒的訂婚儀式。我立刻去找德文特。
當我告訴他我是來告別的時候，他久久地望著我，向我求婚。就在我不知所措之中，我們離開了法國，作為德文特夫人回到曼德利庄園。
一進庄園，我好象處處看見麗貝卡的身影。無論是屋裡的擺設還是傢具上，都留下了"麗貝卡"的名字。
管家丹佛斯太太又是那樣令人厭惡。冰冷的臉，冷酷的心，對於麗貝卡她有一種可怕的崇敬，她每天整理麗貝卡的房間，布置得和其生前一樣。似乎我在她眼裡只是一隻丑小鴨，而麗貝卡卻是天鵝。這事刺傷了我，使我惶惑。
德文特卻又好象不願提起麗貝卡，也許是他不願引起內心的懷念。我不願德文特難過，也就不問。一天，無意間我找到了麗貝卡海邊的小屋，他讓我別去，我問為什麼。他竟粗暴地回答："我痛恨那個地方。"
從管帳的弗蘭克先生那裡，我知道了那小屋是麗貝卡常去的地方，去年她被淹死了，德文特難過地把屍體認領回來。我決定用愛來幫助丈夫從不幸中擺脫出來。

為了使德文特高興，我決定舉行一次盛大的化妝舞會。當我正為出席舞會的禮服發愁時，丹佛斯太太見議我用走郎上一副畫像中少婦所穿禮服的樣式。當我身著禮服出現在客人們面前，大家失聲叫道"麗貝卡！"德文特以及他的姐姐驚呆了，他雙手捂著臉呵斥道："快把這套衣服給我換掉。"我痛不欲生地跑回屋裡。
就在我喪魂落魄的時候，外面突然升起了兩顆信號彈。原來潛水員在海底發現了一條沉船，上面有一具女屍，有人認出那是麗貝卡的小船。

第二天，德文特不見了。我到處找，終於在海邊木屋裡找到了他。我為昨天的事向他道歉，他卻痛苦地說："晚了……太晚了。"然後他告訴我：麗貝卡雖然美麗，卻放盪成性，生活淫亂，勾引過許多男人，還跟表哥費爾發生過關系。結婚4天，他知道了麗貝卡的一切，卻又為了家庭、為了年青人的面子，表面上保持這種所謂的夫妻關系。一次德文特終於無法容忍她在小屋裡同費弗爾幽會，到小屋裡找她。她一個人在那兒，告訴他，她已經懷孕；還挑釁地問他是不是為這個孩子要殺了她。德文特大怒，正要打她，她卻被絆了一下，一頭倒了下去，死了。於是德文特把屍體放在小木船上，將它沉入海底，又冒認了後來出現的一具女屍。

真相大白了，我們的心相通了。 法庭上麗貝卡的表哥費弗爾一定要置德文特於死地為決。決定要去找麗貝卡的醫生貝克大夫，以證實德文特是為了麗貝卡懷了別人的孩子而殺了她。

警長和德文特等人來到貝克大夫那裡，證實了麗貝卡是得了晚期的癌症而最後一次來看病的。費弗爾失敗了。
當我們快活地趕回家時，只見一片大火。丹佛斯太太發瘋了放起火來，她不願看到她的偶像就這樣失敗了。
在大火前，我和德文特擁抱在一起……

《蝴蝶夢》榮獲了1940年第13屆奧斯卡最佳影片、最佳攝影兩項獎。

下載地址：http://www.verycd.com/topics/8601/

Ⅳ 跪求蝴蝶夢的復述和評論！！！！英文的謝謝了~~~~~~~~~~

復述（summary）如下：
A shy ladies' companion, staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter. She and Max fall in love, marry and return to Manderlay, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderlay.

還有一個：
Maxim de Winter, still troubled by the death of his first wife Rebecca, falls in love with a shy ladies' companion. They get married, but the second Mrs. de Winter discovers that Rebecca still has a strong hold on everyone in the house, particularly on Mrs. Denvers, the housekeeper, who begins driving the young wife to madness.

評論(comments)如下：1.a brief one比較簡潔的^_^
A stylishly directed and photographed film that examines a number of themes, such a deception, death and depression, and explores well the emotions of its characters. It is rare to find a film like this, as it tackles various genres, ranging from being a romance to a mystery to a drama to even a comedy at times, and all without seeming pretentious. The cast is truly magnificent. Judith Anderson is a stunner is a quiet but sinister role, and George Sanders is even more impressive in lively but also sinister performance. Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine are perfect for their roles too. The film won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Cinematography quite deservingly – this is one of the best films Hollywood has ever proced.

2.一個比較詳細的^_^
《 What Atmospheric Gothic-horror Should Be》
Alfred Hitchcock was and is still the undisputed Master of Suspense, and there is a lot of that here in his foray into Gothic horror, as the mystery surrounding the unseen yet omnipresent Rebecca will engage the viewer from its dreamy start to its bleak conclusion. This is exactly what atmospheric is supposed to be about, and in black and white, it shines. This is also what Gothic horror is in essence, and many have imitated yet come up short, most notably M. Night Shyamalan who, in trying to go for a shock twist and purported "atmosphere" only creates a bad aftertaste and a hangover the size of Mount Everest. This is, essentially, Hitchcock's first true masterpiece.

Not one performance rings false, not to the novel or to their respective interpretations. Lawrence Olivier, quite possibly one of the greatest actors that ever lived, portrays a broken man who still lives haunted by the past as he himself were still living in that unending hell. Judith Anderson embodies one of the most coldly sadistic figures in cinema history, her smooth and elegant truculence only exceeded by Anthony Hopkins' rendition of Dr. Hannibal Lecter. One can't seem to understand the way she wallows in her dead mistresses' clearly perverse nature, but that exactly she does, right down to her own end. George Sanders does what he does best: sneer, smirk, and spit line after line of practiced venom, and would be honored 10 years later in ALL ABOUT EVE. Gladys Cooper, still striking in her 50s, plays into her casual cattiness which means no harm, although her rendition of Beatrice Lacy is a little subed from the novel's version.

And then there is Joan Fontaine. Not one of the best actresses on film, yet here, playing a role that evolves beautifully from a frightened, weak girl who is put into a situation she does not understand and who turns right at the point of losing it into a much more mature, strong woman capable of holding her own, she carries the weight of the entire drama and comes forth with flying colors. While I would have preferred Anne Baxter who would have been the exact right age for this role, Fontaine exudes so much restraint and nervousness about her character (partially to blame Olivier's treatment of her and Hitchcock's telling her the entire cast hated her), it's almost a relief when she finally decides to confront Olivier about what it the secret of Manderley. Not many roles require such a change and not many actresses would sink her teeth into a part that requires being put-upon until she can't stand no more, and this is one beautiful performance.

A movie that should have won more Oscars that year, REBECCA has since grown in stature and proved that a film need not trophies to be Timeless and Great.

再補充幾個^_^comments
《the first Hitchcock masterpiece》
"Rebecca" was the first Hitchcock film I ever saw, and I was mesmerized by it from the start, convinced that I had to see more of the director's work. It richly deserved the Oscar it received, but it's a real puzzle that the Academy saw fit to withhold a best director award for Hitch. Would one possibly give an award to a work by Picasso and not to Picasso himself?

"Rebecca" was the first of the director's American-made films, and it shows. It's quite different from his earlier British-made films, such as "Young and Innocent" and even "The Lady Vanishes," which somehow seem more amateurish by comparison. (I know little of the British cinema of that era, but it's difficult not to conclude that Hollywood was better at procing more sophisticated efforts.) I would even judge "Rebecca" the best of his films of the early 1940s, with the possible exception of "Shadow of a Doubt." It is true, of course, that much of this film has become cliché (remember the spoofs on the old "Carol Burnette Show"!), but it still weathers the decades very well. The acting is uniformly excellent. Olivier is the hardened Maxim de Winter, untitled lord of Manderly, trying to forget the past and given to unexpected bouts of anger and coldheartedness. Fontaine is perfect as the unnamed mousy heroine, innocent yet deeply in love, still carrying with her the aura of an awkward schoolgirl. Even character actor Nigel Bruce, best known for his role in the Sherlock Holmes films, makes an appearance and plays, in effect, Nigel Bruce!

But it is Judith Anderson's role as Mrs. Danvers that viewers are likely to remember best. Her presence is as dark and foreboding as that of the deceased Rebecca herself, and Fontaine is evidently cowed by her icy stare and unnervingly formal manner. The dynamics between the two actresses are wonderful. Who could fail to empathize with Fontaine's unenviable position as, in effect, the new employer of such an intimidating personage? On the other hand, Olivier seems quite unfearful of Anderson, despite her representing so much of the past he is trying to block out. This part of the plot (even in the book) never made much sense to me and is unconvincing.

As far as I know, this film marked Hitch's first collaboration with composer Franz Waxman, whose haunting score makes it all the more memorable. Waxman's scores are perhaps less obviously cinematic than those of the incomparable Bernard Herrmann, who would score Hitch's films from 1955 to 1966. Contrast the score for "Rebecca" to Herrmann's music for "Citizen Kane" the following year, and you'll immediately hear the difference. Waxman's is more symphonic in the central European style reflective of his own birth and upbringing. Yet it is worth recalling that scoring films was still a new art at this time, and both Waxman and Herrmann were pioneers.

Finally, one has to mention the cinematography, which is magnificent. Technically "Rebecca" might have been filmed in colour, which was newly available in 1940. ("Gone with the Wind" was filmed entirely in colour the previous year, while "The Wizzard of Oz" and "The Women" had colour scenes.) But colour would have diminished its impact. The suspense and the ominous sense of impending doom could only have been communicated through the medium of black-and-white and the deft use of light and shade which it affords.

In one respect, of course, "Rebecca" is not a typical Hitchcock film. There is no fleeing innocent trying to clear his name of a crime he did not commit. Surprisingly, there isn't even a murder, although its absence was apparently imposed by the Hayes Code and is certainly foreign to Daphne Maurier's original novel. Some have said that there is more Selznick than Hitchcock in this film, and perhaps there's something to that. Still, if the collaborative effort between the two was not exactly amiable, it was nevertheless successful.

In short, this is the first in a string of Hitchcock masterpieces.

《Haunting atmospheric treasure SPOILER ALERT》It seems almost superfluous to add to the many laudatory comments this movie has received on this site, but I feel a need to lay some tribute at the altar of this wonderful piece of classic cinema.

If you haven't seen the movie, there may be a couple of SPOILERS in this review, but hopefully also some new insights in compensation.

As many have noted, the cast is uniformly excellent: the annoying social snob Edith Van Hopper(Florence Bates), Gladys Cooper's kind, sisterly Beatrice, the eerie Mrs. Danvers of Judith Anderson, Olivier's distracted yet explosive Maxim, George Sanders' snide, oily Favell and especially the oft-times underrated second (but unnamed) Mrs. DeWinter of Joan Fontaine.

Although not entirely faithful to the Daphne Du Maurier novel, the screen adaptation preserves the haunting ambiance of Du Maurier's work. Rebecca, though never seen, is clearly the central character, but we learn about her all through indirection in the dialogue of the other characters. We are allowed to create her piece by piece in our own minds, which just adds to the engrossing, I-can't-stop-watching, thrust of the movie.

The character who actually tells us the most about the real Rebecca is Mrs. Danvers. The erotic attachment of this character to Rebecca is subtle, yet unmistakable. The wonderful scene in which Judith Anderson shows Rebecca's bedroom to Joan Fontaine is breathtaking in its suggestiveness. The West Wing, 'the only room that looks down across the lawn to the sea' has become Mrs. Danvers' private temple to Rebecca. Her loving preservation of Rebecca's possessions, her sensual handling of Rebecca's underclothes, of her diaphanous negligee, of her glamorous furs and then Anderson's almost hypnotic miming of brushing Rebecca's hair as Fontaine sits at Rebecca's dressing table all make this scene an unforgettable sequence. Anderson's acting is absolutely miraculous. She achieves her character with hardly ever a change in her affect, except where a very slight contrasting up tick in energy transforms her in the West Wing scene and in the scene where she coolly suggests that Fontaine leave-by means of a precipitous drop out of the window onto the rocks. It is a performance which I doubt could ever be plicated.

As we later learn of Rebecca's moral character, it also seems that Mrs. Danvers was as much in love with Rebecca's corruption as she was with the woman herself. 'Danny' in a way becomes the embodiment of Rebecca's cold malevolence which still lingers in the mansion.

Joan Fontaine could hardly have been better. She, of all the characters, evolves through the movie. She moves in a seamless line from the pitiful, beleaguered companion of Mrs. Van Hopper to her drowned rat arrival at Manderley to the self-assured and supportive wife Maxim wanted and needed. What I found fascinating about this transformation is the imaginative skill of the costume designer. At the beginning, Fontaine's shy little character is dressed like she made terrible selections at a Macy's basement sale. Later as she tries to fill the role of the 'great lady' she believed Rebecca to have been, her clothes always appear too big and totally out of character. Note the black evening dress with the absurdly large flowers across the front and especially the overwhelmingly outsized Garden Party gown she tries to wear to the costume ball. After she learns the truth about Rebecca from Maxim, discovering that he actually loves her as much as he hated Rebecca, Fontaine's costumes become trim, conservative and tasteful, befitting the genuine, grown-up woman she has become.

Fittingly, the final scene belongs to Anderson-the frustrated woman robbed of her goddess--who brings the movie to a thundering operatic finish.

Although Selznick and Hitchcock repeatedly clashed over this move, it remains a deathless tribute to both men. This movie never loses its fascination and bears repeated watching, each time weaving its wonderful spell anew. It is a must-see, again and again, classic.

希望對你有所幫助^_^

Ⅵ 請問，誰有電影《蝴蝶夢》的英文簡介

Directed by
Alfred Hitchcock

Writing credits
Daphne Du Maurier (novel)
Philip MacDonald (adaptation) ..

A shy ladies companion is staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer when she meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter. Max is still troubled by the death of his wife, Rebecca in a boating accident the year before. She and Max fall in love, get married and return to Manderlay, his large country estate in Cornwall. The second Mrs. de Winter meets the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderlay.

Summary written by Col Needham {[email protected]}

Maxim de Winter, still troubled by the death of his wife Rebecca, falls in love with a shy ladies' companion. They get married, but Lady de Winter discovers that Rebecca still has a big hold on everyone in the house, particularly on Mrs. Denvers, the housekeeper, who begins driving the young wife to madness.

Summary written by Claudio Sandrini {[email protected]}

Ⅶ 求《蝴蝶夢》原著的英文簡介

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." This opening line from Rebecca is one of the most powerful, most recognized, in all of literature. For more than sixty years, audiences around the world have praised Daphne Maurier's novel as a spellbinding blend of mystery, horror, romance, and suspense. In this book, readers can see the traditions of romantic fiction, such as the helpless heroine, the strong-willed hero, and the ancient, imposing house that never seems to unlock its secrets. Using elements familiar to audiences of romances through the ages, from the moody and wind-swept novels of the Brontë sisters in the 1840s to the inexpensive entertainments of today, Rebecca stands out as a superb example of melodramatic storytelling. Modern readers considered this book a compelling page-turner, and it is fondly remembered by most who have read it.

The story concerns a woman who marries an English nobleman and returns with him to Manderley, his country estate. There, she finds herself haunted by reminders of his first wife, Rebecca, who died in a boating accident less than a year earlier. In this case, the haunting is psychological, not physical: Rebecca does not appear as a ghost, but her spirit affects nearly everything that takes place at Manderley. The narrator, whose name is never divulged, is left with a growing sense of distrust toward those who loved Rebecca, wondering just how much they resent her for taking Rebecca's place. In the final chapters, the book turns into a detective story, as the principal characters try to reveal or conceal what really happened on the night Rebecca died.

Rebecca Summary
The Future
The first two chapters of Rebecca take place at some undetermined time in the future. The narrator remembers events that happened in the past at Manderley, an English country estate. She and an unidentified male companion are traveling around foreign countries, reminding themselves of the life they once lived by reading the English news in newspapers. This section gives readers a description of Manderley and vaguely mentions other characters that will be important as the story progresses: Mrs. Danvers, Favell, and, of course, Rebecca.

The final paragraphs of the second chapter take the action back in time, to the very start of the story, when the narrator was a companion to Mrs. Van Hopper and was staying at the hotel Cote d'Azur at Monte Carlo.

The Hotel Cote d'Azur
Mrs. Van Hopper is presented as a greedy, vain, patronizing woman who likes to think of herself as entering European high society, although she clearly is too ill-mannered to do so. Her companion is a poor young woman who could never afford to be in such an expensive resort by herself. When Mrs. Van Hopper sees Maxim de Winter, she recognizes him and asks to sit at his table, using the excuse that he and her nephew know each other. She does not recognize his impatience with her, although the narrator does. Later, after they have gone back to their room, de Winter sends a note to the narrator, apologizing if he has been rude.

The next morning, Mrs. Van Hopper becomes ill, and her companion finds herself with free time. She has lunch with de Winter, and then they start meeting regularly for rides in the country in his car. She tells him about her life, but he hardly talks about his. From Mrs. Van Hopper's gossip, she knows that his wife died in a boating accident about eight months earlier, and that he owns the estate known as Manderley.

When Mrs. Van Hopper decides that she wants to return to America, the narrator tells de Winter. He returns to Mrs. Van Hopper's room with her and explains that her companion will not be going with her, that they are in love and going to be married.

Ⅷ 求《蝴蝶夢》英文原版

可以從愛問共享資源下，您只要打「《蝴蝶夢》英文版」一搜就能出來。

Ⅸ 蝴蝶夢的電影劇情

莊周之妻田秀助夫學道，苦守南華十年，常常顧影自憐，夜夢蝴蝶。後莊周終成道林聖賢，楚國王孫造訪南華，誠請莊周赴楚任相，被田秀拒絕，卻引起莊周猜忌。莊周又在宣道途中，偶遇小寡婦煽墳。經詢問，方知其夫臨終遺言：「須待墳干方再可嫁」，於是莊周據此推理，荒唐試妻。試妻過程中，他既疑又愛，既愛又疑，身不由己，時露破綻。那麼這場荒誕游戲，終究如何結局，又驗證了什麼呢？

Ⅹ 蝴蝶夢英文影評

Rebecca (1940) is the classic Hitchcock gothic thriller and a compelling mystery (and haunting ghost story) about a tortured romance. An expensively-proced film by David O. Selznick (following his recent success with Gone With The Wind (1939)), it was Hitchcock's first American/Hollywood film, although it retained distinctly British characteristics from his earlier murder mysteries. The somber film's screenplay (by Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison) was based on a literal translation of Daphne Maurier's 1938 gothic novel of the same name, in the tradition of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. One of the film's posters asks the intriguing question: "What was the secret of Manderley?"

The film creates a brooding atmosphere surrounding the tragic courtship, marriage and relationship of a naive, plain and innocent young woman (Joan Fontaine) to a brooding and overburdened widower - an aristocratic, moody patriarch (Laurence Olivier) who lives in an estate named Manderley. The pathetic, bewildered and shy bride experiences fear, pain and guilt when psychologically dominated by the 'presence' (and memories) of the deceased first wife (named Rebecca but never seen on screen), and when she is tormented by Rebecca's blindly adoring, sinister and loyal housekeeper's (Anderson) recollections of the dead woman. Only by film's end, with the flaming destruction of the estate, do the real character and secrets of Rebecca's death become clear. Many well-known actresses tested for the part of the young woman - Loretta Young, Margaret Sullavan, Anne Baxter and Vivien Leigh (her role in Gone With the Wind (1939) made her participation impossible), and Ronald Colman was also considered for the male lead role.

This black and white film received eleven Academy Award nominations - and won for the nominated director his first and only Best Picture Oscar, beating out strong competition in 1940 from The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, The Philadelphia Story, and Hitchcock's own Foreign Correspondent. With his Best Picture win, Selznick became the first procer to win consecutive Best Picture Oscars. The film also won an Academy Award for Cinematography (George Barnes), and was nominated in nine other categories, including Best Actor (Olivier), Best Actress (Fontaine), Best Supporting Actress (Judith Anderson with her sole career nomination), Best Director (Hitchcock's first nomination in this category), Best Screenplay, Best B/W Interior Decoration, Best Original Score (Franz Waxman), Best Film Editing, and Best Special Effects.