said object

Just finished Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. It took me most of the summer to read, not sure why, considering it’s not very long. I read it after I finished her short story, The birds, which was very different from the Hitchcock version. I barely remember the film, just Tippi Hendon’s wild hair blowing in the wind as she’s pecked at by blackbirds. The short story’s about a farmer and his family boarding up their farmhouse against mad birds, certainly not the exciting tale of a socialite going up North from San Fran on holiday. Of course, films about farmers finding corpses and running from “domestic” animals is Hollywood decades later, Stephen King, etc.

Daphne probably gets her imagination from her grandfather, George du Maurier, who wrote the Trilby series, (just bought an 1894 edition off ebay!), the story of a young artist’s model who is hypnotized by the evil Svengali. Another huge literary hit of its time. Maurier started out as an illustrator for Punch magazine but later wrote novels due to his poor eyesight.

I really wish they’d remake Rebecca. A modern version would really spice it up. I’d cast it as such:

Naomi Watts as the naive bride, Mrs. de Winter. Clive Owen or maybe Christian Bale as Maxim de Winter, the older, rakish proprietor of Manderley. Maggie Smith as the horrible Mrs. Danvers and Angelina Jolie as the temptress Rebecca. And as for Rebecca’s rogue cousin/lover: Daniel Craig might be perfect.