Tuesday, September 08, 2020

I Don't Believe in Ghosts

The trailer for Ben Wheatley's version of Rebecca starring Armie Hammer and Lily James has just checked its bags into the Manderlay of our eyeballs this morning and nananananah I cannot hear you I am excited. Am I the only person excited? I know I am not the only person excited, I am just tired of hearing people whinge over the blasphemy of remakes and hating on Armie, is all. Let's try something else today! I am loving the warm colors...

... which are differentiating it from Hitchcock's masterpiece right off the bat. It often looks like a very expensive perfume commercial, which seems like an absolutely correct way to go to my mind, as far as this specific story goes. I am loving the Ann Dowd!

And then of course...

.... we all knew Kristin Scott Thomas playing Mrs. Danvers was going to be the highlight the second she got cast in the role, and this trailer only underlines that assumption in violent red splashes of ink. Gimme gimme gimme! Here's the trailer:

Rebecca drops on Netflix on October 21st.
Give your thoughts in the comments!



14 comments:

bdog said...

Since Kristen Scott Thomas is in it I will watch. She is one of my favorites, ever since I saw her and Rupert Graves(Who really deserves a post on here, he has aged beautifully) in 'A Handful of Dust'.

MJL said...

There aren't many men who could pull off that suit that Armie is wearing, but it looks really good on him.

Annnnnd, now you're thinking of pulling a suit off Armie.

joel65913 said...

I wouldn't say I'm excited more curious. KST will tear it up but I just don't get Lily James. Whenever I see her I think well another bland performance is in store.

I don't object to remakes, after all The Maltese Falcon was the fourth go at that material and the George Clooney/Brad Pitt Oceans 11 is leagues better than the Rat Pack one, but once they get it right-see above-leave it alone and go to town on something else. Trying to improve on perfection (unless you can rework it in some original way-All About Eve/Applause) is a fool's errand. I'm not saying the original Rebecca is untouchable, it was good but no Casablanca, Notorious or Rear Window.

That line about this looking like an expensive perfume commercial (I agree it does) reminded me of my reaction to the misery that is Last Year at Marienbad. God's Teeth what an endless agony watching that picture was!!

Anonymous said...

I know it's blasphemy to say on this site, but I just don't see that bland piece of unbuttered white bread as Maxim DeWinter.

Jason Adams said...

Joel -- I used to feel that way about Lily James but something weird happened out of nowhere last year where I suddenly decided I love her. It honestly came out of nowhere, I wasn't even watching her in anything, I just saw a picture of her and my heart filled with warmth, I have no explanation for it at all. Up until that point she'd seemed mostly unremarkable. I think I was possibly brainwashed, haha

Astroboymn said...

I'm def game for this as I don't think of the original as untouchable at all. I do wonder at the hashtag for Horror on this post though b/c Rebecca isn't a horror story, is it? More a gothic romance? I think Lily James is okay but I still think Anne Hathaway might have been a good, slightly off-curve casting choice.

Eugene said...

Put me in this category: full of doubt, but love Armmie and Kristin so I'll be watching with hope that it works on it's own. Just hoping it's good in it's own right, Hitch won't be forgotten no matter which Rebecca comes after.

Anonymous said...

KST casting is perfect, the others not so much. I'd rather watch a tepid bowl of oatmeal for 2 hours. And who is Ann Dowd's character?

Jason Adams said...

Re: Ann Dowd -- it's been a couple of years since I've watched the Hitchcock film (and I've never read the book!) but I think the nameless character Lily James is playing (who Joan Fontaine played in the old film) has an aunt or something? I think at the start when she's traveling she is traveling with a relative? I might be wrong, I can never remember anything from the movie before Mrs. Danvers shows up no matter how many times I've seen it

Tom M said...

That facial twitch of disgust upon meeting...bring it KST! I also had a sudden blooming of love for Lily James. I think it was the deeply odd but ballsy one two punch of her performances in All About Eve (on stage) and Mamma Mia 2. The lady is charmingly fearless.

Bill Carter said...

Re: Mrs. Van Hopper

Yeah, Ann Dowd plays Mrs. Van Hopper, who employs the unnamed young woman who becomes the second Mrs. de Winter as a paid companion at the beginning of the film. In the original movie, Mrs. Van Hopper was played by Florence Bates, who was a pretty remarkable person.

Before she became an actress, she became, in 1914, the first female lawyer in Texas. After "a life full of incident", she met Hitchcock, who cast her in her first major role as Mrs. Van Hopper. It was followed by more than 60 other performances, mainly in smaller roles in some of the best-remembered films of the 1940s and some of the most successful TV series of the early 50s.

Owen said...

Looks terrible. Lily James is such a bland, colourless actress. Hammer has a nice body but is a horrible actor. Scott Thomas is aces and I’m sure will be ham fun but this looks utterly awful.

Anonymous said...

How come so many modern movies look the same? Is it the digital photography? They look flat.

Anonymous said...

Disagree about Hammer being horrible. He was legit good in J. Edgar (the only good thing in that movie), The Social Network, Call Me By Your Name (although too old), etc. Considering his leading man looks will limit his choices I think he's done pretty well so far.