In 1939, Hitchcock left the British film industry that had struggled for 17 years, accepted the invitation of the famous Hollywood producer Selznick, and broke into Hollywood alone. Hitchcock, who specializes in suspenseful thrillers, rejected the script for Titanic handed over by Selznick and instead took the script adaptation of the Novel Rebecca by British writer Daphne Du mullier. Hitchcock was particularly fond of Du mullier's work, and his farewell work Jamaica Inn, shot in England, was also adapted from Du Mulière's novel.
Hitchcock
After its release in 1940, Butterfly Dream achieved a good box office success and helped Hitchcock make a name for himself in Hollywood. Although the film is not in the traditional Hitchcock style, we can still peek into the details of the film into the creative talents of Hitchcock's genius. At the 13th Academy Awards in 1941, Butterfly Dream led the way with 11 nominations and eventually won two awards, Best Picture and Best Cinematography. Hitchcock made small-budget suspense films on the highest podium, ushering in a golden age of suspense films.
Hitchcock, after becoming famous in World War I, because Selznick interfered too much in his own creation, so after the movie "Miserable Broken Intestinal Flower", the two parted ways. Butterfly Dream was later not welcomed by Hitchcock, who even regretted in a later interview: "The story of this film is very old-fashioned, lacks a sense of humor, and is not my style." But it's still hard to deny its important weight in Hitchcock's work. Unbeknownst to Hollywood at the time, Butterfly Dream was just the beginning, Hitchcock would embark on an era of magnificent suspense in the decades to come.
David O. Selznick
In the original novel Rebecca, Du mullier infused the "female gothic" style into the story of cinderella marrying into the nobility. At first Hitchcock adapted the script himself, but after he handed the revised script to the producer Selznick, he received a long telegram from the other side. Selznick was unhappy with Hitchcock's unauthorized alteration of the original story, criticizing Hitchcock's ideas one by one in the telegram, especially the humorous passages that Hitchcock was good at, and quickly approached Hollywood screenwriter Robert Sherwood to control the creation of the script.
Hitchcock had just arrived in Hollywood, and by this time he had signed a long contract with Selznick's agency, so he could only swallow his anger and go against his previous ideas to shoot a Selznick work. That's why, despite the film's best picture award, Hitchcock always believed that the award was given to Selznick. However, Selznick recognized Hitchcock's talent, and in addition to using an iron-fisted policy on screenwriting, he did not interfere much in specific shooting and character selection.
Selznick (left) and Hitchcock (right)
"Butterfly Dream" tells the story of a poor family girl who recognizes the widowed aristocrat Derwent during a work trip, and the two experience a simple and happy time and flash marriage. The poor woman followed Derwent back to his lavish Mandley Manor and became Mrs. Derwent. When she moved into the manor, she found that everyone was talking about her predecessor, Lady Derwent, the popular Rebecca, who had accidentally died on a voyage. The manor was littered with Rebecca's shadow, and from the housekeeper's momentary reminders to the markings in the details, the inferior Mrs. Derwent did not feel a trace of the warmth of home, and felt that she was just a substitute. The abandoned houses on the beach, Derwent's obscure attitude toward Rebecca, and the housekeeper's tight steps all make the audience gradually indulge in the suspense set up by Hitchcock.
In 1927, the famous horror novelist Lovecraft wrote in the book Supernatural Terror in Literature: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear stems from the unknown. Suspense and fear are the same, and the famous psychologist Freud has done in-depth research on the production of two emotions, and finally proved that both suspense and fear stem from concerns about safety. There are two ways of suspense in novels and movies, one is from the unknown, and the other is from the known.
Lovecraft
Restrictive narrative
As the name suggests, only a small amount of valid information is provided to the audience. Most of the time the audience will follow the perspective of a certain protagonist, look at what he sees, and the information the audience receives is limited to the scope of what the protagonist knows. With the same thrill of revealing the secret, it gradually enters the suspense story carefully planned by the director. There are two masters who use restrictive narratives very well, one is Conan Doyle, the master of detective fiction who wrote "Sherlock Holmes", and the other is hitchcock, the master of suspense films. What they have in common is that the restrictive narrative is the detective genre, and the audience follows the footsteps of the detective, stripping away the cocoon in the complicated and clueless details, and searching for the truth in the clues. They differ in that Conan Doyle writes compelling plots with his pen, while Hitchcock uses the camera to create an atmosphere of step-by-step.
Conan doyle
In the 20th minute of the film, the poor woman's employer has to leave because of a temporary matter, and the poor woman wants to see Mr. Derwent before leaving. She helped her employer pack her bags, the carriage waited outside the hotel, and the female employer anxiously feared missing the train. The poor woman lied that she had left a book in her room and took the opportunity to bid de Eventer goodbye, but Devint, who was in the shower, missed it. The audience also pinched a handful of sweat for the poor girl, thinking that the two of them were about to miss each other, and finally the poor girl still found Devent, and it was because of the sudden change that the relationship between the two heated up rapidly. In this nearly 5-minute scene, Hitchcock perfectly shows the tension brought about by the "restrictive narrative", and the audience also follows the heroine to experience a "love that almost missed".
Non-restrictive narrative
A non-restrictive narrative refers to a more comprehensive perspective on the viewer, which can also be called a "God perspective." Viewers watch as danger is about to occur in the frame, but they are unable to prompt the characters to be careful. Even if the scene at this time is only a normal daily routine, the audience's attention is always attracted to the impending danger, giving great dramatic tension to ordinary life. Non-restrictive narrative has now been widely used in monster films and epic war films, such as "Kong Skull Island", and the reason why the audience can always maintain an excited state of viewing is because the audience is always on the lookout for monsters and worried about the unsuspecting expedition team.
In the 80th minute of the film, the poor girl has become Mrs. Derwent, and she is planning a huge masquerade ball. At the instigation of the housekeeper, she decided to wear Rebecca's same dress to the ball, and as an audience, we all know that her behavior is very inappropriate, which will definitely cause De Winter's disgust. But Mrs. Derwent prepared very carefully, until she joyfully walked down the stairs, and the audience waited for Dewente to erupt. It is clear that a non-restrictive description is used here, and the audience can learn about the housekeeper's framing of Mrs. Derwent, but can only watch the plot move forward step by step.
Combining restrictive and non-restrictive narratives is the only way to create suspense, and Hitchcock is one of the best. The role of restrictive narrative and non-restrictive narrative is different, the former can make the audience more substitutionary and immersive, and can explore the unknown with the characters; the latter gives the film more objective feelings, making the film more dramatic tension, and also providing more creative means and space for the director. The two are not black and white, and the most ideal effect can only be achieved by using the right narrative in the right scene. It is Hitchcock's rational use of these two methods that "Butterfly Dream" will have such a stunning suspenseful atmosphere.
Hitchcock's suspense films have been able to maintain a consistent style for decades, thanks to the unity of his use of some symbolic elements. The most classic is the use of stairs, which are common objects in ordinary life, but in Hitchcock's shots, they become the most difficult and frightening symbolic elements. The original novel of "Butterfly Dream" has a strong gothic style, and at the insistence of the producer, the film also completely retains the gothic style in the original work, and the goth itself is a symbolic element. For example, the Gothic castle in the film, the dark sandy beach and the long road to Mandley Manor. In fact, in the early 1970s, the British film critics rose up a boom in the study of film "symbols", and the French theorist Christian Mytz took the lead in introducing semiotics into film analysis, and although the interpretation of films with "symbols" was biased, it could also spy the director's meticulous intentions.
Three doors in the film
Doors, which have a very private meaning in life, represent the protection of personal territory, or interpret it as the concealment of private secrets. Doors represent both estrangement and prejudice, and when the door is opened, the real one can be seen, and sometimes there may be greater evil hidden behind the door.
At the first door, when Derwent's sister and brother-in-law first arrived at Mandley Manor, Mrs. Derwent hid behind the door and heard their criticism of themselves, and the audience might think that the sister and brother-in-law were not easy people to get along with. After the door is opened, the sister and brother-in-law behave very kindly, and the "door" at this time represents the estrangement between people and people, and after frank communication, the door can be opened.
At the second door, Rebecca lived in the west wing of the castle, which has been idle ever since she was buried in the sea. Mrs. De Winter lived in Rebecca's shadow after staying in the castle, making Mrs. Derwent full of jealousy and curiosity about Rebecca. The door in the West Wing represents the "curiosity" in Mrs. Derwent's heart, and if she wants to know Rebecca, she has to open it.
At the third door, there was an abandoned wooden house on the beach of Mandley Manor, and De Winter strongly prevented Madame from entering the house. In the second half of the film, we understand that Rebecca is buried here, and it is no wonder that Derwent is secretive about this place. The door of this wooden house represents the hidden sins, which, although deliberately hidden by Derwent, will come to light sooner or later.
A window in the film
Unlike the partition effect represented by the door, the window represents the circulation inside and outside, implying an eclectic desire for freedom. The inside and outside of the door are completely isolated, but the inside and outside of the window can be connected at any time. Hitchcock made the "window" a passage between good and evil, building a bridge between life and death.
The most eye-catching thing in the film is Rebecca's bedroom window, Where Mrs. Derwent bumps into Rebecca's cousin Faivel, and the flirtatious Faivor jumps into the room from the window, showing that he is familiar with entering through the window, and can guess the dirty things that have happened between him and Rebecca. The window at this time represents the meaning of "fornication" and also shapes the image of Pfeiffer, the prodigal son of the ascendant.
This window has a second meaning, after Mrs. Derwent was accused by her husband of wearing rebecca's same dress, and ran to Rebecca's room full of grievances to confront the housekeeper. The heartbroken lady was instigated by the housekeeper to jump out of the window, like a "devil's whisper", and the moment the lady's psychological defenses collapsed, she was awakened by a loud noise. The windows at this time represent the boundary between light and evil, life and death.
The "r" flag is everywhere
In addition to doors and windows, Butterfly Dreams also has a ubiquitous "r" logo, which is the initial of Rebecca's English "rebecca". Whether it is an envelope in the morning room or a handkerchief, this symbol is engraved. In the enclosed space of Mandley Manor, Hitchcock placed countless "r" signs, leaving Mrs. Derwent tightly surrounded by Rebecca and nowhere to escape, and also gave the film an extremely depressing atmosphere, paving the way for the suspense that followed. Rebecca appears to have died, but she has always lived in Mandley Manor, living on objects she had used before, and Rebecca is the "MacGefin" in the film - the nothingness used to create a suspenseful atmosphere.
In addition, it is natural to have Hitchcock's iconic symbol, the staircase. For example, the stairs to Rebecca's room, the stairs to the seaside cottages, etc. Although he had not yet formed a perfect suspense system at this time, the staircase had already shown great suspense in the film, which promoted the development of Hitchcock's suspense system. Whether it is a door, a window, or a staircase, these symbolic elements do not exist independently of each other in Hitchcock's hands, but form an organic and harmonious system of internal connections, and it does not make much sense to interpret these elements alone, only by placing them in Hitchcock's specific lens context and analyzing them, will we understand the suspense tension contained in these elements.
From 1922 to 1976, Hitchcock left 72 films and television in his 54-year career as a director. He cut through thorns in the exploration of suspense films, created an unprecedented suspense audio-visual system, and pointed out the development direction of suspense genre films for future filmmakers. He has won the Directors Guild of America Lifetime Achievement Award, the 51st Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement and the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts Lifetime Achievement Award, as one of the most prestigious Hollywood directors, Hitchcock has become synonymous with "suspense film", after decades of testing, his works still shine beyond the limitations of time and space.