Rebecca.

A textual analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca..
Rebecca was directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940, it was yet another one of his successful thriller films, with the sub genres of mystery and romance. It won two oscars and had 9 other nomination.
The opening starts of with the creepy sinistar music that creates much suspence for the veiwer, which is conventional for a thriller film. As the film is in black and white creates an old, spooky atmosphere fitting in with the music. The overall feel i get from the opening is very mysterious and unknown, with the voice over of the charcter Rebecca createds a mysterious and unusual atmosphere. Although the music appears cheerful at the beginig it changes when the character speaks to more dark. The fact that the music has quite a cheerful element at the begining creates a contrast making it all seem much mkore sinistar and odd. The setting of the opening is also dark and mysterious creating unease. I found when watching this that i was always waiting for something to jump out and for something sinistar to happen, always on edge. A very typical setting for a thriller to take place in a drak mysterious wood by a enormous haunted like mansion. Its as if were being told a story by an narrator, which is unusal thereforeis holding our attention. It as if were being told a story by a character after the events have occured. When the transistion is made from that haunted mansion straight on to the crashing sea suddenly grabs your attention and seems so distant from the creepy old footage you were just shown. Establishing the main character in the first scene, conventional. From what the characters costume it implys that he is of some proffesion of quite a high social class as he is wearing a suit and hat, from the dialogue of the character this also tells us this as he speaking to the young women in a authorative tone. As the female character obeys him shows his high status and social class also. He appears as quite a mysterious character, keeping the audience intrigued as they want to know more about him and the whole reveal of the story.
Overall the opening scene of Rebecca creates much suspence and mystery is does this through the non-diegetic music and the mysterious character. These conventions all keep the veiwer hooked and intrigued to the action going on, on set.