On Netflix, the film "Rebecca" prefers the light to the shadow of Hitchcock

Armie Hammer and Lily James in Rebecca.

-

• In "Rebecca", a novel by Daphné du Maurier published in 1938, a young woman from a modest background falls in love with a widower of good British society.

  After settling in her large house, she realizes that the shadow of the first wife has never ceased to hover there.

• Netflix has produced a new transposition of the novel, previously adapted for cinema in 1940 by Alfred Hitchcock, available since Wednesday.

• This 2020 version is signed by Ben Wheatley, a British director known for his taste for mixing genres.

Without fuss,

was uploaded to Neflix this Wednesday.

A surprising media discretion with regard to the casting (Armie Hammer, Liliy James, Kristin Scott Thomas ...) and, above all, the project: a new transposition to the screen of the novel by Daphné du Maurier, eighty years after a first signed adaptation Alfred Hitchcock.

On paper, touching this classic of the master of suspense is not far from being sacrilegious.

The cries of moviegoers will perhaps be heard in the hours and days to come, when they have discovered this version produced by the streaming platform.

In his defense, director Ben Wheatley repeats throughout the interview that this is not a

of the 1940 film but a new adaptation of the book.

Basically, the idea that his feature film can cringe a few teeth is probably not to displease the Briton, accustomed since the beginning of his career to make its small effect.

In 2011, his second film,

- the first to be theatrically released in France where it recorded nearly 23,000 admissions - was the revelation.

The plot, which began as a social drama, continued into a thriller before suddenly tipping over into horror.

The kind of thrills you won't forget.

"Bad trip" in a meadow and absurd mess in a building

With the serial killers of

, his next film, he tackled the black and disturbing comedy and obtained his best score in France with some 67,000 tickets sold.

Change of register again in 2013 with

, a film in black and white, in costumes - the action taking place in the 18th century -, centered on the

, in a meadow, of its protagonists having swallowed hallucinogenic mushrooms.

A project so experimental, that it was released only with us on video on demand.

In 2016, Ben Wheatley returned to French theaters with

, an adaptation of an SF novel by JG Ballard, in other words a jaw-dropping project.

Of which act: the whole led to an absurd mess, within a building, approaching the subject of class violence through farce.

Result: barely 30,000 intrigued spectators.

A year later, he delivered

 : a clandestine arms deal turning into confrontation behind closed doors in a warehouse.

Undoubtedly the most accessible film of the director, but also the most missed because his cynical and tongue-in-cheek paw seemed to be diluted in a lazy staging of fights.

Result: the filmmaker's worst score on the French market with just under 11,200 admissions.

A flop which probably explains that

, delivered in 2018, has remained unprecedented on this side of the Channel.

Romance, drama and thrills

Once the essentials of his filmography have been traced, needless to say that

represents a change of dimension for Ben Wheatley who will undoubtedly find, via Netflix, an audience that he would never have dared (could?) Hope to gather in theaters .

Whatever, he's working on the sequel to

...

At first glance, that he agreed to embark on this adaptation of Daphné du Maurier's book seems to be a renunciation.

“It's a bit outside of my universe.

But, I have a guideline that the more improbable a project seems, the more likely I am to be interested in it.

So I said "Why not?"

», He explains in the press kit.

Looking at it more closely, this feature film is not that inconsistent in his career.

What is

 ?

The story of a modest young girl falling in love with a widower of British high society.

After settling in her majestic home, she must get used to the idea of ​​living with the shadow of the first wife, Rebecca, who, although dead, has not completely disappeared from the walls and memories of the living. ...

This plot therefore mixes romance, drama and thrills.

A mix of genres Wheatley is fond of.

Thematically, the screenplay allows him to tackle class violence, masculine inconsistency (not to say toxic masculinity) and notions of guilt and amorality.

Less gothic than luminous

“

is a literary classic that I thought I knew.

But as I read the script I thought, "Oh, my memories were completely off the mark."

I imagined I was suffering from some kind of cultural amnesia, but as I talked about it, people just didn't remember things more.

I realized that this well-known novel might not be remembered as well as we should.

I wanted to tell this again, by surprising the public in the same way that I had been surprised, ”says the director, still quoted in the press kit.

Her version of

, takes liberties with the book, especially at the end, but it fits perfectly with the description of the meeting between the two main characters, in Monte-Carlo, which she takes the time to tell, unlike the version of Alfred Hitchcock.

If the fiction of Daphné du Maurier is a classic of the "Gothic novel", Ben Wheatley opts for the opposite.

Her film is surprisingly bright, from its first sunny half hour without a second degree to the famous scene of a visit to Rebecca's room bathed in cold, pale, shadowless lighting.

The Briton reduced the styling effects to the bare minimum - a few nightmarish scenes, a masked ball sequence.

This aesthetic smoothing will be perceived, depending on the point of view, as daring or as a compromise with the expectations of the general public.

The film thus loses in mystery what it gains in contemporary resonances - in particular through its promotion of female figures - but it does not offend the original material.

On the contrary, it makes you want to dive into it.

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