Rebecca (1940)

Joan Fontaine: Mrs. de Winter

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Mrs. de Winter : Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

• [the new Mrs. de Winter wants to dispose of Rebecca's letters] 

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : I want you to get rid of all these things.

  Mrs. Danvers : But these are Mrs. de Winter's things.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : *I* am Mrs. de Winter now!

• Mrs. Danvers : [as the second Mrs. de Winter runs into the room]  I watched you go down just as I watched her a year ago. Even in the same dress you couldn't compare.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : You knew it! You knew that she wore it, and yet you deliberately suggested I wear it. Why do you hate me? What have I done to you that you should ever hate me so?

  Mrs. Danvers : You tried to take her place. You let him marry you. I've seen his face - his eyes. They're the same as those first weeks after she died. I used to listen to him, walking up and down, up and down, all night long, night after night, thinking of her, suffering torture because he lost her!

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : [turning away in shame and shock]  I don't want to know, I don't want to know!

  Mrs. Danvers : [moving towards her]  You thought you could be Mrs. de Winter, live in her house, walk in her steps, take the things that were hers! But she's too strong for you. You can't fight her - no one ever got the better of her. Never, never. She was beaten in the end, but it wasn't a man, it wasn't a woman. It was the sea!

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : [collapsing in tears on the bed]  Oh, stop it! Stop it! Oh, stop it!

  Mrs. Danvers : [opening the shutters]  You're overwrought, madam. I've opened a window for you. A little air will do you good.

  [as the second Mrs. de Winter gets up and walks toward the window] 

  Mrs. Danvers : Why don't you go? Why don't you leave Manderley? He doesn't need you... he's got his memories. He doesn't love you, he wants to be alone again with her. You've nothing to stay for. You've nothing to live for really, have you?

  [softly, almost hypnotically] 

  Mrs. Danvers : Look down there. It's easy, isn't it? Why don't you? Why don't you? Go on. Go on. Don't be afraid...

• Mrs. de Winter : [about her father]  He had a theory that if you should find one perfect thing, or place or person, you should stick to it. Do you think that's very silly?

  Maxim de Winter : No, i'm a firm believer in that myself.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : I've been thinking...

  Maxim de Winter : Now why would you want to go and do that for?

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : No, it's not too late. You're not to say that. I love you more than anything in the world. Oh, please Maxim, kiss me please.

  Maxim de Winter : No, it's no use. It's too late.

• Mrs. Danvers : [just as the second Mrs. de Winter reaches for the door]  You wouldn't think she'd been gone so long, would you? Sometimes, when I walk along the corridor, I fancy I hear her just behind me. That quick light step, I couldn't mistake it anywhere. It's not only in this room, it's in all the rooms in the house. I can almost hear it now.

  [turns to the petrified second Mrs. de Winter] 

  Mrs. Danvers : Do you think the dead come back and watch the living?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : [sobbing]  N-no, I don't believe it.

  Mrs. Danvers : Sometimes, I wonder if she doesn't come back here to Manderley, to watch you and Mr. de Winter together. You look tired. Why don't you stay here a while and rest, and listen to the sea? It's so soothing. Listen to it.

  [turning away towards the window as the second Mrs. de Winter slips out the door] 

  Mrs. Danvers : Listen. Listen to the sea.

• Mrs. de Winter : I wish I were a woman of 36, dressed in black satin with a string of pearls!

  Maxim de Winter : You wouldn't be here with me if you were.

• Maxim de Winter : I knew where Rebecca's body was, lying on that cabin floor on the bottom of the sea.

  Mrs. de Winter : How did you know, Maxim?

  Maxim de Winter : Because... I put it there.

• Maxim de Winter : [after he has asked her to marry him]  My suggestion doesn't seem to have gone at all well, i'm sorry.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Oh, but you don't understand! It's that I... well I'm not the sort of person men marry.

• Mrs. de Winter : I wish I were a woman of 36, dressed in black satin with a string of pearls!

• Mrs. de Winter : [opening voice-over]  Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me. Then, like all dreamers, I was possessed of a sudden with supernatural powers and passed like a spirit through the barrier before me. The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done. But as I advanced, I was aware that a change had come upon it. Nature had come into her own again, and little by little had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. On and on wound the poor thread that had once been our drive, and finally there was Manderley. Manderley - secretive and silent. Time could not mar the perfect symmetry of those walls. Moonlight can play odd tricks upon the fancy, and suddenly it seemed to me that light came from the windows. And then a cloud came upon the moon and hovered an instant like a dark hand before a face. The illusion went with it. I looked upon a desolate shell with no whisper of the past about its staring walls. We can never go back to Manderley again. That much is certain. But sometimes, in my dreams I do go back to the strange days of my life, which began for me in the South of France.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : Good evening, Mr. DeWinter.