Screening Prompts Week 3: Rebecca

Consider the nuances of Mulvey’s theory in relation to Hitchcock’s Rebecca:

What room is there for the female spectator in Rebecca? How about for the male spectator? Who is offered as an ego ideal? Who holds power in the narrative? Who is punished and how?

Whose gaze do you identify with? Does your interpellation/identification shift over the course of the film?

Does the film present the conflict between passive femininity and regressive masculinity (in terms of representation of its female characters)? Does the film offer other modes of femininity, beyond what Mulvey suggests?

Do you find yourself taking up a voyeuristic position as you watch this film? Is this voyeuristic position ever rendered problematic or uncomfortable?