Jung and Film Online | Rebecca

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (run time: 2hr 10min) draws us into a world of memory, mystery, and identity. The film opens with a dream sequence: “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again”. We are then transported back in time to the beginning of her story. A young woman, newly married, arrives at a vast Cornish estate, Manderley, only to find herself in the long shadow of her husband’s first wife, Rebecca. The house, the staff, and even her new husband seem haunted by something unspoken.

With Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine and Judith Anderson delivering unforgettable performances, Rebecca is both a psychological thriller and a haunting love story. Nothing is quite what it seems, and the most dangerous ghosts may not be supernatural at all.

Rebecca is a psychological gothic film where the central drama unfolds not through visible ghosts, but through the psychological hauntings of memory, identity, and projection. From a Jungian perspective, it is a powerful study in the dynamics of persona, shadow, anima/us, the terrible mother archetype, and the individuation process.

Rebecca is ultimately a tale of the dangers of failing to confront the shadow and the consequences of repression. Its gothic trappings cloak a story of inner transformation, where the protagonist must differentiate herself from the dead past to become fully alive and discover her own identity.