Why the change in ending?
From the novel to the film?
I could have my own children.And if they got too loud,I'd put them in the oven.
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its a shame. it makes maxim more human if he had murdered her. now all we're left with is a saint
shareYou have an odd definition of a saint.
shareit gives the impression that he wouldn't think of murdering his wife and that he must suffer selflessly through their marriage. in killing her, he shows that he is capable of doing so, accidentally or not
shareIn reality though, no one will know for sure if he really killed her or not. His wife took it on faith that she really had fallen and hit her head. The cops don't show the doctor a picture of Rebecca to confirm she was the dying patient and that apparently did not give her a proper autopsy. We and the characters are left to assume what happened and we all react accordingly. Danny heard the court decision and burned down the house but only Max knows the truth.
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Truth be told, I had to see you one more time, even if it was from a distance.
i'd still much rather he killed rebecca though. who wouldn't, at that point after all of that?
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OCOE - obsessive compulsive olive eater
the funny thing about the change to the ending was that while it suggests that Rebecca's direct cause of death was an accident, it leaves totally unclear what would have happened if she had not fallen and hit her head. By that I mean that it was left unclear what Maxim might have done if Rebecca had not fallen, or had gotten up still alive. Let's put it this way - it is not clear at all that he would not have killed her if her accidental death had not intervened as it were.
During the scene in the boathouse, Joan Fontaine's excellent performance is one where you can see the evidence in her face and expressions of the wheels turning as she hears Maxim describe the accident. On one hand she is afforded the ability to say "Well then you didn't really kill her!", while at the same time, being no dummy, she knows that her husband might well have but for the accident. Hm.
The way the second Mrs. de Winter chose to stick by her husband, implicitly accepting that her predecessor in the role of wife in effect deserved to die is one of the remarkable elements of this remarkable films.
I guess I am saying the change to the ending did not really resolve Maxim's moral culpability all that cleanly. It may have in a legalistic sense meant he did not literally kill her, but it is far from clear he would not have if things had played out differently.
you make a good point there actually
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OCOE - obsessive compulsive olive eater