It's very difficult to keep the line between the past and the present.

You believe that someone out of the past can enter and take possession of a living being?

We may be true with the past, but the past is not through with us.

Welcome to the next picture show, a movie of the week podcast devoted to a classic film and how it shaped our thoughts on a recent release. I'm Keith Phipps here with...

Genevieve Kosky. Scott Tobias. And Tasha Robinson. Here on the next picture show, we believe that no film exists in a vacuum and that all culture is more interesting in context. So, every other week, we get together to talk over a classic film and consider how it relates to a current movie. This week, we're looking at a pair of love stories, I think. Tasha, if you don't mind putting down your correspondence for a bit, could you tell us about the films we'll be discussing? Sure, but first you're going to have to help me come up with a killer costume idea for this ball I'm invited to. This week's films both

look at complex relationships troubled by forces both within and without their central couples. Both

explore the unspoken codes and shifting power dynamics of marriage. Both consider the way outside

elements can upset romantic chemistry. Both feature powerful men and women who can look powerless

beside them, at least from a distance.

Finally, both are films that resist easy classification.

Released in 1940, and adapted from Daphne de Marier's novel, Rebecca brought Alfred

Hitchcock, famous for his beautifully crafted British thrillers, into the American studio system.

But in spite of the mystery at its center, Rebecca is a departure from Hitchcock's earlier

light-touch suspense hits, like The 39 steps, and the lady vanishes. It draws more from horror films and melodramas for its unsettling tone. Paul Thomas Anderson's new phantom thread is similarly hard to define. It's a romance that plays as if it's dancing on the edge of a tragedy. Their slipperiness, however, helps unite them, as does their nebulous take on coupledom,

which opens them up to all manner of interpretation.

We'll get into that and more after the break.

The Selznick Studio's successor to Gone with the Wind, Rebecca, brought to the screen with all the warmth and emotion that made millions of readers acclaimed Daphne de Morier's bestseller as the most exciting love story of our time.

The fascinating Max de Winter lives on the screen in the person of Lawrence Olivier.

Why?

It's next to be done.

How do you do?

The shy, unsophisticated young girl who dared to follow in the footsteps of the beautiful Rebecca

...