Footage from Jane Eyre event at Haddon Hall

If you would like to see some footage from See Film Differently's Jane Eyre premiere at Haddon Hall, there's a little film here:



Both the Squeeze and I completely managed to evade being captured on film, apparently, despite me wearing my "Team Edward Rochester" t-shirt. Nice to see the bit with Cary Fukanaga (doesn't he kinda remind you of Johnny Depp?), as that seemed to be cut off when we were actually there, due to some terrible lag in the system.

Also, there's an event on next Saturday, which I'm hoping to attend.

And yes, I know, I still need to type up about the screening. Things got in the way, I'm afraid. Considering making it a Sunday Matinée post, which means it's still a few weeks in the future, as it's currently occupied by the German travel diary. Or maybe I'll reschedule. We'll see.

P.S. If you want to live in a place that inspired Charlotte Brontë, Thornton Hall in Thornton near Bradford is up for sale, for those who have £850,000+ to spare. Guide price is £849,000 and for that you get seven bedrooms, a pond and formal gardens. Even a library. Bargain! The Express have written a piece about it too.

Jane Eyre '11: The Rant

In the review of Jane Eyre (2011), I mentioned that there were a few things I would have a separate rant about. This is that post. It will contain lots of spoilers, it will be ranting. Readers of a delicate disposition might want to look away now, even though I don't use the F word once. This is in some sort of chronological order and might be edited if I can think of more things after posting.

Ready? Here we go.

Jane Eyre (2011)

Film review: Jane Eyre (2011), directed by Cary Fukanaga

Jane Eyre is finally hitting UK screens today, only six months after it was first brought out on a limited release in North America. But let’s put that behind us and focus on the latest adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s 1847 classic.

Unlike any of its predecessors, this version of Jane Eyre starts in medias res, with Jane (Mia Wasikowska) running away from Thornfield Hall. There are gloomy moors, crying, equally crying violin music, and she finds herself at the mercy of the Rivers family. This is where the story starts to unfold itself. Where did she come from? Why was she running and from what?

Through a series of flashbacks, we soon find out. We see a bleak childhood as an orphan in the care of a stern aunt (Sally Hawkins) and cruel cousins. They can’t wait to send her off to a school for orphans, headed by the reverend Mr. Brocklehurst (Simon McBurney), and be rid of her once and for all. Little, plain, passionate and utterly disagreeable Jane (Amelia Clarkson) isn’t even to come home to Gateshead for Christmas.

Jane Eyre (2011) - Guest post by Nan

Film review: Jane Eyre (2011), directed by Cary Fukanaga

Jane Eyre (2011) begins with Jane (Mia Wasikowska) running away from Thornfield Hall. She collapses, bedraggled and barely conscious, on the doorstep of St. John Rivers (Jamie Bell), a parson preparing to leave on a mission to India. A series of flashbacks tells her tale of woe: as a child she was tormented by her cousin and aunt, she was sent to a school where pupils were beaten and humiliated, she makes a friend who believes deeply in God, and she is employed as a governess at Thornfield. The estate is presented as a gloomy, forbidding place, and its owner, the world-weary Edward Fairfax Rochester (Michael Fassbender), is equally dark. Adele Varens (Rochester’s ward and Jane’s pupil, played to perfection by Romy Settbon Moore) claims that there is a woman who walks around at night, is able to move through walls, and wants to suck blood (to which Jane replies “nonsense”).