Wuthering Heights (2011)

Film review: Wuthering Heights (2011), directed by Andrea Arnold

Based on the novel by Emily Brontë is the latest adaptation of Wuthering Heights, by critically acclaimed director Andrea Arnold, who for this version has chosen mainly non-actors (i.e. people who haven't acted before) for the roles. Thought it worked surprisingly well, but we'll get to the actors later.

A foreign-looking boy (Solomon Glave) is brought to a house the Yorkshire moors by a Mr. Earnshaw (Paul Hilton), who found him on the streets of Liverpool and decided to do some Christian charity by taking him home and basically adopting him as his own son. The boy is named Heathcliff, and his new sister Catherine (Shannon Beer) takes an immediate interest in him - but his new older brother Hindley (Lee Shaw) takes an instant dislike.

Bullied and beaten through his teenage years, Heathcliff comes to like Cathy more and more. They're friends, and perhaps even more than that. Then, circumstances fall so that Cathy gets taken in by a wealthy family in the area, the Lintons, and goes from ladette to lady, so to speak. Surely she can no longer hang out with the likes of Heathcliff when Edgar Linton has so much to offer?

This review will contain spoilers for people unacquainted with the novel or previous adaptations.

Witches and Devilry in Wuthering Heights by Jamie Freeman (2011)

Essay review: Witches and Devilry in Wuthering Heights: A Call for Neo-Pagan Perspective (Amazon Kindle, 2011)

Neo-Paganism is a growing religious movement in America, England and around the world. As such, Academia has a unique opportunity to watch and record a culture come into being. The Neo-Pagan perspective comes out of a rich history interlaced with mythology (both world mythology and our own foundational myths), magick and history. Not only is literature being written by Neo-Pagans, but their methods of discourse, history and theology can be used to evaluate and examine other texts. Charlotte Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights can benefit from such an exploration, showing the mythical side of Wiccan origin in a fiction written before the Murrayite debate.

This paper applies cultural analysis to well-documented literature in an attempt to provide new insight for those within the culture, and without. It is a call for Neo-Pagan perspective in literature as a viable model of evaluation, and enlarges the scope of Neo-Pagan theology and philosophy beyond the foundational texts to search for meaning within the culture of the Western canon. Utilizing an exploration of Adian Kelly’s “Foundational Myths” as the framework for New Historicism, the paper examines Bronte’s novel from the perspective of a Wiccan practitioner awash in a sea of differentiated meaning from mainstream culture. Using sources such as the Malleus Mallificarum and “commonly accepted knowledge” of The Burning Times, Wuthering Heights is explored from the sacred marriage of Heathcliff and Cathy Earnshaw, of Cathy’s empowerment as a High Priestess Witch, and of Heathcliff’s demonic possession of Cathy’s mind. The paper concludes with the value of such evaluation, and how it might be applied to other works of literature to develop of canon or perspective of Neo-Pagan literature.

Yeah, that's about half the essay right there. Okay, no, not half exactly, but let's face it, at 70 kb/163 Kindle locations, it's not a very long or in-depth paper and it could just as easily have been posted on someone's blog or on a Pagan website. It really didn't need to be a Kindle book, especially not one that hasn't been proof-read properly and could have done with some more formatting work. The "Charlotte Bronte" of the introduction is later mentioned as "Charolette", but then she's (correctly) the sister of the author of Wuthering Heights, Emely (sic). Eventually, Freeman gets it right ("Emily" - never "Brontë" with the two dots), though.

Weekend LOL: Brontë Sisters Action Figures!

Sadly, they're not real... but oh (wo)man, they should be! :D

Brontë Pictures and listening to Jane Eyre

The people we bought the house off had left behind an empty photo frame. Possibly because it was a bit wonky. I finally found a use for it, the other day! :) When the Squeeze and I went to London in mid-March, we popped in to the National Portrait Gallery (I insisted, because I really wanted to see the Brontë portraits in real life). You weren't allowed to take pictures there (boo!), so I had to settle for getting some postcards instead, and the frame came in really useful now - so, from the top: Charlotte Brontë (by George Richmond), Emily Brontë (by Branwell Brontë), the Brontë sisters (also by Branwell), and a self-portrait of Jane Austen. All except the Richmond one were on display at the museum. Maybe that one was as well but we didn't see it. So there you have it, my collection of inspirational female authors! :)

Now I just have to figure out where to put it... haha.

Let's go Brontë-Along!

Isn't this a great picture, btw? It's so like the original!

Another Brontë-based blogging event/theme! This time, it's not a challenge or anything, just a collection of bloggers who like posting on the subject of the Brontës and their works and have a collective squee, which sounds like a good plan. The bloggers behind it are Beth and Melissa at Eggplantia and they say you can participate even if you're not a blogger.

Posting about the Brontës is something I'm likely to continue doing after Laura's Brontë Challenge is through, even if  it will most likely not be as often. Or, it might be that I'll post more over at E•F•R rather than here. We shall see. Either way, I intend to keep reading, keep watching, keep listening, keep writing and keep blogging about these remarkable sisters and their wonderful works. :)

P.S. If anyone would prefer an Austen-Along, Beth & Melissa assures us there will be one of those as well, just keep your eyes open.

The Brontës by Brian Wilks (1978)

Book review: The Brontës by Brian Wilks (The Hamlym Publishing Group Limited, 1978)

First published in 1975, The Brontës is a book about the Brontë family, a biography, full of pictures. Brian Wilks was (at the time, at least) a lecturer at the University of Leeds, says the back sleeve, and has done a lot of research on the Brontë family.

The story begins with a tourist telling of his visit to Haworth in Yorkshire, and serves as a general introduction. The next chapter begins the actual story, with the story of Patrick Brontë. Where he came from, his education, and so on. We then get introduced to Maria Branwell, how she and Patrick found one another and married, had children and ended up at the parsonage in Haworth, where they were to spend the remainder of their lives. Sadly, Maria died of cancer only nine years after the marriage, and Patrick was to out-live all his six children.

The story of the Brontë family is here lovingly shown not just through Wilks's text, but also through excerpts of letters to and by the family, paintings, drawings and poetry done by them, photographs of related places and items, and so on. It gives a personal touch.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)

Book review: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (Wordsworth Classics, 2000 [1847])

Wuthering Heights is the wild, passionate story of intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and, wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries.

The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature.

The story is depressing and confusing, if you are to believe the adaptations. If you are to believe the 1978 one, also tremendously long-winded and boring. The book, however, is not long-winded and it's not confusing either. It's got decent pacing, good characters (even though there are a number of DSM-IV labels that can be distributed liberally amongst the characters) and passion. Lots and lots of passion. Not necessarily of the bodice-ripping kind, but passion and fury. Especially the latter.

All About the Brontës challenge 2010

Over at Laura's Reviews, there's a challenge for 2010: read/watch anything by or about the Brontë sisters between January and June. Between three and six things. Sounds easy enough!

For more info, and to officially sign up to the challenge, see All About the Brontes Challenge 2010.

I have eight Jane Eyre adaptations that can be watched (and obsessed over, naturally), two to listen to (have started one of them already, i.e. the one from '91 with Ciarán Hinds as Rochester), and then there's Tenant of Wildfell Hall that I could re-watch, and three Wuthering Heights adaptations. Two I've recently written about, so maybe I'll skip those, just like I'd probably skip Jane Eyre '34 and '83 for the same reason. I've not written about Wuthering Heights the book yet, and I have Agnes Grey still to read... maybe give Jane Eyre another read as well... maybe.

WH - Time for a re-think

About 50 pages left of the book now, and have been re-watching Wuthering Heights '09... and formed a new opinion.

WH'78, frightfully dull as it was, must be the one version closest to the book. Well, except that the book fails to be be dull. The book is rather engaging and not as tedious to read as, oh, Jane Eyre. Emily is more to-the-point than her sister, doesn't go off rambling in purple-tinted prose about stuff that doesn't have an impact on the story or characters. She also doesn't show off her French skills time and time again, although instead, she writes in dialect, which is only marginally easier to understand than the French.

WH'98, what I remember of it, is also at least semi-true to the book, but not quite to the same extent.

WH'09... to say it's true to the book would be... wildly inaccurate. I still enjoy watching it, it's good telly, but I'd say they've been more true to the spirit of the book than the actual contents of it. So what's different? I honestly don't know where to begin. The events are a bit mixed up chronologically, there's no Nellie telling the story to Mr. Lockwood, but that's by the by. Nellie's supposed to be of a similar age to Heathcliff, Cathy and Hindley, growing up with them. You wouldn't get that impression from the miniseries.

Linton Heathcliff doesn't seem like the sickly pansy of a mummie's boy he is in the book. He arrives not as a child, but in his late teens. There's no sneaking about with letters and him and Catherine being in love for a bit. The woman Hindley marries also doesn't seem to be the bad choice of partner as it's made out in the book. Hareton seems too nice, but I've yet to read the ending, so maybe he redeems himself. Nor is Isabella's crush on Heathcliff convincing, it seems like some sort of whim that quickly backfires... which of course it is. Edgar is a rather powerless character in the book, as in, he's weak. He doesn't seem particularly weak here. People just don't seem to be quite the same as in the book. "Creative liberties" they normally call it. For better or for worse.

Sparkhouse (2002)

I don't like things to be miserable, because it's just not me. I don't find it entertaining and if it's too depressing, I get bored, as I want to be entertained, not feel like I've been left freezing in the gutter. For all the misery Sparkhouse promised to be, inspired by Wuthering Heights as it is, I enjoyed it.

Sparkhouse is about two youngsters, Carol and Andrew, who have known each other since Andrew and his parents moved into the neighbouring Yorkshire farm when the kids were 10. Andrew is of a well-to-do family, his dad's a local doctor and his mum's a teache in the local school. Carol lives with her sister Lisa and their dad is a struggling farmer and their mum a cleaner, and they're all living in poverty. Carol is a bit of a wild child, getting Andrew into trouble here and there (stealing cars, shoplifting, etc.) so logically, Andrew's parents wants the two of them separated. The couple are best friends, soulmates, deeply in love with one another... so keeping them apart doesn't work very well. They decide to get married in secret before Andrew has to go off to university, so no one can keep them apart... and if I said anything else, it'd be too much of a spoiler. But there you go.

Jane Eyre (1983)

As an easy start of a day's worth of unpacking boxes and cleaning up the house before stuff can be put away (seriously, when was the last time they cleaned stuff before they moved?!), I decided to put on the version of Jane Eyre that I hadn't really seen. Well, I did see it around Xmas last year, it's just that I was on my laptop at the same time so didn't really pay any attention to the TV and therefore had no opinion of this adaptation. Well, I do now!

The 1983 version is made up of 11 half-hour parts, starring Zelah Clarke and Timothy Dalton, and is probably the adaptation closest to the book. I've heard that before, and found it to be true. Everything is in here. More or less, anyway. You want Rochester as a gypsy? Check! Red room? Check! The shoe-tying scene which is one of my favourites from the book, for it is so AWESOME? Check! All the other bits you'd expect? Of course!

As it's long, they take their time with the story... which also makes it a bit on the slow side, and I wish they'd been better at the lighting, but I suppose they've become a bit more sophisticated with that sort of thing in the 26 years since it was made.

Wuthering Heights 2009 #2

TV episode review: Wuthering Heights #2 (2009), directed by Coky Giedroyc, adapted by Peter Bowker

Finally got around to watching the last of Wuthering Heights. Some rather good acting, I thought, particularly on Heathcliff's part. I was torn between wanting to kick him in the nuts and wanting to kiss him, which was interesting. In the other version I've seen, I just had no sympathy for him whatsoever, so well done there! I can even sort of understand why women fancy him. I'm still cautious, because he's still a raging PSYCHOPATH! Tom Hardy with long hair and cravat... well, wow. Very intense!

...Where was I?

I don't remember what happened in the end of the 1998 version, well... I remember who died, but not how, so the ending of this had me a bit surprised... while at the same time not. It made a lot of sense for it to end in that way. Gruesome as it is.

Out on the wiley, windy moors

It's that time again - a remake of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, about a raving psychopath Heathcliff and his confused love affair with his foster sister Cathy. I honestly don't get the appeal of Heathcliff just because he's a proper psycho.

I've not yet read the book (I have it, though) and I've only seen one adaptation so far (1998 TV version with Robert Cavanah and Orla Brady - and Matthew Macfadyen!) but I wasn't impressed. Still, have the harddrive recorder set for Sunday and Monday to see if this does a better job or if it's still just... dark and weird.

Well, if it's not good, I've also set the timer for "Frozen" on BBC2 night to Monday. :D