Hybrids

Much has been commented on the new Pride & Prejudice film having a bit of a Brontë atmosphere. Two sites comment on it today:

The Salt Lake Tribune says that "Director Wright has replaced Austen's intelligence with the moony melodrama of the Brontë sisters. The glowing sunrises feel more at home in a production of "Wuthering Heights," and McFadyen's Mr. Darcy has the brooding melancholy of Heathcliff or "Jane Eyre's" Mr. Rochester." And IndieWire interviews Joe Wright who explains why the Wuthering Heights look:

iW: But the long shot of Lizzie standing on the cliff, hair and skirts blowing, isn't that more "Wuthering Heights" than Jane Austen?
JW: Austen set her scenes in parlors and people's front rooms. And I wanted to take it out of the parlors. It's not interesting to set everything inside.

So, there you are. We don't know how Jane Austen or the Brontës would have liked this kind of hybrid though.

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Update: The Patriot Ledger (Boston newspaper) also insists in this hybrid theory: "Although I must say, by placing the emphasis on romance, this version tends to feel a tad more Brontë than Austen, particularly when the wind is whipping through Lizzy’s hair on seaside cliffs reminiscent of those in William Wyler’s ‘‘Wuthering Heights.’’

Categories: In_the_News, Wuthering_Heights, Emily_Brontë