A post where Jane Eyre takes many forms, although of course, we know there is no end to the art expressions Jane Eyre has been shaped into.
Obviously the novel comes first.
Hilde reviews part of Jane Eyre. She seems to be reading the novel in English but the review is written in her own language, Norwegian. She focuses on Jane's efforts to bring Rosamond Oliver and St John together.
Then, the film.
Catherine Savard writes an in-depth review of Zeffirelli's 1996 version. Take your time to read it, whether you love or hate this film version, since it's totally worth it. Some appetizers:
While it might be true that the original author, Charlotte Brontë, successfully created a dark and forboding atmosphere in her novel, I don’t think that the darkness translates very well into a visual medium where you can’t see much half of the time because the set is too dark. It was more of an annoyance than anything else. [...]
If William Hurt is not exactly what I had always pictured in terms of a Mr. Rochester, the opposite is true when it comes to Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane Eyre. Gainsbourg’s physical presence is to me the perfect embodiment of the plain Jane. Gainsbourg has quite the work cut out for her as an actress. The dialogue allowed to her character in the film does not fill in the complexity of emotion and intellectual foment under the surface of her character that comes through in the novel. Jane is habitually a woman of few words. Gainsbourg has to meet the challenge of presenting Jane’s character through means other than the dialogue supplied. [...]
Through a maze of complications, Rochester and Jane end up saving each other from a less than ideal situation. Jane, recently elevated in social status, reaches down, and Rochester, mangled by the fickle winds of fortune, reaches up. They meet in the middle and all is right in the world in the end.(Midgnight Oil)
And now for the musical. Well, one of them anyway.
Broadway World has an article on some Theatre Seminars beginning on January 23. The result of these - for those not attending the seminar, that is - will be the chance to see some old classics brought back to the stages for a brief time. Jane Eyre among them!
If the Montagues and Capulets, Jane Eyre and Chaucer's Knight are characters that exist only in your cloudy memories of a high school literature class, the Kravis Center will reacquaint you with these old friends when it presents a series of theatre seminars beginning January 23. [...]
[A]nd Jane Eyre (March 30 through April 1) in the Marshall E. Rinker, Sr. Playhouse. [...]
Drawing on her vast experience as an educator and lover of literature, instructor Lee Wolf will shed new light on these chestnuts, including some things that you didn't learn in high school. [...]
Mrs. Wolf intends to highlight modern interpretations of the classics, exploring, for example, the new feminist interpretation of Jane Eyre. Ultimately, the seminars are intended to enrich audience members' understanding and enjoyment of these time-honored treasures. [...]
The Acting Company will present Jane Eyre Friday through Sunday, March 30 through April 1. [...]
Tickets for Theatre Seminar: A Closer Look at Three Classics are $10 per
lecture. The seminars will be held in The Picower Foundation Arts Education Center on the second floor of the Kravis Center's Cohen Pavilion, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. For tickets, call the Kravis Center's box office at (561) 832-7469 or (800) 572-8471, or log on to http://www.kravis.org./ (Beau Higgins)
And finally, we bring The Independent's take on - as they call it -
Rural affairs: The difficulties of finding love in the country. 'If only life was more adept at imitating art', they sigh.
Similarly the windswept moors of the Brontës' Yorkshire were a teeming honey pot of potential suitors, from the dashing Mr Rochester in his country pile to the brooding Heathcliff on his gusty hilltop. (Sarah Harris)
'A teeming honey pot of potential suitors' - that's one priceless sentence which would have brought a smile even to the sisters' lips.
Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Theatre
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