The one with the BrontëBot

The Telegraph (Calcutta) reports how a creative writing class went at Jadavpur University. Emily Brontë was brought up by a student clearly in awe of her work.

Responding to a student’s comment about being unable to write after reading Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Pritchard stressed the need to find one’s voice: “The best way to read is to unpack the writer’s work to find out what you like about him — read like a taxonomist! You can’t let yourself silence yourself.” (Romila Saha)

Also in awe of a Brontë novel was Rachel in Friends in an episode from season 5 (The One with Ross's Sandwich). This is mentioned in an article in The Scotsman - sadly we can only read the first few lines, though it is related to what we mentioned yesterday regarding English (and not just English) peoplewho lie about the books they have read.

In an episode of Friends, Rachel attends a night class on classic literature, where she waxes lyrical on what a remarkably modern novel is Jane Eyre. The teacher, impressed by her nuanced reading of Charlotte Brontë's iconic work, agrees and then offers as evidence to support her position the contemporary nature of the heroine's struggle, to... (Stephen McGinty)

We suggest you try and get your hands on this episode of Friends, even in you're not a fan of the series (is there such a thing?) because it's extremely hilarious.

Rachel: That was so embarrassing! I can't believe you let me go on and on like that!
Phoebe: I'm sorry. It was just so funny when you started comparing Jane Eyre to Robocop.

Perhaps not so very modern.

The Financial Times recently published an article on literary biopics and Angela Workman's production turns up in it.

Geraghty identifies two main motivations for making a literary biopic - to demonstrate the link between a writer's life and work or to reveal the disparity between them. "I think the new film about the Brontes will fall into the first category. Did the sisters live a dark, gothic life on the Yorkshire moors like the characters in their novels? The interest in their lives is related to how far their books are autobiographical," she says. [...]
Despite Geraghty's predictions about her film, Angela Workman, Bronte's director, maintains she is not a Bronte obsessive. For her, it is the scale of the achievement that the three sisters' novels represent - not the books themselves - that is the most wondrous aspect of their story. "A lot of people assume that I must be a fanatic about their books and that's what brought me to make the film. But it wasn't that at all... I was just so moved by the immensity of what they achieved, despite the isolation and insularity of their lives. To some degree, they've become immortal. So it was really that, the absolute unlikelihood of their achievement," she says.
Gender was a key obstacle to the Brontes' huge fame and success. And it does not seem coincidental that three of the new "lit pics" are about female writers. The Brontes - like Austen before them and Potter subsequently - had to fight the notion that women could not produce great literature. It is because female writers historically had to defy society that their life stories often contain more of the conflict necessary to create engaging film drama.
Films about female writers are also predominantly made for a female audience, as costume drama is still considered very much a womanly domain. Indeed, the directors of the Potter, Bronte, and Austen films all concede that it is mostly women who will watch them. (Melissa McClements)

We still can't say much about Brontë, though judging by what we know, it looks really good. If you're interested in Beatrix Potter's biopic you can read a review recently posted by MysticGypsy and if you're interested in Becoming Jane (which, you should know, is more fiction than biography) you should check AustenBlog.

Another film that wasn't all that 'faithful' (though good) was Jane Eyre 1944. This is how it is presented at Daily News Online, a website from Sri Lanka.

'Jane Eyre' at Russian Centre
CINEMA: Jane Eyre will be screened at the Russian Centre, Colombo on January 27 at 5.00 p.m.
Jane Eyre was born in 1820, a harsh time of change in England. Money and position seemed all that mattered. Charity was a cold and disagreeable word. Religion too often wore a mask of bigotry and cruelty. There was no proper place for the poor of the unfortunate.
Jane Eyre was directed by Robert Stevenson and was starred by Orson Welles (Edward Rochester), Joan Fontain (Jane Eyre) Margaret O'Brien (Adele Varens), Peggy Anne Garner (Jane Eyre-younger), Agnes Moorehead (Mrs. Reed).

Isn't that an original synopsis?

Categories: In the News, Movies-DVD-TV, Jane Eyre