Total Eclipse of a DVD and a Comic

The US release of the new Jane Eyre DVD is scheduled for next February 20. This article in the Orlando Sentinel reminds us of the date and talks about this adaptation:

(...)This version of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre feels startlingly modern, not musty at all. Director Susanna White opens this four-hour miniseries with a nightmarish vision that establishes an unsettling tone. How appropriate for a haunted-house story with rattling doors, flickering candles and mysterious visitors. This is a jolting Jane.

That adrenaline surge rejuvenates a saga that has been filmed more than 15 times. Even if you know Jane Eyre, you don't know her like this. The camera spins, swoops, glides and jostles. The dreams and flashbacks pack a feverish punch. The mystery carries an exotic frankness.

It's a relief to see a plain Jane (Ruth Wilson), a break with the beauties who have assumed the role. Wilson plays plainness beautifully. Jane is mistreated as a child, shipped off to a ghastly orphanage, deceived as a young woman. Yet Wilson personifies gumption.

Sandy Welch's excellent script provides a full portrait of Jane. The main focus is Jane's employment as a governess at the turbulent household of Thornfield Hall. She teaches the young female ward of Edward Rochester (Toby Stephens).

Stephens forcefully captures his character's moods: scary, sexy, sneaky and stressed. His reckless Rochester freshens this familiar story. (...) (Richard Boedeker)

Another review of the production can be found on Laura's Reviews blog.

Not a movie adaptation but a comic one is what discusses this article in The Christian Science Monitor:

My years as a very young reader fell squarely within the heyday of Classics Illustrated, a 160-plus-volume comic-book series that condensed and simplified great works of literature into 40 or 50 pages of cartoon frames. They might have horrified the original authors, but the little comics utterly absorbed me. (...)
I logged into eBay and, in due course, put in a bid on comic No. 39 ("Jane Eyre"), which I'd never come across as a child. It was good to know that one heroine, at least, rated a place in Classics Illustrated.
I imagine the comic handily captures the dark gothic glory of Thornfield Hall, the intrigue and mystery of its one occupied tower. But do those bubbles of dialogue even hint at the marvelous Eyre-Rochester repartee that draws me back to it again and again?
It's hard to imagine they could – but having won the bid, I'm about to find out. (Sue Wunder)

And now, some Wuthering Heights–related news:

Robin Turner in the Western Mail talks about the origins of Bonnie Tyler's classic song Total Eclipse of the Heart:

THE Bonnie Tyler song that has helped the singer maintain her position in the Wales rich list has been given yet another makeover, this time by Irish boyband Westlife.(...)

The song set Bonnie's career on fire when she released it in 1983. It was written by American songwriter Jim Steinman - his soulful lyrics were inspired by the classic novel Wuthering Heights.

A new article, but in tagalog, can be read about The Promise. More information on previous posts of ours.

And finally, Wutheringheart's blog posts Evening Solace, a poem by Charlotte Brontë.

Categories: Comics, In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Poetry, Wuthering Heights