Eclectic Brontë

More reviews of the recent 1944 Jane Eyre DVD release. The most complete is this one on DVD Town, with special attention to the extras and with some provoking comments for purists:

(...)Those critics over the years who have seen little more in this production of "Jane Eyre" than a conventional romantic potboiler were obviously watching a different movie from the one I grew up with. The "Jane Eyre" I see is a movingly dark, moody, brooding motion picture that appropriately captures the flavor of Charlotte Bronte's classic within a reasonable time frame. Film is a visual medium above all, an image conveying a thousand words, and there is no reason for a three-hour version of the story except to satisfy purists wishing to see every detail on screen, whether or not they are needed. Moreover, that this "Jane Eyre" is more Orson Welles's movie than co-star Joan Fontaine's or director Robert Stevenson's may be a blessing in disguise. (John J. Puccio)

Briefer comments can be found on Deseret news and The Globe and Mail where it is highlighted one of the DVD extras: the music by Bernard Herrmann:

an isolated track of Bernard Herrmann's musical score, taken directly from the recording sessions. (Warren Clements)

Let's continue with music. Michel Legrand's hard-to-find soundtrack for the 1970 version of Wuthering Heights can be found today (for a limited time) on Rare and Semi-Rare Soundtracks.

I first saw this movie as a kid on TV, and I was captivated from beginning to end. I hadn't yet seen the William Wyler version with Laurence Olivier, and by the time I did, I was disappointed; it didn't have the raw earthiness of the 1970 remake, which I still prefer - and yes, I know that's heresy to purists.
The gorgeous, hard-to-find score, which will probably never make it to CD, is by Michel Legrand.

Another very 'rare' (1) Wuthering Heights-related music is the James Hetfield, from Metallica, cover of Kate Bush's song.

[I]n the summer of 1995, singer/guitarist James Hetfield spent two weeks in the studio laying down tracks for an aborted solo album. (...)At any rate, the album was never completed. One track survives, however: a fascinating, gritty demo of Hetfield’s take on Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” that appeared briefly on a few mp3 blogs early last year, only to quickly disappear – often within a day of the file being posted. One can only hope that it will someday see an official release, along with the rest of the cuts recorded then. (BMarkey on The Big Green House)

We will finish this very eclectic post with a poetical note. Something Else posts a fragment of Anne Carson's The Glass Essay. More information about this very-much Emily Brontë-related mixture between poem and essay can be found here or on this review by Mysticgypsy.

(1) So rare that as a matter of fact it's just a joke.

Categories: Emily Brontë, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Poetry, Wuthering Heights