Gastronomic Brontë Tour

Dana Pearson writes a review of Wuthering Heights 1939 for Sea Coast Online. She writes something many will consider nearly offensive.

Oh, how I love coming across a classic film that turns out to be classic only in the sense that it's old and everyone knows it.

We don't understand where she gets that from. Differences from the book, etc left aside, the film is excellent and more than deserves to be called a classic, and certainly not just because it's 'old'.
She doesn't seem to have read the original novel either because...

What makes the story so insufferable is that we've got two characters who continually mistreat one another in between brief moments of moony expressions of undying love. It got me thinking: I don't like these people, and I don't care who dies and who suffers and who haunts the moors.
Heathcliff: Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest so long as I live on! I killed you. Haunt me, then! Haunt your murderer! I know that ghosts have wandered on the Earth. Be with me always. Take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this dark alone where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life! I cannot die without my soul.
Dana: Yeah, fine, but will you please roll the end credits?

Oh well. Some get it, some don't. Fortunately the people at DVDFile do get it and their review of the new Fox edition of Jane Eyre 1944 - another classic - is worth reading.

On the subject of films, Les humeurs de Fritz posts an interesting image comparing portraits of the real Brontës (granted, that of Charlotte is a beautified version of Richmond's portrait and that of Anne has never been entirely confirmed as being her) with the actors that played them in Devotion and the actors that will play them in Brontë.

And Cinemelma reviews I Walked with a Zombie (loosely based on Jane Eyre, as you know) in Italian.

Now for musicals. DMB writes about going to see Norman and Simon's Heathcliff:

Then I headed over to the Avram Theatre to sit in on a rehearsal of Marsha Norman's new musical Heathcliff, a wonderful and breathtaking adaptation of one of my favorite novels, Wuthering Heights. Before rehearsal began, I met the very sweet Lucy Simon (Carly's sister) who wrote the gorgeous music for Heathcliff. She collaborated with Marsha once before on The Secret Garden. The rehearsal was inspiring to say the least. Marsha was directing and I was amazed to watch her work. I felt honored just to be sitting in the theatre. [...]
Later that evening, I attended the sneak preview of the play. The crowd seemed to love the show. I'm sure Heathcliff will be a huge success for all involved. The sneak preview of the musical featured Broadway star Jill Paice in the role of Cathy. Jill is incredibly talented and was brilliant in the role.

Curiously enough, Free Times has an article on the same composers' The secret Garden. The article includes - appropriately enough - a reference to Jane Eyre.

There are strong strains of Jane Eyre here with Archibald as a kind of Rochester figure. (Addison Dewitt)

The Guardian has an article on Muriel Spark's future monument in Edinburgh as we reported a couple of days ago.

To finish with an appetizer - we read on Cedar Rapids Gazette about Bookmark Cafe in Iowa. This is one of the dishes that can be found in their menu:

Two popular menu items are the Louisa May Alcott panini (chicken breast with pesto and provolone cheese on a tomato focaccia bun, $5.49) and the Charlotte Bronte Orange Salad (romaine lettuce, raspberry vinaigrette, oranges, chopped walnuts, feta cheese, red onion and grilled chicken breast, $6). (Anne Kapler)

We don't know about Charlotte but the salad sounds quite good. It now joins the gastronomic Brontë tour, which up until now included the Brontë cheeseburguer and the Charlotte (Brontë) cake.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Theatre, Weirdo, Wuthering Heights