Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Wide Sargasso Sea — based on the 1966 novel by Jean Rhys, originally aired by the BBC in 2006 and finally releasing to U.S. audiences on DVD later this month — is a sensuous look at a descent into madness. Ostensibly presented as a prequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, the story is about Mr. Rochester’s first wife, Antoinette Cosway, and how she transformed into that ghostly lunatic locked in the tower at Thornfield Manor.(...)Curiously, the Indian newspaper Business-Journal also mentions Jean Rhys's novel in an article about Sebastian Faulks's new James Bond novel:
This production is gorgeous; filmed in Jamaica, the colors and textures are lush and saturated. A couple of times the director used trite, swirling camera work to indicate the characters’ unstable states of mind which I found annoying. He should have trusted the actors’ capable performances; Rebecca Hall, as Antoinette, and Rafe Spall, as Edward, are heartbreaking in their bewilderment and anguish as their lives spiral out of control. They certainly didn’t need whirling, stuttering shots of jungle vegetation and blurred faces to help convey their pain.
The DVD extras are a little skimpy: previews from other British television productions, a biography of Jean Rhys, the author of the source material, and the main cast’s filmographies. I did find the Rhys biographical information interesting, and one doesn't really expect a lot from the extras for a production like this anyway.
British television has long had a reputation for quality period drama, mining the wealth of classic literature and making these rich stories accessible to folks who might not be inclined to pick up the book. I think Wide Sargasso Sea is a strong entry into the field and am pleased that those of us in the U.S. finally have the chance to enjoy it. (Friend Mouse)
In the literary canon, most people could name two sequels so powerful and so ambitious that they are classics in their own right. Jean Rhys' The Wide Sargasso Sea didn't just retell Jane Eyre. Rhys reimagined Jane Eyre from the perspective of Mr Rochester's mad wife, creating a fiery, passionate relationship for Mr and Mrs Rochester the first. Bertha's descent into madness became her metaphor for the fractured minds of the colonised. (Nilanjana S. Roy)DVD Talks reviews A&E's Romance Collection which includes Jane Eyre 1997.
Certainly the best thing going for this 1997 adaptation of Jane Eyre is the remarkably calm yet inwardly passionate central performance of Jane by the remarkable Samantha Morton. There have been almost twenty notable adaptations of this venerable story, and I've always been partial to the 1970 TV version (which later played in theatres) starring George C. Scott and Susannah York. But I have to admit that Morton surpasses York (who was a tad too old to play Jane) with a shaded interpretation of the character that's quite remarkable in its delicacy and strength. Bronte's famous character is a layered compilation of themes revolving around social inequities (Jane first viewing herself as unequal to Rochester due to her lowly position), her sex (obviously at this time, women were considered inferior and subject to pressing constraints on their individual freedom of expression), and her steadfast moral core beliefs (she'll marry Rochester, but not when she realizes he lied to her about his insane wife, locked away in the attic). It's a difficult role to essay without falling into the trap of a standard Gothic heroine, running around sets, alternating swooning after the blustering Rochester or hiding in terror from his mad wife. But Morton embodies these themes effortlessly in her subtle performance, giving this Jane Eyre a strength of moral action I've haven't seen in other adaptations.The Yorkshire Post informs about new railway improvements in the Bradford district:
I can't say I was as pleased with Hinds' interpretation of Rochester, which felt altogether too rushed and...out of control for lack of a better descriptive phrase. His Rochester seems far too "on the edge" in all his dealings, far too high-strung for the Rochester I always have in mind, coming off many times as hysterical (and making Jane seem far more practical and centered). It doesn't help, either, that much telescoping of the story occurs in the fast-paced script, with Rochester one minute welcoming Jane to Thornfield and in the very next scene, asking her if he's handsome. It's a jarring juxtaposition, made necessary no doubt by time constraints, but it has the effect of making Rochester seem far more flighty, more careening in his emotions. As well, director Robert Young indulges in moments of Gothic fancy that play poorly against Morton's measure performance (the slow-mo introduction of Rochester on horseback, with Morton goggling her eyes comically, is a real howler). But overall - and directly because of Morton's excellent performance - this Jane Eyre is well worth revisiting. (Paul Mavis)
"The council is pushing the case with the Office of Rail Regulation to provide the Bradford district with the train services we need. And there are good opportunities for leisure travel to the district with the Brontes, Saltaire World Heritage Site, the National Media Museum and our unique landscape, towns and villages." (Fiona Evans)Vulpes Libris interviews Edward Petherbridge:
Free Listens reviews Lit2Go's reading of Jane Eyre's by Amanda Eland:VL- Finally … we like to ask our guests to name their five favourite books - and give reasons for their choices. What are yours?
I would name Wuthering Heights and Bleak House and Hardy’s Tess.
I loved reading EM Forster - Howard’s End AND Where Angels … for talking books - amongst the most involving and fulfilling of acting jobs - oh, and The Picture of Dorian Gray - (re-released on CD I think). All the above are miraculous creations it seems to me - they intensify one’s experience of life.
I was 23 when I read Wuthering Heights on a ship, returning from working in New Zealand. I remember particularly reading of the familiar Yorkshire landscape - so wild and yet close to my home, the then sooty industrial town of Bradford - as I looked out on sand and camels on our way through the Suez Canal. I heard some of the book again recently on a sadly defunct digital station called One Word - the book was even better than I remembered - in fact there were whole tracts of it I’d forgotten I add it to that lengthening list.VL: Wuthering Heights is a book that gets better every time you read it, I think. It shouldn’t be forced on people too young - but that, as you say, is another story …
Amanda Eland has a pleasant girlish voice that suits the calm character of Jane quite well. The repartee between Jane and Mr. Rochester does not come across as engaging as perhaps it should be, but otherwise her characters are well established. Although I'm no foreign language expert, Ms. Eland seemed to have trouble pronouncing the French and German phrases in the book. Overall this was a good reading in a high-quality recording. The main fault I had was not with the recording itself, but how it is presented. To download each chapter, you have to follow a link from the table of contents to that chapter's page, then download the file for that chapter separately. The files are quite large in size, with some chapters weighing in over 90 MB. However, this large size translates into good audio quality, so if you have a fast connection and plenty of memory, this book is certainly worthy of a download. (Listener)3 Questions ... and Answers posts about Anne Brontë and ...Beautiful Evil about Wuthering Heights (1939 film adaptation and Kate Bush's song). Oeil et plume publishes a beautiful picture named after Wuthering Heights.
Categories: Anne Brontë, Audio-Radio, Brontëites, In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights
Search
Labels
- Advert (7)
- Agnes Grey (335)
- Alert (1674)
- Anne Brontë (577)
- Art-Exhibitions (980)
- Arthur Bell Nicholls (36)
- At The... (11)
- Audio-Radio (585)
- Biography (356)
- Books (4021)
- Branwell Brontë (368)
- Brontë 200 (395)
- Brontë Birthplace (16)
- Brontë Parsonage Museum (1620)
- Brontë Society (547)
- Brontëana (774)
- Brontëites (1933)
- Brussels (284)
- Charlotte Brontë (945)
- Comics (416)
- Contest (34)
- Cottage Poems (8)
- Dance (360)
- Elizabeth Gaskell (242)
- Ellen Nussey (13)
- Emily Brontë (1070)
- Fake News & Blunders (135)
- Fiction (426)
- Haworth (1803)
- Humour (363)
- Illustrations (163)
- In Memoriam (7)
- In the News (1192)
- Ireland (90)
- Jane Eyre (7664)
- Journals (565)
- Juvenilia (295)
- Maria Branwell Brontë (25)
- Mary Taylor (69)
- Messages from BB (109)
- Movies-DVD-TV (4613)
- Music (2287)
- New Releases (7)
- Opera (231)
- Patrick Brontë (213)
- Penzance (15)
- Poetry (862)
- Red House (61)
- References (2746)
- Reminder (127)
- Review (138)
- Scarborough (82)
- Scholar (1252)
- Sequels and Retellings (1153)
- Shirley (276)
- Software (17)
- Talks (1482)
- The Professor (135)
- The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (530)
- Theatre (3305)
- Thornton (160)
- Top Withens (94)
- Translations (524)
- Unfinished Novels (9)
- Victorian Era (396)
- Villette (568)
- Websites & Apps (196)
- Weirdo (665)
- Wide Sargasso Sea (1034)
- Wuthering Heights (7021)
Recent Posts
Old Labels
Blog Archive
Other BrontëBlogs
-
On The Death Of Emily Bronte - Christmas day draws ever nearer, and preparations are going full swing across the world, but the run up to the big day isn’t always a cheery one. It can be...21 hours ago
-
ERROR: Database error: Table './rss/feeds' is marked as crashed and should be repaired at /var/www/html/feed.pl line 1657. -5 days ago
-
ブロンテ生誕地保存活動の記事について(続報) - 2023年12月25日のブログ記事において、ブロンテきょうだいが生まれたソーントンの家の保存活動に関するニュース記事を紹介しました。その後、日本ブロンテ協会のfacebookページを通じて、 現在ソーントンの生家の管理をしている委員会のメンバーNigel West氏から現況のお知らせが届きました。日本のブロン...1 week ago
-
Brussels Brontë Christmas cheer 2024 - On Saturday, 32 of us gathered in the famous (to us) Salle Rouge in our usual Brussels restaurant to celebrate the Christmas season and round off another y...2 weeks ago
-
The corrected spelling of one of the greatest of all literary names. Reader, it is finally Brontë, not Bronte. - An 85-year injustice has been rectified at Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey with the corrected spelling of one of the greatest of all literary names. R...3 weeks ago
-
Jane Eyre: Fate & Fortune - a card game - Doesn’t it seem like there are quite a few games based on classic novels like Pride and Prejudice? It’s fun to see, but I was always hopeful that someone...4 weeks ago
-
More taphophilia! This time in search of Constantin Heger's grave in Brussels. - Constantin Heger's Grave Charlotte Bronte Constantin Heger Whilst on a wonderful four day visit to Brussels in October 2024, where I had t...1 month ago
-
Empezando a leer con Jane Eyre (parte 2) - ¡Hola a todos! Hace unos pocos días enseñaba aquí algunas fotografías de versiones de Jane Eyre de Charlotte Brontë adaptadas para un público infantil en f...2 months ago
-
More Bronte-Inspired Fiction - After my latest post, I realised there were a few more titles inspired by the Brontës that I’d missed from my list. Here they are: A Little Princess by Fra...2 months ago
-
Goodbye, Jane - As two wonderful years come to an end, Piper and Lillian reflect on what we've learned from Jane Eyre. Thank you for joining us on this journey. Happy...11 months ago
-
Hello! - This is our new post website for The Anne Brontë Society. We are based in Scarborough UK, and are dedicated to preserving Anne’s work, memory, and legacy. ...1 year ago
-
Final thoughts. - Back from honeymoon and time for Charlotte to admire her beautiful wedding day bonnet before storing it carefully away in the parsonage. After 34 days...2 years ago
-
Ambrotipia – Tesori dal Brontë Parsonage Museum - Continua la collaborazione tra The Sisters’ Room e il Brontë Parsonage Museum. Vi mostriamo perciò una serie di contenuti speciali, scelti e curati dire...2 years ago
-
-
-
Buon bicentenario, Anne !!!!! - Finalmente annunciamo la novita' editoriale dedicata ad Anne nel giorno bicentenario della nascita: la sua prima biografia tradotta in lingua italiana, sc...4 years ago
-
Two New Anne Brontë 200 Books – Out Now! - Anne was a brilliant writer (as well as a talented artist) so it’s great to see some superb new books…4 years ago
-
Review of Mother of the Brontës by Sharon Wright - Sharon Wright’s Mother of the Brontës is a book as sensitive as it is thorough. It is, in truth, a love story, and, as with so many true love stories, the ...5 years ago
-
Brontë in media - Wist u dat? In de film ‘The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society’ gebaseerd op de gelijknamige briefroman, schrijft hoofdrolspeelster Juliet Ashto...5 years ago
-
Ken Hutchison's devilish Heathcliff - *Richard Wilcocks writes:* Ken Hutchison and Kay Adshead Browsing through the pages of *The Crystal Bucket* by Clive James, last read a long time ago (p...5 years ago
-
Nouvelle biographie des Brontë en français - Même si, selon moi, aucune biographie ne peut surpasser l’excellent ouvrage de Juliet Barker (en anglais seulement), la parution d’une biographie en frança...5 years ago
-
Researching Emily Brontë at Southowram - A couple of weeks ago I took a wander to the district of Southowram, just a few miles across the hills from Halifax town centre, yet feeling like a vil...5 years ago
-
Reading Pleasures - Surrounded by the heady delights of the Brontë Parsonage Museum library archive, I opened this substantial 1896 Bliss Sands & Co volume with its red cover ...6 years ago
-
Link: After that dust-up, first editions are dusted off for Brontë birthday - The leaden skies over Haworth could not have been more atmospheric as they set to work yesterday dusting off the first editions of Emily Brontë at the begi...6 years ago
-
Page wall post by Clayton Walker - Clayton Walker added a new photo to The Brontë Society's timeline.6 years ago
-
Page wall post by La Sezione Italiana della Brontë Society - La Sezione Italiana della Brontë Society: La Casa editrice L'Argolibro e la Sezione Italiana della Brontë Society in occasione dell'anno bicentenario dedi...6 years ago
-
Html to ReStructuredText-converter - Wallflux.com provides a rich text to reStructredText-converter. Partly because we use it ourselves, partly because rst is very transparent in displaying wh...7 years ago
-
Display Facebook posts in a WordPress widget - You can display posts from any Facebook page or group on a WordPress blog using the RSS-widget in combination with RSS feeds from Wallflux.com: https://www...7 years ago
-
charlottebrontesayings: To Walk Invisible - The Brontë Sisters,... - charlottebrontesayings: *To Walk Invisible - The Brontë Sisters, this Christmas on BBC* Quotes from the cast on the drama: *“I wanted it to feel...7 years ago
-
-
thegrangersapprentice: Reading Jane Eyre for English class.... - thegrangersapprentice: Reading Jane Eyre for English class. Also, there was a little competition in class today in which my teacher asked some really spe...8 years ago
-
5. The Poets’ Jumble Trail Finds - Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending with some friends a jumble trail in which locals sold old – and in some instances new – bits and bobs from their ...9 years ago
-
How I Met the Brontës - My first encounter with the Brontës occurred in the late 1990’s when visiting a bookshop offering a going-out-of -business sale. Several books previously d...10 years ago
-
-
Radio York - I was interviewed for the Paul Hudson Weather Show for Radio York the other day - i had to go to the BBC radio studios in Blackburn and did the interview...11 years ago
-
Short excerpt from an interview with Mia Wasikowska on the 2011 Jane Eyre - I really like what she says about the film getting Jane's age right. Jane's youth really does come through in the film.13 years ago
-
Emily Brontë « joignait à l’énergie d’un homme la simplicité d’un enfant ». - *Par **T. de Wyzewa.* C’est M. Émile Montégut qui, en même temps qu’il révélait au public français la vie et le génie de Charlotte Brontë, a le premier cit...14 years ago
-
CELEBRATION DAY - MEDIA RELEASE February 2010 For immediate release FREE LOCAL RESIDENTS’ DAY AT NEWLY REFURBISHED BRONTË MUSEUM This image shows the admission queue on the...14 years ago
-
Poetry Day poems - This poem uses phrases and lines written by visitors at the Bronte Parsonage Museum to celebrate National Poetry Day 2009, based on words chosen from Emily...15 years ago
-
The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte - Firstly, I would like to thank the good people at Avon- Harper Collins for sending me a review copy of Syrie James' new book, The Secret Diaries of Charlot...15 years ago
Podcasts
-
-
S2 E1: With... Jenny Mitchell - Welcome back to Behind the Glass with this early-release first episode of series 2 ! Sam and new co-host Connie talk to prize-winning poet Jenny Mitchell...1 month ago
Subscriptions
Brontë Parsonage X
Brontë Studies X
Other Stuff
Click to join BRONTE
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
Site archived by the British Library - UK Web Archiving Consortium
"Oeil et plume publishes a beautiful picture named after Wuthering Heights"...
ReplyDeleteThanks you so much. Glad you liked my picture.
You're welcome!
ReplyDelete