Yorkshire gave the world the Brontë sisters

The Telegraph interviews Jo Brand and looks into her biography:

Things became so bad, she was kicked out of the family home. She went to live with her boyfriend, a 'posh’ junkie four years older than her: 'I thought Dave was the most magnificent person to fall in love with because you don’t want a conventional nine-to-fiver at that age. Wild men are so enormously attractive. He was Heathcliff. Mr Rochester. He was enormously bright and unpredictable and funny. (Nigel Farndale)

and the Yorkshire Post interviews Roy Hattersley, British Labour politician :

What about Yorkshire's cultural life?
Well, we gave the world the Brontë sisters, for a start, and also JB Priestley, so I think we can be pretty proud of our cultural heritage.
I gave a talk about Priestley at the National Theatre not so long ago, and it was slightly surprising to see how popular he still is. But rightly so. And we have all those wonderfully refurbished theatres – the new Crucible is stunning.

The Australian broadcast (tomorrow, October 25) of the first episode of Wuthering Heights 2009 is discussed in The West Australian:

Reimagining a beloved novel for a new generation is always going to divide audiences. But when that novel is Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte's gothic tale of love and cruelty, the reactions are almost guaranteed to be as bipolar as the emotions of the main characters.
Audiences new to the Emily Bronte tale of star-crossed love, obsession and madness will be captivated by this lush and dark adaptation.
Devotees, on the other hand, could be excused for feeling less than enthusiastic.
The two-part series, which has been adapted for the small screen by Peter Bowker, strips Bronte's labyrinthine plot to the bare essentials and spruces it up for modern audiences.
The brooding atmosphere of the novel is swept away in favour of a fast-paced and spirited retelling of the ungoverned passion and malice shared by Cathy Earnshaw and her foster-brother, Heathcliff.
The trick to enjoying this series is to forget previous adaptations - all 14 of them, including Kate Bush's weirdly operatic song - and take in the spectacle with an open mind.
Bronte may not have envisioned the pair making out on the moors like a pair of 21st century teenagers at a B&S ball in defiance of the social niceties of the time but it is a breath of fresh air for anyone struggling with the usual stuffy and plodding nature of period dramas.
Throw in a dash of sex, a hint of necrophilia, delusions, abandoned brides, revenge marriages and visitations beyond the grave and viewers are left with a darkly entertaining romp reminiscent more of Melrose Place than 1840s England.
Charlotte Riley, who plays the temperamental Cathy, says stepping into the shoes of one of literature's most loved and hated heroines was a daunting task. But delving into the nuances of the era, when a sharply spoken "sir" could be more cutting than a knife, made her debut in front on the small screen a memorable one.
"I was like, 'Oh my God, this is some book and the book is loved all over the world'," she says. "It was like playing Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. You just have to go into it knowing you are not ever going to be able to please everybody.
"It was a real emotional roller-coaster because Cathy is either dying or giving birth or going nuts, and she is always doing something highly overtly emotional."
Filming on location in the hauntingly desolate moors was a challenge in itself.
"It was always raining when we needed sunshine and the sun was shining when we needed rain," she says. "The shooting was hard work, really hard work. But the area in which Cathy and Heathcliff exist is such a unique area of the British Isles and these landscapes are such an important part of the book and the adaptation, so (director Coky Giedroyc) choose to set it exactly where the book is set."
Riley says despite growing up not far from the moors that are often considered to be the third main character in the story, she did not read the novel until after she passed her first audition for the role.
While the adaptation was well received in Britain when it screened in August, Riley admits it will upset some fans of the Bronte classic.
"One thing that is beautiful about a book is that you create images for yourself and some people will think that it falls short of their imaginations," she says.
"The special thing about this adaptation is you have the second generation.
"You do not just see the psychosis of Cathy and Heathcliff contained within their own story, you see how that goes on to affect their children and, potentially, even though they did not write it, their children's children. You just have to come to it with an open mind." (Tiffany Fox)

Another Wuthering Heights adaptation (Wuthering Heights 1967 recently released in DVD) is reviewed by EDGE San Francisco:

Heathcliff and Cathy are back on the moors, this time in a little-known 1967 BBC television production of Wuthering Heights. For those expecting something to rival the classic 1939 film version in terms of romantic gloss or the underrated 1970 remake in terms of grit, this offering will disappoint.
Part of the problem comes in the limitations of British television from four decades ago: a conspicuously low budget, grimy black-and-white videography, and acting that veers heavily into theatrical emoting.
This "Wuthering Heights" is best accepted as a curio for diehard Anglophiles and devoted Bronte lovers.
Some interest on this side of the Atlantic may come in watching a young Ian McShane as Heathcliff. Despite being burdened with a heavy wig and unflattering dark make-up, McShane captures the emotional brooding of Emily Bronte’s compelling anti-hero. McShane is clearly channeling Laurence Olivier’ s Heathcliff from the 1939 film, yet he manages to bring a sense of visceral danger to his seething, vengeful machinations. McShane’s charisma, however, tends to overwhelm Angela Scoular’s Cathy, who often seems more like a bystander to the commotion around her rather than being the crux of the story.
At three hours (divided into four parts), there is also too much of a good thing here. The production could have easily dropped at least a half-hour to help speed along its story.
This televised version of Wuthering Heights is best accepted as a curio for diehard Anglophiles and devoted Bronte lovers. (Phil Hall)

The Greater Lewis County Chronicle talks about literary creativity using the Brontë sisters as an example:

I never felt that I could teach creativity in writing. You either have it or you don’t. It’s either in the genes or in the totality of one’s experiences, such as living in a creative atmosphere (consider the Bronte sisters, for example). (Gordon Aadland)

The Twilight-Wuthering Heights connection appears once more in the Irish Times. Orla Tinsley is the author of the article:

Now that I’m converted, I personally have no problem if he shows up at Hallowe’en. What girl wouldn’t want to hear a line such as: “The more time I spend with you, the more human emotions seem comprehensible to me. I’m discovering that I can sympathise with Heathcliff in ways I didn’t think possible before”? Oh, the angst.

Diário Digital talks with António Lobo Antunes, author and Brontëite. Not the first time that he appears on this blog:

O escritor diz que nunca empresta um livro de que goste, "porque o meu exemplar foi escrito só para mim e tenho a fantasia de que os outros exemplares dizem coisas diferentes". "Leio o Monte dos Vendavais, de que gosto muito, e ela [Emily Brontë] fez o livro para mim, sabia que eu ia nascer. Um bom livro é um livro que foi escrito para mim e que me revela a mim mesmo." (Google translation)

Sentieri Salvagi reviews the film Viola di Mare by Donatella Maiorca and makes the following Brontë reference:

E’ evidente sin dalle scene iniziali, a metà strada tra La Terra Trema e Cime Tempestose, che il gotico siciliano in cui è intriso il loro Romanticismo paesaggistico non ha abbastanza forza. (Valentina Gentile)

De Verdieping Trouw compares Frank Lloyd Wright's character in T.C.Boyle's novel Women to Emily Brontë's characters:

Hij lijkt daarmee het aangewezen model voor een romanfiguur van de oude stempel, een ongrijpbaar, extreem karakter, zoals Emily Brontë, Dostojevski of Strindberg ze beschreven in romans over psychologische duisternis en demonische kracht. (Rob Schouten) (Google translation)

The Gazeta Pomorska talks about a recent performance of Susanne Schneider's Noce Sióstr Brontë play (check this previous post for more information) in Bydgoszcz, Poland:

W najbliższy poniedziałek 19 października scena teatralna Yakizoff działająca przy ośrodku kulturalnym Yakiza przy ul. Podolskiej 15 w Bydgoszczy zaprasza na spektakl pt. "Noce Sióstr Brontë”.
Jest to opowieść Susanne Schneider, pisarki, reżyserki teatralnej, radiowej i telewizyjnej, urodzonej w 1953 roku w Stuttgarcie. Za sztukę "Noce Sióstr Brontë” Schneider otrzymała w 1992 roku nagrodę im. Adolfa Grimme.
Spektakl powstał w wyniku połączenia sił uczestników zajęć teatralnych w Pałacu Młodzieży i w VII Liceum Ogólnokształcącym w Bydgoszczy. Swoją premierę miał na festiwalu SWOT w Warszawie.
Autorka tekstu skoncentrowała się na decydującym momencie życia słynnej, literackiej rodziny.
Dzieje sióstr od początku toczą się przed widzem spokojnie, a obrazy budowane są na jednostajnym poziomie emocjonalnym. W krótkich, charakterystycznych scenach ukazane zostają najistotniejsze cechy osobowości trzech różnych sióstr. Tekst przeplatany jest urywkami prozy Emily (autorki min. "Wichrowych wzgórz”).
Warto wybrać się na spektakl, by sprawdzić, czy magia utworów sióstr Brontë sprawi, że sztuka opisująca ich historię wywoła w widzu takie wzruszenie i czułość, jak płynące z ich książek.
Reżyserem spektaklu jest Wiesław Kowalski, bydgoski aktor przez wiele lat związany z Teatrem Polskim w Bydgoszczy. Wstęp - 5 zł. (Google translation)

Jane Eyre as a stepmother (!) in Página 12 (Argentina), Jane Eyre lovers in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, The TanK Times posts about Jane Eyre 2006, de Stentor (Netherlands) talks about De Brontë Sisters' Dutch play, Wuthering Heights is the subject of posts on Platypus of Truth and Dark Side of the Broom, vampirereverie proposes a instrumental mix for Jane Eyre 2006, Pro Se has read Emily Brontë's Poems.

Categories: Brontëites, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, References, Theatre, Wuthering Heights,