Jocasta and Emily's Jane Eyre. A couple of sics

Vanity Fair interviews Cary Fukunaga whose next project is directing a film version of Jane Eyre. Nothing new is said:

Careful not to repeat himself, Fukunaga, who is half Swedish and half Japanese, made sure to follow Sin Nombre up with a very different project: an umpteenth adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, starring Michael Fassbender and Alice in Wonderland’s Mia Wasikowska.(...)

• Sin Nombre was a very personal project from beginning to end. By following that with an adaptation of Jane Eyre, are you abandoning the idea of always being a writer-director?

I did wonder about that. I think there’s a part of you, especially during your first film, that wonders if you’re going to be someone who just writes his own projects. And I wish I wrote that fast, but considering the amount of movies I want to make in the finite time I have to make films, I wont be able to write all my films.
I eventually want to do writing on all the films, but not necessarily to be the writer. Writing is a painful, painful thing, it really is. (Julian Sancton)

Continuing with this new Jane Eyre film, the Philippine Daily Enquirer interviews (?) Mia Wasikowska who says the same usual stuff about Cary Fukunaga's choice as director. The journalist has some problems identifying the correct Brontë sister, though:

Mia Wasikowska (pronounced “Vah-she-kov-ska”) made a splash as the virtually unknown girl who got the plum title role in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Yet, here she is, creating more headlines—by bagging the part of the eponymous heroine in the new film version of “Jane Eyre.”
“We begin shooting ‘Jane Eyre’ in March,” announced Mia, who arrived for this interview in a stunning short hairdo. (...)
Speaking in a quiet tone, the girl who first gained attention as the suicidal teenager in HBO’s “In Treatment” elaborates on the umpteenth big-screen version of Emily Bronte’s (sic!!!!!) classic Gothic tale. Cary Fukunaga, who directed “Sin Nombre,” last year’s acclaimed indie film about the harsh realities faced by would-be US illegal immigrants, helms the movie with Michael Fassbender as the tortured Rochester.
Wonderful choice
“It’s faithful to the book, but I think Cary is a wonderful choice as the director,” Mia shared. “He’s not an obvious choice, so he’s going to bring some exciting energy to the movie. I can’t wait to discover for myself what he’s going to do with it!” (Ruben V. Nepales)

The Perthshire Advertiser publishes an article about the current performances of Polly Teale's Jane Eyre at Perth Theatre:

THERE is no need to be familiar with Charlotte Bronte’s classic novel Jane Eyre, assures Perth Theatre director Ian Grieve, whose ambitious production opens tonight.
Ian promises “a spectacle”, devised and performed by creative and talented people in their spheres of acting, music and movement.
He remains tight-lipped on the details of how Bronte’s “wonderfully exciting Gothic novel” is to be injected with a “sense of fun and spectacle” but to whet the appetite he promises a stilted performer (not in the delivery of lines!) and action high in the rafters 40-feet above the stage.
“I wanted to do something with universal appeal which would involve telling a story in a unique way,” says Perth Theatre’s creative director Ian, himself a newcomer to the Jane Eyre novel.
“I did Wuthering Heights about 15 years ago, so I knew some Brontes, but I’d never got round to Jane Eyre.
“I wanted to do something with universal appeal, telling a story in a unique way, and I found Polly Teale’s stage adaptation of Jane Eyre.
“I loved it and felt it gave us the chance to do something we had not done at Perth Theatre before.”
Combining words, movement and music, Ian describes the production as “epic and quite operatic in scale”, adding “I wanted something with stunning appeal for teenagers and a good show for those who’ve never been to a theatre before.” (...)
Jane’s alter-ego Bertha is a constant presence in the play: “She is plain Jane on the outside but the audience also sees what is going on inside. It’s the most ambitious show we have done.”
He describes the run-up opening night as “challenging, exhausting but also exciting.”
“The set does special things. We’ve taken risks but we’ve also created something incredibly exciting.”
The multi-talented team includes a number of new faces to Perth Theatre as well as local talent of the highest calibre.
Perth’s Tom McGovern returns as Rochester; music is by Iain Johnstone of the award-winning Wee Stories Theatre Company. Also back are Jon Beales, one of the main forces behind PFT’s 2009 smash hit Whisky Galore – A Musical!; and acclaimed set designer Ken Harrison.
Newcomers to Perth include movement director Lisi Perry, based in Liverpool, who brings two movement specialists to Jane Eyre – Kath Duggan as Jane and Vanessa Cook as the alter ego Bertha.
And Perthshire teenager Beth Duncan is having an amazing introduction to the world of professional theatre, taking the part of Adele, the child to whom Jane is governess.
Ian concludes: “Hopefully, what we have created will enthral Perth theatre-goers in the execution as much as it has thrilled us in the preparation, capturing, for stage and for a modern audience, the intensity and passion of Bronte’s work.” (Alison Anderson)

Elaine Showalter reviews for The Guardian Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds by Lyndall Gordon:

The great Dickinson family drama reached its height in 1882, only a few years before Emily's death. By the mid-1850s she had become a virtual recluse at the Homestead. There she maintained her intimate friendship with Sue, who lived next door at the Evergreens, the home Edward Dickinson had built for his son's family. For many years, Emily crossed the little path between the houses, reading her poems to Sue, and giving her hundreds to keep. Sue, in return, gave her books by British women writers – Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë and George Eliot.

La Nación (Argentina) reviews both the aforementioned book and The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson by Jerome Charyn:

Ajustados a la realidad o no, lo más interesante es que ambos libros reflejan una obsesión contemporánea por rellenar las lagunas en lo que se sabe sobre la vida de las escritoras y el deseo sexual que tan decorosamente escondían en el siglo XVIII y XIX.
Las hermanas Brontë y Jane Austen ya han recibido este tratamiento en Gran Bretaña, y para ellas los críticos señalaron algo que quizá pueda aplicarse ahora: nuestra necesidad de que hayan sido feministas, rebeldes o heroínas modernas, a la vez más y menos complicadas de lo que probablemente fueron. (Juana Libedinsky) (Google translation)

Jane Smiley reviews Claire Harman's Jane's Fame in The Globe and Mail and reminds us of how

Lord Alfred Tennyson loved her [Jane Austen] and Charlotte Brontë did not.

By the way, The Globe and Mail also interviews her. The interviewer has decided to change the name of the Brontë expert Lucasta Miller:

What do you think had sparked the current interest in the history of reputation such as we see in Jocasta Miller's (sic) The Brontë Myth and Francine Prose's recent book on Anne Frank's afterlife?

Bookreporter reviews The Infinities by John Banville:

Adam “fears premature burial” and considers death “the age-old inquisition.” His daughter Petra, the “loony sister” of young Adam, manages the care of their father at Arden House, a magnificently described estate rivaling Wuthering Heights. (L. Dean Murphy)

El Diario de La Rioja (Spain) goes a bit too far considering Lone Scherfig's film An Education a sort of bastard Jane Eyre adaptation:

Hornby no oculta que la inspiración le llegó leyendo a Charlotte Brönte, y se refiere constantemente al personaje de Peter Saarsgard nominándolo como Sr. Rochester, por si nos cupiesen dudas de que 'An education' se trata en realidad de un amago de adaptación bastarda de Jane Eyre en la que se cruzan pasajes autobiográficos de la periodista Lynn Barber. (Josu Eguren) (Google translation)

The German Der Tagesspiegel also mentions the Jane Eyre references in the film:

In „An Education“ träumt Jenny davon, Englisch zu studieren, in Oxford. Und nimmt in der Schule gerade „Jane Eyre“ durch, die Liebe der Gouvernante Jane zum rätselhaften Mr. Rochester. (Christina Tilmann) (Google translation)

And the Polish artPapier goes further entitling its review Być Jak Jane Eyre? (How to be Jane Eyre):

Już w prologu filmu widzimy fragment lekcji języka angielskiego, podczas której Jenny i jej koleżanki, pod kierunkiem panny Stubbs (Olivia Williams), interpretują powieść Charlotte Brontë „Dziwne losy Jane Eyre”. Słynna romantyczna opowieść o skromnej guwernantce, która zakochuje się ze wzajemnością w mrocznym lordzie Rochesterze, niemal od początku prezentuje się jako istotny kontekst historii Jenny. I nie chodzi tutaj tylko o analogie fabularne (zamożny, fascynujący, ale skrywający ciemne tajemnice mężczyzna, pragnący związać się z młodą, niedoświadczoną, ale inteligentną, dobrą i wnoszącą do jego życia powiew świeżości kobietą). „Dziwne losy Jane Eyre” powinny w zasadzie stanowić ostrzeżenie dla Jenny, która – będąc bystrą interpretatorką – nie zauważa, iż w snutej przez Brontë historii związku młodej kobiety i dojrzałego mężczyzny sporo jest niepewności i mroku. Przede wszystkim jednak „Dziwne losy Jane Eyre” stanowią kontrapunkt, kontekst negatywny dla historii Jenny. Spod romantycznej opowieści w filmie Scherfig wyziera bowiem prawdziwe życie, wraz ze swymi brudnymi, małymi sprawkami, skrzętnie zamiatanymi pod dywan. I to właśnie w tej szarej, często przykrej rzeczywistości, a nie w świecie romantycznych wizji, Jenny będzie musiała odnaleźć swoją ścieżkę. (Magdalena Kempna) (Google translation)

The Independent has an article about Gloria de Piero, former political editor of GMTV, now Labour candidate and the one behind the whole Heathcliffgate.

To add to the mix she is also reported to have been "fancied" by Tony Blair, and to be the candidate of choice of Gordon Brown who she once compared to the brooding Heathcliff, to the Prime Minister's amusement. (Jonathan Brown)

Patrick Modiano confesses to Le Monde his love for Wuthering Heights:

Il aurait aimé, lui, être l'auteur d'un seul livre : un grand roman d'amour plutôt, à la campagne de préférence. Ecrire l'un de ceux qu'il a aimé lire et se débarrasser, une fois pour toutes, du souci d'écrire. "Un seul livre... ç'aurait été mon rêve. Par exemple Le Guépard... J'ai toujours été fasciné... Il est mort... Après c'était fini... Je pensais qu'il y avait une sorte de sérénité... Qu'on n'avait plus envie... Qu'on était libéré..." Le Guépard, Les Hauts de Hurlevent aussi. "Un seul livre, ça prend une résonance... Moi, c'est pas pareil..." (Marie Desplechin) (Google translation)

Daughters reading Jane Eyre in the South Washington County Bulletin and a librarian Brontëite in Southeast Missourian, the Boston Globe announces some ComCast On Demand Movies, including Jane Eyre 1996:

An intelligent version of the Charlotte Bronte classic starring Charlotte Gainsbourg as the enduring heroine and William Hurt as the tormented gentleman for whom she falls. Lacks the boldness and passion that made the novel a landmark of the Romantic era. (PG; runs through March 11)

A young actress uses a Jane Eyre monologue for her auditions in the Sidmouth Herald, another Brontëite in the Democrat & Chronicle, Writ Lit Drip briefly dissects Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights, Libri et Libertas discusses Wide Sargasso Sea, Thirsty Imagination includes Rochester in its theory of brooding, Little Augury illustrate some pictures of a Christian Dior fashion show with Wuthering Heights quotes and TRCB reviews Jane Eyre.

Finally, an alert for readers who are interested in Juliet Gael's upcoming novel Romancing Miss Brontë. Random House is giving away advanced copies (while supplies lasts). More information here. BrontëBlog has its own and will publish a review near the actual publishing date (April 27).

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