Focus Features and iVillage have teamed up to create a book club:
NBCUniversal’s iVillage and Focus Features Celebrate Classic and Bestselling Novels Jane Eyre and One Day with the launch of iVillage Book Club Connection – in support of motion picture versions.
iVillage Strengthens its commitment to reading with the launch of its first digital book club at www.iVillage.com/jointheclub on March 28.
As part of iVillage’s ongoing commitment to reading, iVillage is launching the iVillage Book Club Connection, its very first women-focused book hub – with Charlotte Brontë’s classic novel Jane Eyre and David Nicholls’ bestselling novel One Day being two of the book club selections. With over 100,000 book conversations happening on iVillage, the iVillage Book Club Connection will provide these avid readers with a virtual forum for meaningful community conversations about book themes.
The two-book partnership begins with Jane Eyre, the basis for the new Focus movie Jane Eyre, starring Mia Wasikowska, which opened this month in select cities to critical acclaim and the highest per-theater average gross of any 2011 movie so far. Each month, iVillage will select a book that will be the focus for that month’s book club read. One of the summer selection books will be One Day, which the author has adapted into Focus’ much-anticipated new movie starring Anne Hathaway and opening this July.
“Jane Eyre is a classic novel with one of the most beloved leading heroines of all time. Just the kind of woman who connects with and inspires the iVillage Community,” said Catherine Balsam-Schwaber, Senior Vice President of Marketing, iVillage. “Our collaboration with Focus Features will encourage our community members to share the joy of reading and inspire storytelling while engaging with each other in the extended experience Focus will offer through the cinematic interpretation of Jane Eyre.”
“iVillage was the natural choice to partner with. With their robust digital community of women, we are directly tapping into a sizable audience for these films,” said Nicole Butte, Vice President, New Media, Focus Features. “The iVillage Book Club Connection is a direct conduit to reaching these women and getting them excited about great stories.”
The book club destination will feature everything from “Tools and Tips on How To Create Book Clubs;” Jane Eyre -themed articles such as “3 Life Lessons Modern Women Can Learn from Jane Eyre; ” to “Easy Appetizer Ideas” for serving at your first book gathering! Other page-turning content includes “Hot Actor Alert: Jane Eyre Star Michael Fassbender;” “14 Great Books Turned Into Movies;” “10 Books For Style Mavens;” and “Parenting Books We’re Talking About.”
For those women who want to join the book conversations, but participate in an actual book club, iVillage has created new dedicated book message boards, where they can discuss the story themes directly with the iVillage community at: http://forums.ivillage.com/t5/The-Book-Club/ct-p/iv-bcbookclub.
Participants in the iVillage Book Club Connection who answer iVillage’s weekly story-themed question will be eligible to win a Kindle. In addition, 25 community members who join the iVillage Book Club Connection will receive a special “Book Club Kit,” which includes copies of the selected book and classic books that have been turned into award-winning Focus films, such as Pride and Prejudice and Atonement ; the Jane Eyre film soundtrack; and a book journal.
In the meantime, the film continues gathering reviews:
Positive
The
New Haven Advocate:
The best moments of the film are whenever Jane finds her tongue: as when responding to Rochester's efforts to draw her out about her drawings, or to sound her on her views of him, or when trying to deflect an unwanted proposal from St. John Rivers, a clergymen who has helped her. She protests that she must respect herself, and we respect the film for respecting Brontë. At times we might say the film is too faithful, refusing to add, as other versions have done for dramatic effect, visuals of the fire that destroys much of Thornfield Hall. Nor is much made of Bertha Antoinetta Mason (Valentina Cervi), resisting any revisionist ideas that may accrue to “the madwoman in the attic.” (Donald Brown)
The Orlando Sentinel's
Movies with Roger Moore gives it 3 out of 4 stars:
It’s a lovely looking film, period perfect in manner, look and speech. And Wasikowska makes a marvelously plain “Jane.”
RottenTomatoes reviews the film
on YouTube.
However,
The Dartmouth, not having seen it yet, doesn't seem to be looking forward to it.
Blogs reviewing the film:
Love & Squalor,
Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor,
Culture-Vulture,
Sorta That Guy,
Andrewespe,
The Flick Pick Monster. Quite Vampires has
a review of the film as well as a 'battle of the Janes' comparing
Jane Eyre 2011 to
Jane Eyre 2006 in two parts:
part one and
part two.
Box office updates:
In Latvia: March 18-20 $7,921. March 25-27 $6123 (total $21094) (2 screens)
In Estonia: March 18-20 $8071 March 25-27 $7472 (total $23959) (2 screens)
As for the other Brontë movie coming out this year, Andrea Arnold's
Wuthering Heights, this is what
The Times says about it at this point:
There are many great talents growing in Britain: Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights is causing feverish anticipation. . . (Kate Muir)
And speaking of
Wuthering Heights adaptations,
Jonathan Holloway's radio dramatisation is still being discussed. Today the
Guardian wonders, 'Why shouldn't radio and TV mess with the classics?'
On Sunday, Radio 3 broadcast a "contemporary adaptation" of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights by the playwright Jonathan Holloway. "Contemporary" means, among other things, that it's got swearwords in it, something which apparently upset a good many of that esteemed radio station's listeners before the thing even been aired. What I suspect rankles more, however, is that a classic such as Wuthering Heights should be adapted, or updated, at all. Who does this Jonathan Holloway think he is, to presume to alter Brontë's sacred text in any way? Doesn't he know it's literature? (Cue awed gasp.)
I haven't heard the play, so can make no comment about its quality or entertainment value. However I do agree with Holloway's defence of his work in the Radio Times. "I wanted to elbow out this idea that (Wuthering Heights) is this cosy, greatest love story ever told," he said. " It's not." [...]
"Why mess with Wuthering Heights?" you ask.
Well, my first answer to that is, "Why not?" The idea that great literature should not be "polluted" by modern commercial fiction is, in my view, nothing but rank snobbery. Books are written to be read. It is possible, likely even, that more people will read my humble offering this year than will read Brontë's classic. But how wonderful if, through Fame, or Holloway's play, some of those readers and listeners are inspired to read the original. Or even if they simply come to know this unique and compelling story in a different form, a story they would otherwise never have stumbled upon for themselves. And how sad if books like Wuthering Heights are deemed suitable only for force-feeding to GCSE English students, or padding out those celebrity "what I'm (not really) reading" lists.
At the end of the day fiction, all fiction, whether great or mediocre, is about storytelling. Emily Brontë told a cracking story. It deserves to be told again. (Tilly Bagshawe)
We wholeheartedly agree.
The Orange Country Register has published two reviews of the
local take on Jane Eyre. The Musical. First review:
Through a director's choice to have no side wings, the ensemble is visible at all times. They never break character and their dedication is apparent in the way they constantly interact within the scenes. (Lindsay Fiorentino)
And the
second review:
Porrazzo's sweet demeanor [as Jane] and consistently docile and refined character garners the hearts of the audience. Narrating the tale with a soft, tranquil voice, she ensures that every movement is fluid and every footfall precise. Her astounding accent never falters, even as she sings, masterfully demonstrating both upper and lower registers, as in the song "Sweet Liberty" when she begs to be accepted as a valued person. Incorporating powerful emotions, from the horror of viewing the burnt mansion, shear pain writhing in her face, to the glowing gaze she gives Rochester, Porrazzo anchors the show magnificently.
With a pompous tone and a resonating voice, Davis personifies the Byronic Rochester. Flawless in distinct accent, his voice beautifully exudes his passion for Jane as well as his self contempt in the song "Sirens." Radiating his character's strength, Davis powerfully controls his insane, screeching wife, Bertha, portrayed impeccably by Melisa Osbourne. When serenely asking for Jane's hand in marriage or beseeching her never to leave him, Davis remains gallant and enigmatic.
With an outlandishly elegant voice and a scattered, swift manner, Katie Kontoulis expertly embodies the hard-of-hearing headmistress of Thornfield, Mrs. Fairfax. Whether jubilantly babbling to Jane about Rochester's manners in the song "Perfectly Nice" or bluntly speaking her thoughts out loud in "Slip of a Girl," Kontoulis sprinkles the show with comic impropriety.
Costumes, designed and created by Blakely Collier, embellish the show with grand tailcoats, flowing gowns, and rich colors, reflecting not only the time period but also the lavish and prosperous mood of the manner and the emotionally depth of the show. (Vinny Tangherlini)
Andrea Corr mentions briefly her
recent stint as Jane Eyre in an interview with
eGigs:
With The Corrs you filled stadiums so, how are you going to feel playing quite small intimate shows?
Again, I'm excited about playing small intimate shows. Playing Jane Eyre, to just under four hundred people every night, I felt how special a small theatre performance can be. Each person in the room is part of the energy and it makes each night unique. Though I have loved playing stadiums with the Corrs, that energy obviously gets a little diluted. With intimate shows it can be like every single person, audience and performers, are having a secret amazing time and then walk out into the night a little more alive and with a sense you have really experienced something. That's the kind of gig I love and aspire to do. (Michelle Owen-Williams)
And
Consequence of Sound comments on a recent live
version of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights by Röyksopp and their guest Anneli Drecker:
Every performer on stage was excellent, but Drecker deserves special note for being the center of most every highlight. She somehow pulled off a superb cover of Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights”, not an easy task. (Harry Painter)
And here are a few seemingly Heathcliff-like characters.
Little White Lies reviewing Sally Potter's Orlando (based on the novel by Virginia Woolf):
It’s a film which at one point features a Heathcliff-esque Billy Zane emerging spectacularly from some fog but, surprisingly, is none the worse for it. (Emma Simmonds)
The Telegraph reviewing the game
Gray Matter:
The imposing Dr Styles, a cross between Heathcliff and the Phantom of the Opera, is undoubtedly the central focus. (Ashton Raze)
The McDonough County Voice reviewing Sucker Punch:
The hospital is run by a male nurse in a sweaty T-shirt, “Blue Jones.” He’s played full Guido by Oscar Isaac - who was “Prince John” to Russell Crowe’s “Robin Hood.” And while he might fulfill the Gothic formula as a “Heathcliff” (you just know he had a troubled childhood), he’s also has Phil Tattaglia’s mustache. (Tom Fortuna)
The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers discusses forgeries and mentions Charlotte Brontë as one of many writers whose handwriting has been forged. National Geographic's
Intelligent Travel has an article on the Morgan Library exhibition
The Diary: Three Centuries of Private Lives, which includes
some of Charlotte Brontë's papers.
Sarah Fowler recommends reading
Jane Eyre and
Mrs. P's Book Reviews posts about
Jane Slayre.
Categories: Audio-Radio, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Music, Theatre, Wuthering Heights
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