There is no leaving Jane Eyre until the story is done

The Brontëite columnist from the Columbia Tribune, Cathy Salter, doesn't miss the chance of speaking about the Brontës in view of Jane Eyre 2011 opening locally this coming Friday.

When you enter the world of Jane Eyre and Thornfield Hall — the estate of Edward Rochester that has employed Jane as a governess — there is no leaving it until the story is done. The cover opens, the tale begins, and once again I walk with Jane and Edward on the grounds of his estate or stand alongside Jane as she looks out from a massive rock outcropping worn smooth and round from the relentless wind that never ceases to blow across the treeless moors of West Yorkshire.

Filmmaker Magazine is also very enthusiastic about the film:

The strange beauty of this adaptation of Jane Eyre is that it is relentlessly of our time, even as it’s not. The film’s visual style and the tone of Adriano Goldman’s cinematography is cool and drained of color, and yet its emotional register is sheer Technicolor, all hot-red-lava. There is a yearning—there has been for a long time—for the old strictures and rules and taboos. As much as we want to be free, we yearn for constraint, the very rules that make rebellion possible. Jonathan Franzen’s Freedom is about that. The woman in the row in front of me, she is a Franzen character. So am I. But Jane and Rochester, they are not. We pay to see them because they are not like us, and the intrusion of their utter unfamiliarity (in the opposite way of Avatar, where North American audiences find within their future selves, the Southwestern-tinged Na’Vi, a sort of guilt) is a shock to the system. I should say that I’m writing this in Detroit, tinged by a hatred of nostalgia. No one here is nostalgic. There is no going back. Thus, the ending of Jane Eyre (the film) holds a special allure, not finalized, full of potential, the opposite of Johnny Rotten’s “No Future.” These are unspeakable words in Detroit. (Nicholas Rombes)

Media Matters compares the box office results of Atlas Shrugged to those of Jane Eyre:

After adding 166 screens around the country (bringing the total to 465 screens in the U.S.), the film's gross plummeted almost 48%, and the per-screen average sank to an estimated $1,890. By comparison, it barely edged out Jane Eyre in total gross -- and lost badly in per-screen average -- though Jane Eyre is in its 7th week of release. Curiously, I haven't seen many conservatives suggesting a groundswell of grassroots fervor for the works of Charlotte Brontë. (Ben Dimiero)

Also, The Daily Telegraph (Australia) announces proudly that Mia Wasikowska has made 'her debut on Time magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world'.

MovieWeb reviews Jane Eyre 2011 and thinks it's 'superb'. But What She Said, We Like TV, Cuidado com o Dálmata (in Portuguese), Cinema Viewfinder and Cotten Club (with original artwork inspired by the film) all review the film as well.

The San Francisco Chronicle is not too thrilled about South Riding:

All well and good, if only Holtby and screenwriter Andrew Davies hadn't larded the story with so many cliches, not to mention people who seem like second-rate versions of characters created by Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë. (David Wiegand)

The Sop lists Jane Eyre as one of those characters we'd want to have existed. Writing about Mills & Boon, the columnist from Express Buzz seems to think that liking Wuthering Heights better than The Lord of the Flies or Waiting for Godot somewhat paves the way for Mills & Boon novels. Salon also discusses the classics and how little we actually know about them:

I knew the names -- Nick Carraway and Daisy Buchanan, Heathcliff and Cathy, the Bennets and the Joads and Humbert Humbert. I knew when Bloomsday was celebrated, and why Cordelia lost the kingdom to her bitchy sisters, and who the madwoman in the attic was. And let's be honest: In most situations, that is plenty to pass as a person well-versed in the classics. I could have gone most of my life as a small-time fraud. (Kate Harding)

And our thanks to Melissa from The Clothes Make The Girl for alerting us to this comment on Go Fug Yourself about Beyonce's recent hairstyle:

But my feeling is, if you have Beyonce’s hair (either naturally growing out of your head or patiently waiting for you on a wig stand), do you really ever wake up in the morning and think, “I wish I looked more like Jane Eyre”? My theory is no. I think that very few women indeed find themselves standing in front of the mirror thinking, “I wish I looked LESS awesome, and more like a governess who is likely to marry a crabby dude who concealed from her the rather pertinent fact that he was hiding a crazy wife in the attic.” So: I’m not a huge fan of Beyonce leaving her Hair at home. (Jessica)

Jane Eyre - the novel - is reviewed by The Book Project, Out of the Best Books, The Church Bulletin and Red Toenails. Letters to AB takes a look at several on-screen Rochesters and Literary Sluts imagines a conversation between Elizabeth Bennett and Jane Eyre. Honor Champion's Book Blog and Timothy's Readz review Wuthering Heights. The Brontë Sisters wonders whether Charlotte was actually as ugly as she saw - and described - herself. YouTube user tripmonk0 has uploaded a video from Haworth.

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