Jane Eyre's nutritional value

It looks like the Sydney Film Festival won't be the only chance in the near future to see Jane Eyre 2011 in Australia. The film will also be part of the Melbourne International Film Festival according to The Vine. The film festival takes place from July 21 to August 7 but the programme is not available yet.

The Acorn Online gives the movie 4 1/2 popcorn buckets:

The new Jane Eyre is, perhaps, the most authentic interpretation because, finally, it focuses on Jane. This is her story, her journey, and while the film carefully develops others in her world, it returns to the original intent Bronte brought to her pages. The story is, ultimately, an examination of a woman’s willingness to authentically examine what life can mean and what she must give up to secure this experience. Director Cary Fukungaga and writer Moira Buffini are the first adapters who refuse to try to make the novel more than it is; they bring a confidence to the material that enables it to flourish. Brontë would have loved this adaptation. [...]
Many classic novels fail the translation to screen. With this excellent film, not only does Jane survive the journey but invites us to experience more. Watching this movie made me want to read the book for the first time in years. I am loving every page.

Film Nutritional Value
Jane Eyre
* Content: High. At its core is a beautifully written novel by Charlotte Brontë that remains compelling today.
* Entertainment: High. Because the film focuses on Jane, and her progression as a character, it entertains as Brontë originally intended.
* Message: Medium. This nutritious film offers insight into the conventions of its time, many of which are relevant in our time.
* Relevance: High. Any opportunity to introduce children to great literature, via a strong film, is important to share.
* Opportunity for Dialogue: High. After you share this film, talk with your older children about the conflict any person can face between the desire to do what’s right and the need to follow the heart. (Mark Schumann)

The Wall Street Journal has an article on the British Library exhibition Out of this World: Science Fiction but not as you know it.

Barrie Rutter who will direct the forthcoming play We Are Three Sisters mentions the production briefly in conversation with the Sheffield Telegraph:

“We start work on We Are Three Sisters in August so I am double jobbing,” he says referring to the next production he is directing, a new play by Blake Morrison about the Brontës, We Are Three Sisters. (Ian Soutar)

We don't mean to put anyone's work down as we are sure it's far more complex than just this, but this is a conclusion many writers have reached before (hence Wuthering Bites, for instance). According to The University of Arizona News,

Today, [Stephen Kobourov's] work is more involved, bringing clarity not only to linkages, but other connections. For example, based on Kobourov's mapping of Amazon.com, it appears that Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" may serve as one of the gateway books for readers who end up developing a following for vampire-themed novels. (Monica Everett-Haynes)

Here's his BookLand map which looks like a highbrow version of Jasper Fforde's Fiction Island.

The Boston Globe wonders about what we expect to find when we visit a writer's house:

WHEN I went to London 30 years ago, I wanted to visit Charles Dickens’s house. I don’t know what I expected to find. The place was perfectly pleasant — rooms, furniture, some artifacts displayed in glass cases. But it also seemed weirdly empty. The thing I wanted wasn’t there. What are we looking for, when we visit a writer’s house? Sometimes it’s a landscape — the Brontës’ moors, Robert Frost’s New Hampshire pastures. (Joan Wickersham)

And indeed the Brontë moors are a recommended visit by Anglotopia for this bank holiday weekend in the UK.

The Yorkshire Dales have a whole host of exciting things to offer if you decide to spend your bank holiday there. Coach tours to Haworth, home of the Brontë Sisters, are extremely popular. You could visit the house they grew up in and even take a walk on to the famous moors where ‘Wuthering Heights’ is said to be set. Simply pop on your walking boots and set off across the moor, there is really no other place like it.

Flickr user sallycinnamon89 may whet you appetite with this picture too.

The Brontë Sisters has a post on Anne's spaniel Flossy.

Fiber Optics writes about Jane Eyre and A Restless Moment and The Clever Cottage both post about the 2011 adaptation of the novel.

Categories: Art-Exhibitions, Haworth, Jane Eyre, Juvenilia, Movies-DVD-TV, Theatre, Wuthering Heights