Wuthering Venice

A couple of news sites review Jane Eyre today.

Singapore Today gives it 4 out of 5 stars:

The greatest challenge for any screen adaptation of Jane Eyre rests on the titular heroine, whose introspection, strength, defiance and voice is key. Thankfully, young director Cary Joji Fukunaga (Sin Nombre) understood that and chose young actress of the moment Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, The Kids Are All Right).
It is her spot-on performance that is central to this version's power, as she gives us a Jane bristling with courage and a radiance within. Looking plain, pale, tightly controlled and heartbreakingly young (Wasikowska is the same age as Jane in the novel), her wary, intelligent face manages to tell the audience volumes about this emotionally abused but unrelenting young woman. It lets us see the character's carefully hidden strength and her aching need for love, and allows us to embrace Jane as the beloved young woman she was always meant to be - without a hint of moralising condescension.
Fukunaga's vision of Jane Eyre is sensitive to the source material - yet daringly different, offering a refreshingly revisionist feel that sits well. Having screenwriter Moira Buffini ruthlessly trim the saga to an audience-friendly two hours, Fukunaga really had no choice but to offer the Cliff Notes version, and forgo some of the more intricate nuances. Some might be upset with the liberties taken here and argue a sense of imbalance with the slightly modern approach, but his compromises all seem necessary.
The cinematography is gorgeous but never merely pretty (just check out the sprawling moors and gothic Thornfield). Every key scene is here, glowing in candlelight, hiding in shadows and celebrating Brontë's poetic language. (Genevieve Loh)

And the Gulf News (Dubai) gives it a 5/5:

What we liked Director Cary Fukunaga has done an amazing job of turning Brontë’s beloved classic into a spellbinding film, in which Hollywood’s current darling, Mia Wasikowska, shines. With the influential novel’s many moods and nuances deftly retained throughout the narrative, the films tells its cherished tale with refreshing vigour and an astute sense of emotional detail. The soundtrack too strikes just the right melancholic chords!
What we didn’t like Not much that we didn’t like at all! Fassbender steals every scene as the conflicted Rochester.
e+ says It’s a classic tale for a new generation, told with undeniable tenderness.

Incidentally, Digital Spy quotes the a BBC Films sources as being

"very pleased and very excited" by the movies, which include Jane Eyre. . . (Mayer Nissim)

Jane Eyre 2011 is also reviewed by French Toast Sunday, One Literature Nut and Dial P for Popcorn (in Portuguese). On Beyond Words & Pictures has paid special attention to the setting on the moors.

As for the other Brontë film of the year, Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights, it definitly looks like it will be seen in Venice. Variety reports it as a fait accompli:

A strong batch of U.K. titles has already booked slots in the Venice selection: Andrea Arnold's "Wuthering Heights". . . (Nick Vivarelli)

But let's go back to where it all started. Blast Magazine features Haworth:

For anyone wanting to immerse him or herself in emerald beauty of the English countryside, the quaint Yorkshire town of Haworth is a perfect destination, but for literary fans of authors Emily and Charlotte Brontë, it is a must. [...]
For those wanting to pay homage to the Brontë legacy, the Brontë Parsonage Museum and the hike to Top Withers should be top on the list.
The parsonage, the Brontë family’s home from1820 to 1861 where the sisters lived, wrote and died, looks as it would have when Emily and Charlotte composed what have since become classic works of English literature. The museum features manuscripts, letters and family possessions.
“If they’re at all interested in the Brontës, you’ve got to pop into the parsonage,” said Ray Tallon, a museum assistant who lives in Haworth.
“It’s like visiting London and seeing Big Ben,” he said, noting that the museum draws visitors from as far away as Brazil, Russia and Japan, both casual tourists to the English countryside as well as PhD students and researchers on pilgrimages to the Brontë landscape. [...]
After obtaining a map from the Visitor Information Centre on main street, visitors can hike to Top Withers, the location believed to have inspired Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. The six-mile loop crosses the windy moorlands, the setting of Emily’s novel, and although difficult at times, the hike is worth the challenge.
The first two miles lead to the Brontë stone chair, waterfall and bridge, a location where the sisters came to reflect.
“It’s a good place to go and clear your mind and get in tune with the Brontës,” Tallon said.
The final one and a half miles to Top Withers is a steep trek up dry, rocky moors. The view from the top is as serene as it is forlorn and isolating, and plunges hikers into the novel’s landscape, with Haworth completely erased from view.
“You’ve got to go and see. It gives you a good sense of how desolate it would have been,” said Tallon. (Laura Krantz)

Alternatively, if you're a bell ringer, you might want to work in Haworth as a volunteer. The Telegraph and Argus reports:

Bell ringers are appealing for new members to help them keep ringing the changes.
The Haworth Guild of Bell Ringers recently rang the first full peel of bells heard in the village since 1950.
It was performed by a band of six ringers, headed by captain Simon Burnett, on the bells which were installed in 1846 at the time the Reverend Patrick Brontë, father of the three famous Brontë sisters, was in charge of St Michael and All Angels church.

Crikey's Literary Minded interviews writer Mardi McConnochie:

If I had a model for my literary love story though, it’s probably Jane Eyre. It’s often caricatured as a heaving-bosom romance full of clichés, but to me it’s a singular and strange novel about a young woman in an extraordinarily hostile environment, struggling to define herself on her own terms and find a place for herself in the world. The love plot is obviously important, but it’s not the only thing going on in the novel. What I love about Jane Eyre is the sense that these two people meet and are driven apart and then must become someone new in order to find themselves again. Which is more interesting than meet cute/obstacles/happily ever after. (Angela Meyer)

The Weston Mercury reviews briefly the Shared Experience revival of Polly Teale's Brontë, currently on stage in Bath. Capital New York has an article on the Diary exhibition at the Morgan Library. MCV lists several books - both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights among them - with orphan characters in view of a recent 'controversy' about a video game featuring an orphan.

Ill Seen, Ill Said finds the Brontë sisters inspiring. Almasryalyoum and Mis Libros (in Spanish) review Wuthering Heights while Confessions of a Coffee Addicted College Student picks a few things she loves about Wuthering Heights. Tesoros escondidos posts about Jane Eyre in Spanish, The Literary Dilettantes pick St John Rivers as the 'Unlikely Romantic Literary Hero of the Month'. And finally, Kaleidoscope shares a lovely 'doodle' of Jane.

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