A Cheerful Sort of Gal, by Yorkshire standards

The Yorkshire Evening Post asks if there still exists the Yorkshire identity:

“We have so much here that we want to be connected with in terms of heritage – the Dales, the Pennines, Brontë country, abbies, cathedrals – and that’s all married with the modernity and style of a city like Leeds. There is a very real sense of pride that you don’t get with other counties[says Kevin Grady, head of Leeds Civic Society.]

Probably this Harvard student would agree with that:

Finally, feet planted firmly on top of the cove, I took in the miles of green countryside rolling away beneath me. Gorgeous as it was, the most striking perception atop Malham Cove is not visual but auditory. The wind isn’t quite a howl—it’s more of a mournful shriek, punctuated by eerie spells of silence and the bleating of lambs. It’s a scene straight out of Wuthering Heights, and by the time I started my descent, I believed that Emily Brontë must have been, by Yorkshire countryside standards, a cheerful sort of gal.  (Jorge A. Araya in The Crimson Harvard)

The Southern Reporter talks about melancholia and quotes Charlotte Brontë:

Charlotte Brontë wrote of her sister Emily’s poems, “I thought them condensed and terse, vigorous and genuine. To my ear, they had also a peculiar music – wild, melancholy, and elevating.”

Upwood Park is the subject of an article on Out & About:

Upwood Park is pleasantly situated close to the Yorkshire Dales National Park and one mile from the Brontë village of Haworth and the Worth Valley Steam Railway.(...)
Haworth is situated on the eastern slope of the Pennines. The Brontës arrived at the village in 1820 with a procession of seven carts and one covered wagon leading up the Main Street (then known as Kirkgate) and finishing at Haworth Parsonage. (Mike Cowton)

Jane Eyre has been presented at the Melbourne International Film Festival 2011:

JANE EYRE (M) (120 min)
Sun 24 Jul 6:30 PM Greater Union Cinema 6
JANE EYRE (M) (120 min)Fri 29 Jul 9:00 PM Greater Union Cinema 3

The Sydney Morning Herald and Twitch recommends it:

The film is beautifully shot, though it’s recommended you rug up to see this one at the movies. The filmmakers decided to play up the Gothic elements of Brontë’s novel and the blue hues and scenes of driving rain on the stony moors will make you shiver in your seat. (Simone Mitchell)

Mia Wasikowska plays Jane Eyre with both determination and meekness. She juggles the dual role of this complicated woman with ease, and depicts her as a broken character, sometimes despondent and often unwilling, but still conscientious in her values and morals. (...)
Michael Fassbender, brilliant as always, gives a brooding performance as Mr. Rochester master of the house. He is extremely sarcastic, cynical, bitter, direct and blunt, and this is all captured in his first encounter with Jane. The complexity of his relationship with her is captured perfectly. (...)
Not your typical period drama, Jane Eyre combines the best of the book and Fukunaga's own focus on strong emotions to deliver a completely satisfying and evocative film. (Kwenton Bellette)

A few Czech websites (the film opens today in the Czech Republic) also review the film:

Problém, který s Janu Eyrovou ale mám je nějaký silnější moment, který dle mého názoru snímek postrádá. Možná je to záměr a tvůrci schválně opouštějí od srdceryvných scén, ale pokud se jedná o tak slavnou knihu, která se učí na středních školách, chtělo to látce dodat nějaký ten moment navíc, protože jinak film působí jako dobře odvyprávěná podívaná, která se vás ale nijak emocionálně nedotkne. Postavám to možná přejete, ale nějaký pevnější vztah si k nim nevybudujete. Možná je to tím, že se tak nějak pořád vypráví a propracovanost se dostane jenom samotné Janě, ale například Rochester si svou minulost nebo jakoukoliv motivaci jenom vymluví. Postavám prostě chybí pevnější uchopení a osobitější charakter.  Zda se tvůrci drželi předlohy nebo ne vám nepovím, ale Jana Eyrová i tak zvládá vyprávět její příběh v nadprůměrném snímku, který Fukunaga dokázal mistrně zrežírovat. Skvělá práce s kamerou, výborní herci, atmosféra nebo dobré vystihnutí doby posouvají snímek mezi ty lepší filmy tohoto roku, ale málo propracované postavy a absence emotivnějších momentů mu chybí k zařazení mezi ty nejlepší.  (Langsuyar gives 7/10 on Tipnafilm) (Translation)

Každopádně právě kvůli hercům a spoustě romantizujícím kompozicím skvělé kamery se Jana Eyrová vyplatí. Maximálně využít potenciál předlohy z doby pozdního romantismu a přitom totálně potlačit červenoknihovní podbízivost – to je umění.

Jana Eyrová prostě funguje ve všech směrech. Takhle by měla vypadat každá filmová adaptace klasiky. (Totalfilm) (Translation)

The Hindu talks about The Bible as a book:

My professor pointed me to the King James because that was the translation Thomas Hardy and Charlotte Brontë read. (Latha Anantharaman)

The Leonard Lopate Show (WNYC) interviews

Elaine Charnov, director of education, programming and exhibitions at the New York Public Library, talks about the exhibition “Celebrating 100 Years,” which includes artifacts belonging to literary giants such as William Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë, and Jorge Luis Borges along with historically important items from the Age of Discovery to the creation of the Soviet Union, World War II, the Civil Rights movement, and the AIDS crisis. The exhibition is organized into four thematic sections: Observation, Contemplation, Society, and Creativity, and is on view through December 31.

MacLeans analyses the evolution of the Masterpiece Theatre programme:

The home of classics such as Traffik and The Jewel in the Crown looked and felt dated. Though it was showing acclaimed dramas such as Bleak House, viewers labelled it their “grandparents’ TV.” Making matters worse was a scheduling schizophrenia: a Brontë period drama would be followed by a contemporary thriller like Prime Suspect and then a Hercule Poirot cozy mystery. (Patricia Treble)

The Reading Eagle reviews the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's production of Hamlet:

Mairin Lee (Elizabeth Bennet in "Pride") is unrecognizable as Ophelia, Hamlet's hapless love. She is the consummate Victorian madwoman, right out of "Jane Eyre," and you can see the exact moment when her mind starts to go. (Susan Pleé?a)

Playbill announces the death of the actress Jane White who played Bertha in a 1958 Broadway production of Jane Eyre (written by Huntington Hartford); Litro posts about the Brontës.

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