Wuthering Heights has never been more stunningly visualized

More reviews of Wuthering Heights 2011 (thanks to alert readers Danielle and Kevin for some of these links):
Royal Books finds cinephile references in the film that we have read before (Bresson, Tarkovski)... but De Sica?:

Ms. Arnold’s third film moves the bar for nineteenth century literary adaptation about a mile above its previous position, and was for me a breakthrough in the way films can be made, as well as a triumph for women filmmakers of this century or the one before it. Its style, like any groundbreaking style, borrows from the best, including Tarkovsky, Bresson, and De Sica. (...)
I anticipate that this movie that is going to be misunderstood by almost everyone. But from my perspective, world cinema has a new auteur of the first rank, and Wuthering Heights has never been more stunningly visualized. Leave your expectations at the door, and let Andrea Arnold get your attention. (Kevin Royal Johnson)

Moncinema (Cyberpresse-Québec):

Avec son nouveau film, Wuthering Heights, adaptation en costumes de l’unique roman d’Emily Brontë, elle change drastiquement de décor et d’époque: les quartiers ouvriers paumés d’aujourd’hui laissent place aux landes désertes et venteuses de la fin du 18e siècle. La rage et le mal de vivre d’âmes blessées carburant à l’instinct établit, cependant, une continuité dans l’oeuvre de la réalisatrice de 50 ans. (Jozef Siroka) (Translation)

Movie Moxie:

Overall, I loved the languid visuals and the chemistry between the young paid and I certainly feel like I understand the story better after seeing this version, but I'm still mystified at some of the choices and the general love for the heart wrenching, difficult love story. (Shannon)

The Film Stage:

It is easy to get mesmerized by the style, but Arnold is also able to articulate the raw emotion in this story. While it doesn’t hit as hard as Fukunaga’s Brontë tale from earlier this year, Howson does a notable job linking his tortured past and present despair with brooding glares. The tacked-on Mumford & Sons song in the final moments only distracts, but by reinventing the mold, Arnold’s take on Wuthering Heights has set another benchmark for adapting classic literature.  (Jordan Raup)

Slant Magazine:

Designed to hack away at the ornamental crust created by years of genteel literary adaptations, it's a visually forceful attempt at seizing the ardor of the novel that nevertheless pales next to the abyss of passion explored by Luis Buñuel in his own strange, 1954 visualization of Brontë's classic. (Fernando F. Croce)

Indiewire's Spout:

As long as Heathcliff and Catherine are still children, Arnold has absolutely no trouble painting this grandiose and meteorological canvass with ease. An endless series of almost impossibly stunning visuals are coupled with the earnest and uncomplicated performances of the young actors (Solomon Glave and Shannon Beer), who are left at their most elemental. There’s very little dialogue, which only supports Arnold’s decision to refrain from any musical accompaniment. The soundtrack is populated almost exclusively by the wind itself, blustering around the two houses like the natural manifestation of longing. Then the kids grow up.
Kaya Scoledario and James Howson are perfect choices aesthetically and they both have a marvelous talent for emotional expression. If Arnold had used these two as quietly and directly as their younger versions, it would have worked out perfectly. Yet the screenplay is just too unforgiving. (...) Instead, Arnold’s obdurate dialogue only makes the inexperience of her cast even more obvious, inducing laughs in the audience when it should inspire chills. In theory, these untested actors should fit in with the rawness of the film as a whole, but in execution the latter half of “Wuthering Heights” simply cannot sustain its vastness. (Daniel Walber)

And CineClandestino (Italy), Expanded Cinemah (Italy),  Mymovies.it (Italy), exclaim (Canada), ...ology,  FemaleFirst, 24 Frames (Los Angeles Times), Dork Shelf...

The Lancashire Telegraph reviews the We Are Three Sisters performances:

The three sisters, Anne, Emily and Charlotte cling together in a secret world of fiction which blots out their autocratic father and drunken, violent brother.
Rebecca Hutchinson, Sophia Di Martino and Urmston actor, Catherine Kinsella respectively, draw us into their characters' imaginations, the results of which are still enjoyed in novels and films such as Jane Eyre.
The three yearn to be loved by a man and to spread their wings.
But their lives are locked in the dark and windy parsonage, and the cemetery outside.
The women are contrasted by their well educated brother, Branwell.
Gareth Cassidy outstandingly illustrates a man who escapes to the pub where his alcohol problem is exacerbated by an unsuccessful affair with a married woman.
The scene when he returns, blind drunk, and takes out his pent up frustration on his sisters is unforgettable - as is their united reaction. (Julia Taylor)

The Sudbury Star reviews the Jane Eyre 2011:

Wasikowska, who starred in the big budget 2010 remake of Alice in Wonderland, offers a stripped down, emotionally honest portrayal of Jane, a young woman who has experienced many hard times in her life.
As Rochester, an older man of higher class with a secret, Fassbender does moody and contemplative quite well. (Wayne Chamberlain)

More reviews: This is Dad's Big Plan, Movieweb, Sploich, A Breathless Trail, Film Doom, talknotspeak, The Reel Charlie, Sore Eyes, Kill Your Darlings, The Weekly Squeeze, The Social Review.

The London Evening Star thinks that Simon McBurney:

Is magnificently creepy as the schoolmaster in Jane Eyre. (Richard Godwin)

A reader of the Yorkshire Post also writes about the film.

According to Thompson on Hollywood:

Focus Features has every intention of fighting for a nomination for Fassbender as Mr. Rochester in the well-reviewed literary costume drama Jane Eyre, which is right up Oscar voters’ alley. It will be tough to bring that movie back—but BAFTA could play a vital role in that effort, much as BAFTA helped Focus score nominations with another period drama, Atonement. (Anne Thompson)

The Independent tells about John Martin's works being forgotten at the turn of the previous century:

Recent press coverage showed his great work The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum being restored after it was damaged by the Thames flood of 1928, which inundated the Tate's basement. Why was the painting in the basement? Because in the 1920s, a century after it wowed Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë, it was considered worthless. What once had seemed sublime and wondrous had, by 1900, lost its power to thrill. It was considered, to speak frankly, kitsch bollocks. (John Walsh)

The Guardian talks about the newly commissioned soundtrack for the restaured 1928 film The First Born:

Although it incorporates snatches of a Gershwin song, it's not a jazz-age score, [Stephen Horne, the composer] says. Elsewhere there is a hint of a Puccini aria, and Horne also cites Bernard Herrmann as an influence – not Psycho, but Marnie, or Jane Eyre, country house films with an air of mystery and psychological unease. Horne describes the film as "a romantic melodrama with occasional touches of Expressionism". It's so British, even the experimental moments are discreetly done. (Pamela Hutchinson)

Simon Hoggart titles his The Guardian chronicle of the Liberal Democrats conference: "The Road to Wuthering Heights"; A Day in the Life reviews Jane Eyre 1970; Bartolomeo di Monaco (in Italian) reviews Lorenzo Spurio's Jane Eyre, una rilettura contemporanea; A Thing Called Joe prefers Jane Eyre 2006 to Jane Eyre 2011; the Brontë Sisters posts about the conversation between Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë; Il Libro Eterno (in Italian) gives away a copy of the Italian tie-in book edition.

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