The filmmaker's nightmare

Well, after today's sad news let's take a look at the rest of the goings-on in Brontëland.

Alexander Armstrong, president of The Literary and Philosophical Society, is a fan of Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights, even if he can't remember the director's name in this interview in Journal Live:

Ask him about his top films of the year and it’s clear the cinema is no passing fancy.
“Drive,” he says immediately. “What a cracking film that was! Then there was Wuthering Heights by... by... Anyway, that was really brilliant.”
It was Andrea Arnold’s take on the novel by Emily Brontë that impressed him.

The Telegraph looks back on 2011 filmwise:

Andrea Arnold switched tack excitingly with her stark, primal Wuthering Heights (Tim Robey)

The Telegraph (India) discusses book-to-film adaptations:

For it is well known that the reader is a fussy animal, a tyrant of detail, a filmmaker’s nightmare. [...] A rather surly Samantha Morton was not Jane Eyre either. He has read the book, met the characters; he alone truly understands the characters. His is the definitive version. (...)
Jane Eyre had melted hearts when she said, “Reader, I married him.” Who else could be trusted with the character’s fate if not the reader, who else could be more faithful? (Ipsita Chakravarty)

While this Portland Mercury likes to imagine would-be adaptations:

And I certainly don't mind a brusque retooling of any famous literary character—but take a moment and imagine Jane Eyre as directed by Michael Bay. (Wm. Steven Humphrey)

Nora Jane Struthers discusses her life before music in The State Journal-Register:

In some ways, the transition from teaching to being a musician was a natural one. After all, keeping kids focused on the subject requires a performance of a sort.
“When you’re in front of a class, you’re on stage,” Struthers said.
And she was teaching British literature — Austen, Brontë, Shakespeare — authors whose universal themes, she said, have worked their way into her writing.
“One of my goals as a songwriter is to have those themes be present and have that universality, but make it accessible,” she said. (Brian Mackey)

The columnist at the Homer Tribune begins an article on Middle East reads as follows:

My reading transgressions this winter have led me to the Middle East. I’m not sure what progression of thought leads to whole swaths of time spent on given geographic locations, like the years I spent in Victorian England, wanting the gloomy Brontë sisters or Charles Dickens stories. (Naomi Klouda)

And a Dorchester Reporter article on December quotes from Emily Brontë's poem How Still, How Happy.

The Telegraph and Argus mentions a local place which is apparently thought to have inspired Ferndean Manor in Jane Eyre (though we always thought that claim belonged to Wycoller Hall):

Owners of a rural tearoom believed to have featured in one of Charlotte Brontë’s most famous books have angered residents after applying for a late alcohol licence.
Residents living near The Balcony Tearoom, at Moor Lodge, Two Laws Road, near Stanbury, claim plans to serve alcohol at the site until midnight will create excessive noise and increase the risk of road accidents.
Keighley and Shipley Licensing Panel will decide on Friday whether the site, which is believed to have been the inspiration for Ferndean Manor in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, can provide regulated entertainment and serve alcohol from 11am to midnight Monday to Friday, 10am to 2pm on Saturdays and 10am to midnight on Sundays. (Kathryn Bradley)

The Brussels Brontë Blog has a post on the group's traditional Christmas lunch; Libby Sternbergl has alerted us that her excellent novel Sloane Hall is free today (Thursday) and tomorrow (Friday); Half a Sorrow reviews Wide Sargasso Sea 2006; Betty's & Boys posts about Wuthering Heights; Lady Jane talks about Jane Eyre in Turkish; Adivina quien viene al cine reviews Jane Eyre 2011 in Spanish; Reflections reviews Wuthering Heights 2011.