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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Sunday, January 29, 2012 4:41 pm by M. in , , , ,    No comments
***Save Red House Petition***

BlogCritics reviews the upcoming The Brontës of Haworth DVD release:
Playwright Christopher Fry's The Brontës of Haworth, a five-episode dramatization of the lives of the 19th century literary sisters and their tortured brother televised in England in 1973 but never shown in the United States will be available in February in a two-disc DVD set from Acorn Media. Beginning with their widowed father's birthday gift to the young Branwell of the set of toy soldiers which became the inspiration for the children's early imaginative efforts as they joined together to create a fictional world modeled on the Byronic romances popular at the time, Fry traces their attempts to make their way in the world, their failures and their success, culminating in the sister's monumental achievement and early deaths. (...)
Clearly it is [Michael] Kitchen and perhaps [Alfred] Burke who are the stars of this production. Perhaps not as oddly as it would seem in a film about the Brontë family, much of the early episodes are concerned with the tragic life of Branwell rather than that of his sisters. He is after all a man haunted by demons beyond his control, the kind of fodder no dramatist can resist.  (...)
The DVD runs approximately 260 minutes. The only bonus material it contains is a short prose essay on the Brontë's home in Haworth. (Jack Goodstein)
The Pittsburgh Stage and Screen Examiner also post about the release.

The Sundance screenings of Wuthering Heights 2011 are reviewed:
The book itself, gives you more of a sense of inherent evilness in both Heathcliff and Cathy.  While their love might be true and intense, there are no other redeeming qualities in either of them. This rendition does do a great job of showing why Heathcliff becomes so embittered, which is a bit of a departure from the book.  I also loved that the director cast unknowns in the lead roles – to me, this is what indie film making should be about. See this movie if you have never been diagnosed with ADD, can sit through three  hours of overwrought, but beautiful cinematography, or are a sucker for an original take on an old story. (David J. Fowlie in Keep-it-Reel)
Heights’ spartan brutality is truly haunting. However, it is doomed to collect decidedly negative online feedback. People who go to Brontë films do not want to see something new and different. They want the “Oh, Heathcliff” scene on the moors. This is not that kind of film. It viscerally expresses a host of tactile sensations, de-emphasizing melodramatic plot turns. Despite a comparatively weaker third act, it is a bold work that really stays with you after viewing – but due to its nature, it is only recommended for adventurous, fully informed audiences. (Joe Bendel in Libertas Film Magazine)
The Daily Mail makes a reference to Wide Sargasso Sea in an article about Salman Rushdie and Indian censorship:
Second, a writer's worth to a literary culture is not decided by how prolific she is. Jean Rhys didn't write much - five slim novels. There was a gap of twenty years between her fourth and fifth novels. As it turned out, her last one, Wide Sargasso Sea, was the one that gave her lasting fam.
The Observer complains about the lack of nominations for women directors this year:
All the women. We Need to Talk About Kevin? Wuthering Heights? Bridesmaids? New director Angelina Jolie's excellent Bosnian war drama In the Land of Blood and Honey? Dee Rees and her brilliant, cool, powerful film about black-American lesbian life, Pariah? Kelly Reichardt's neo-western, Meek's Cutoff? Oh, and guess what, Madonna's W.E. is a thousand times better than royal borefest The King's Snooze, in which a man spends two hours overcoming a speech impediment while Helena Bonham Carter looks on. (Bidisha)
A Younger Theatre talks about Josie Long's The Future is Another Place:
A hard message to sell but a vital one, and one which is thankfully underpinned with a wonderfully original comic voice by Long, taking in imagined feuds between the Brontë sisters, and a meeting between Ringo and the other Beatles in which they call him up on ruining their albums by slipping children’s songs in the middle, which had me in hysterics. (Tristan Pate)
Miami Herald reviews Gemma Hardy's The Flight of Gemma Hardy:
Livesey works some sort of magic in The Flight of Gemma Hardy, which is too entertaining to be superfluous, too wise in its understanding of human nature to be a mere retread. Best of all, you don’t have to know Jane Eyre to enjoy it, though it’s clearly an offspring of and tribute to Bronte’s work. (...)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/29/2614173/beloved-classic-jane-eyre-gets.html#storylink=cpy (...()
Livesey fills Gemma’s journey — back to her past in mysterious Iceland, ahead to her future with and without Mr. Sinclair — with revelations, betrayals and surprising friendships and realizations. Gemma longs for a home: “I never meant to be a wanderer,” she says. But: “Perhaps being a wife was not the only choice.” Livesey takes a page from E.M. Forster to impart her message: Only connect. Only connect — with friends, with a lover, with family, with your past — and the whole world opens up before you, just like that. (Connie Ogle)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/29/2614173/beloved-classic-jane-eyre-gets.html#storylink=cpy
The Maine Sunday Telegram talks about yet another author with a Brontë past, Sarah Thomson:
Thomson grew up in the Midwest -- in St. Louis and Madison, Wis. Her world was populated by J.R.R. Tolkien, Lloyd Alexander, Charlotte Brontë and Jane Austen. (Bob Keyes)
And The Spectator finds a Brontëite in Gloria di Piero (MP for Ashfield):
She has a soft spot for Wuthering Heights and Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. (...)
Wuthering Heights, in my view the greatest love story ever. My mate Lindsey and I read it on hols in Corfu straight after we'd done our A levels. (Fleur MacDonald)
The Calgary Herald reviews the concert of the Calgary Philarmonic Orchestra with Jeans'N'Classics:
[Jean] Meilleur performs his role of frontman cover-band capably, Leah Salomaa’s take on [Kate Bush's ]Wuthering Heights was quite wonderful, the Jeans musicians delivered a steady stream of rock shadings and quality solos, and the CPO, well, even at half speed they’re still an orchestra that can throw down with the best of them. (Mike Bell)
The New York Post announces that Drew Barrymore will be the co-host of TCM's The Essentials which will schedule Wuthering Heights 1939 in the new season. Also in the Post a brief comment about Jane Eyre 1944 (Monday, 8 p.m., TCM):
Joan Fontaine is Jane Eyre, who in 1800s England, goes straight from an abusive, orphans' charity school to a position as a governess to the ward of rich, gloomy Mr. Rochester (Orson Welles). Although he is above her station in 19th-century English society, she begins to fall for him, and he seemingly begins to have feelings for her as well. Did you really think it would be that easy? From the novel by Charlotte Brontë who, along with her sister, Emily, endured similar conditions at their charity boarding school.
The Sag Harbor Express has an intriguing Brontë reference:
As some of you might remember, I asked for chickens for Christmas, and the universe, not my husband, brought them to me. (...) Needless to say, I now have six fluffy chicks in the basement in a pet shop rabbit cage covered with a packing blanket. Very Jane Eyre. (Paige Patterson)
Raizononline Portal posts about the Brontës (in Portuguese); Jane Eyre 2011 is reviewed on 30diary (in Italian), videosöndag (in Swedish) and Oscar Completist.

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