On the tail of the Brontës

The Duke Chronicle reviews Wuthering Heights 2011 and gives it 2 stars:

The latest adaptation of Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights is over two hours of bleak moors and longing looks, and not much else. [...]
The director does manage to show the bleak and desolate moors better than most—everything in the film is some shade of gray or brown, and there are several beautiful shots of the Northern English landscape. But the odd choice to film Wuthering Heights in the old Academy ratio (1:1.33) rather than widescreen (1:1.8) doesn’t take full advantage of the mournful setting. While the film may interested devotees of Brontë’s original novel, its gaunt exploration of the grittier side of the classic story would most likely bore the average viewer. (Megan Rise)

Indies Unchained, on the other hand, gives it an A+. The Cue Dot Confessions gives it 3 stars.

The New York Times' The 6th Floor reveals that the Magazine production chief is currently reading Wuthering Heights:

“Wuthering Heights,” by Emily Brontë. Somehow I managed to make it through high school and college without reading this particular classic. I have never read “Jane Eyre” by her sister Charlotte either, but 19th-century English literature never disappoints. This was the October pick for my book group. We specifically chose it to coincide with the opening of Andrea Arnold’s movie now playing at the Film Forum. Everyone in my book group really liked the book, but thought the movie was long on style and short on substance. (Anick Pleven)

And Philadelphia Weekly includes the novel on a list of 'Six Novels Whose Endings are Rarely Filmed When They’re Adapted'.

Wuthering Heights: Andrea Arnold’s gritty take on Emily Brontë has been praised as more faithful than other adaptations. But it falls into the same problem: Like the 1939 Olivier-Oberon version and most others, it chooses to end on a high note of romantic fatalism, stopping with Catherine’s death. There’s an entire second half that’s ritualistically elided, where Heathcliff ages into a bitter, haunted ghoul trying to force his sickly son on Catherine’s daughter. Only the 1992 one, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, bothers with it. (Matt Prigge)

Chloe Sevigny shares one of her dreams with Collider:

Is there a dream role that you’d love to do, if given the opportunity?
SEVIGNY:  I would love to do a sweeping romantic period drama, like Jane Eyre.  That would be my dream.  It’s always been my dream, as far as acting.  It just hasn’t come to fruition yet. (Christina Radish)

While Zoe Kazan, writer and protagonist of Ruby Sparks, discusses women writers with The Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy.

I think in general that it seems we’re in a time of incredible change. We have a lot more female voices being heard and recognized. It’s a long way to go before it can feel remotely equal. We’re coming on the tail of generations of women who have worked incredibly hard: Louisa May Alcott, Eudora Welty, the Brontës, Nora Ephron, my mom [Kazan’s mother is the Oscar-nominated writer Robin Swicord]. (Allison Lichter)

A.V. Club features Dark Shadows:

By the end of its groundbreaking, popular run, Dark Shadows had featured ghosts, vampires, witches, werewolves, Satan, raising the dead, reincarnation, brain swapping, time travel, parallel worlds, and a very persistent dream curse. Part of the success of such outrageous storylines can be attributed to the show’s ability to anchor them by alluding to well-known literary works, including everything from Greek mythology to the macabre stories of Edgar Allen [sic] Poe, to the entire canon of Gothic novels like Rebecca and Wuthering Heights. Yet even as much as the show looked to the past, it helped shape the future of its medium. (Farihah Zaman)

La Presse (Canada) features the comic book Jane, Le Renard et Moi, which is released today.

Afin de donner vie à l'univers de Jane, le renard et moi, l'illustratrice a eu recours à deux techniques différentes. Les scènes montrant le quotidien difficile d'Hélène, une élève de cinquième année obsédée par son poids devenue le souffre-douleur de ses anciennes amies, ont été réalisées au crayon à mine et à l'efface alors que celles tirées de Jane Eyre ont été faites à l'aquarelle et à la gouache.
«Je trouvais que les esquisses au crayon à mine, avec leur côté sale et terne, allaient bien avec la fragilité de quelqu'un qui n'a pas encore déterminé sa place dans la vie», explique Isabelle Arsenault, qui a déjà remporté un prix du Gouverneur général pour son travail. «En revanche, la partie de Jane Eyre, qui est celle du rêve, avait besoin de quelque chose de plus coloré et de plus fluide.» [...]
Et dans le cas de Jane Eyre, modèle de résistance à l'intimidation s'il en est un, on ne saurait mieux tomber. (Annik Chainey) (Translation)

El Semanario (Mexico) acknowledges the influence of Wuthering Heights in La memoria de las manos by Susana Corcuera.

Ante un auditorio diverso, la escritora comentó al ser cuestionada que se trata de una novela que puede acercarse al romanticismo con personajes bien cuidados y con diálogos de tesitura fina con un trasfondo emocional muy fuerte. Inspirada en la excelsa obra de Cumbres borrascosas de Emily Brontë. (Juan Manuel García) (Translation)

A columnist from Tehelka includes Emily Brontë among his current favourites. Women 24 publishes an extract from chapter 7 of Jane Eyre Laid Bare. Piatkus Books is giving away a copy of Jane Eyrotica. Ciccis bokblogg writes in Swedish about Classical Comics' Jane Eyre while Lyndsay A. Franklin posts about the actual novel. The Daily Touch recommends Wide Sargasso Sea. Le café littéraire de Gaëlle (in French) and Retroguardia 2.0- Il testo letterario (in Italian) both write about Wuthering Heights. Flickr user GreenDreamsPhotography.nl shares an autumn picture of Haworth churchyard.

Finally, don't miss this post from the Brussels Brontë Blog:

Whatever the future may hold for the Brussels Brontë Group, 27 October 2012 will always stand out as a high spot in our annals. For us personally it was the day we got the opportunity to take part in a TV programme. More generally, it represented recognition of the role played by Brussels in the Brontë story.
In mid-September I was contacted by Gareth Williams of Blakeway North Productions, a TV production company in Manchester. He was to direct and produce a one-hour documentary on the Brontës, one of a series called Perspectives in which a well-known personality talks about a literary, artistic or musical passion – Andrew Lloyd-Weber on the Pre-Raphaelites, Griff Rhys Jones on The Wind in the Willows. The documentary was to be presented by the actress Sheila Hancock (Sheila is also the widow of John Thaw who played Inspector Morse in the TV detective series).
Gareth Williams explained that the film would be a voyage of discovery for Sheila Hancock as she travelled round the north of England visiting Haworth and other places important in the sisters’ lives, such as Roe Head School, while exploring their story in conversation with Brontë biographers such as Juliet Barker and Lyndall Gordon. The film crew would also head south to London where Sheila would look at the Heger letters in the British Library. (Read more)