Brontë style

Financial Times reviews Northern Ballet's Jane Eyre and gives the production 4 out of 5 stars.

Cathy Marston’s streamlined narrative, which premiered in Doncaster last week, places the emphasis squarely on Jane’s transformation from downtrodden orphan (Antoinette Brooks-Daw) to independent woman (the excellent Dreda Blow).
The commissioned score by Philip Feeney is an inspired blend of original writing and Mendelssohn (Felix and Fanny) played with relish by the Northern Ballet Sinfonia. Patrick Kinmonth’s spare, monochrome designs — a patchwork of wintry fields, a rough sketch of cornices and fireplaces — conjure the book’s brooding atmosphere without breaking the bank. [...]
Duets dominate but Marston is careful to vary their tone and tempi. Rochester, vividly danced by the darkly handsome Javier Torres, is all things to all women. His pas de deux with Blanche Ingram (Abigail Prudames) reduces him to a conventional porteur, while his tussles with the wife in the attic (a wildcat Victoria Sibson) are a lusty danse apache . The exchanges with Jane herself build from wary handshakes to the loved-up lifts of the proposal scene. In the ballet’s final moments the lovers’ roles are reversed, the blinded hero tripping and falling into his wife’s cradling arms. (Louise Levene)

Broadway World recommends the production and shows several pictures.

Popcorn TV (Italy) recommends Jane Eyre 2011 as one of the 5 must-watch films featuring Mia Wasikowska.

Anno 2011: la bella Mia è Jane, nel film “Jane Eyre” di Cary Fukunaga. Adattamento cinematografico dell’omonimo romanzo di Charlotte Brontë (1847), Jane è un’eroina silenziosa dal travagliato e triste passato, che si innamora del padrone della tenuta presso la quale lavora come istitutrice. Perfettamente all’altezza del suo ruolo, Mia sa trasportarci all’interno di una storia d’amore complicata e necessaria, capace di regalarci emozioni autentiche. E adesso, arrivati alla conclusione di questo breve viaggio, non ci resta che aspettare il suo prossimo film. (Translation)

Gazette & Herald looks into the rise in Chinese visitors to stately homes 8andeven some weddings). Here's one of the possible reasons:

 Today, many Chinese people learn English. And classic English literature - the work of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë, for example - remains hugely popular in China.
From that, Chinese people have developed an idealised image of the typical English lady and gentleman, Dr Chen says. They represent an ideal of manners, courteousness and elegance that Chinese people often look up to. So much so that in Chinese there is a term, "Yinguo fanr", which means something like 'English style'. (Stephen Lewis)

The Telegraph and Argus features Megan Parkinson, who plays Martha Brown  in To Walk Invisible,

A woman who worked for a Haworth-based company and is now part of a major new BBC production about the Brontës dropped in to visit former colleagues.
Megan Parkinson, who is playing the part of Martha Brown in the BBC production To Walk Invisible, visited Airedale Springs.
To Walk Invisible, written and directed by Sally Wainwright, is a drama about the Brontë family and is being filmed in Haworth over the next few weeks, including on Penistone Hill and in Main Street.
Megan, 19, a former South Craven School pupil, is originally from Silsden and worked for Airedale Springs in 2014 to 2015 before moving to London last year.
Megan [...] said: “Now living in London I don’t get home as much as I would like, but to see old friends before filming starts in Haworth was an opportunity I could not miss." (Miran Rahman)

On his Facebook page, photographer Mark Davis shows pictures of today's Haworth as it gets ready to travel back in time in the next few days when filming will be taking place. Haworth Village also shared a few pictures connected to the shooting of To Walk Invisible on Facebook.

Actualitté (France) reports that La Bibliothèque des voix is now available in streaming. There's an excerpt of Jane Eyre read by Fanny Ardant.




ABC's The Book Club (Australia) has reviewed Wuthering Heights in the programme. Check the video here (with the presence of Jeannette Winterson).

Patheos's Sic et Non writes about Jane Eyre. Les Soeurs Brontë (in French) is rereading Villette. The Brontë Parsonage welcomed actors Prunella Scales and Timothy West yesterday. Potterwars shows how Bella from Twilight discusses Wuthering Heights. Linnet Moss continues with the Jane Eyre series of posts: Jane's Disappointment.