Much Misunderstood

The upcoming (June) Grassington Festival is discussed in The Craven Herald & Pioneer:

Other lunchtime lectures will be presented by Sue Newby from The Brontë Society, who, in this year of Charlotte Brontë’s bicentenary, will explore Charlotte’s motivations; and Emma Eaton, assistant director of Big Issue North, who will talk about the valuable work the magazine carries out. (Lindsey Moore)

Pendle Today has an article on the Brontë 200 Pendle programme of events:

Lancashire is claiming the Brontës with a six month programme of free events to mark Charlotte Bronte’s bicentenary and her links with her neighbouring county.
The events will bring to life the places just over the border which inspired her writing, including the atmospheric village of Wycoller with its ruined hall - the real Ferndean Manor in Jane Eyre.
Pendle neighbours the Brontë moors and the council has launched a programme of 21 events which run until October 30th to mark the 200th anniversary.
Pendle Council’s Brontë enthusiast Sarah Lee co-ordinated the programme, working with Pendle’s Tourism Officer, walk leaders, artists, photographers and storytellers, to bring the area’s Brontë connections to life.
She said: “It’s often forgotten that Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne often walked across the border over the moors into Lancashire.
“Wycoller is just nine miles as the crow flies from the Haworth Parsonage.
“Charlotte knew this area well, drawing inspiration from the landscape, turbulent histories, local news and Lancashire folklore.”
Tourism Officer Mike Williams said: “Pendle is little-known for its Brontë connections, but they are compelling.
“I urge anyone who loves the Brontë novels to come and enjoy a short break and find out for themselves.” (Will Cook)

Andrea Arnold's new film, American Honey, is being reviewed everywhere. Her previous Wuthering Heights 2011 is mentioned (in a good or bad way):

"much-misunderstood" (Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian)
"tried to take her technique to a grander scale" (Eric Kohn in IndieWire)
"Arnold seemed to have stalled creatively after her heavy-going 2011 adaptation of Wuthering Heights – arguably during it, to be honest." (Tim Robey in The Telegraph)
"stripped-to-bone minimalism of her remarkable but divisive “Wuthering Heights” adaptation — pointedly rejected by Cannes selectors after her first two features each scooped a Jury Prize at the festival. (Guy Lodge in Variety)
"son adaptation somptueuse des Hauts de Hurlevent. Par "somptueuse", n'entendez pas adaptation scolaire aux costumes qui en jettent. Arnold s'est emparé du classique littéraire pour en livrer une version à la fois fidèle et personnelle et ce par un moyen : la caméra." (Nicolas Bardot in Film de Culte) (Translation)
"baroque, modernist"(Sam. C. Mac in Slant)
"controverso e violento" (Carlo Valeri in Sentieri Selvaggio) (Translation)
"versione raggelata" (Stefano Fedele in Optimagazine) (Translation) 
"interessant adaptació" (Imma Merino in El Punt-Avui)
"het bot ontbeende Emily Brontë adaptatie Wuthering Heights" (Dave Mestdach in Knack Focus) (Translation)
"trae a la memoria algunos de los instantes mejor definidos, arrebatados y profundamente libres de Cumbres borrascosas" (Luis Martínez in El Mundo) (Translation)
"magistral" (Nando Salvà in El Periódico)
"adaptation radicale" (Antoine Duplan in Le Temps)
"Les Hauts de Hurlevent, adaptation très sensitive, pleine de boue, de pluie et de terre, du classique d’Emily Brontë se complaisait dans la noirceur". (Jacques Morice in Télérama) (Translation)

The Hollywood Reporter and Los Angeles Times review the film 아가씨 (The Handmaiden) by Park Chan-Wook:

It’s the time of the Japanese occupation of Korea and the natural inference is she is about to become the unwilling concubine of Kouzuki (Cho Jin-woong), a black-tongued old man of unparalleled wealth. But minutes later, as she arrives at his towering mansion deep in the woods, her role switches to Jane Eyre. She is merely assuming service as the new maidservant to the aristocratic orphan of the house, Lady Hideko (Kim Min-hee of Right Now, Wrong Then). (Deborah Young)

A sort of “Gaslight”-meets-“Jane Eyre” with a big ol' splash of “Diabolique,” “The Handmaiden” has predictably generated a lot of ink over its explicit lesbian love scenes — a touch that might well have been decried as exploitative (just as “Blue is the Warmest Color” came under attack here at Cannes three years ago), if not for the righteous narrative primacy that Park grants his leading ladies. (Justin Chang)

Another film seen in the Cannes film festival is Mal de Pierres by Nicole Garcia. Les Echos (France) and The Guardian review it:

Elle se fixe d'abord sur l'instituteur du village, pourtant marié et bientôt papa, qui lui fait découvrir les soeurs Brontë. Quand il refuse ses avances, elle crise. Face à son comportement, clairement hystérique, ses parents songent à la faire interner. (Thierry Gandillot) (Translation)

Stultified by country life, she has channeled her frustrations into a crush on her teacher, partly fuelled by his on-point literary recommendations (Wuthering Heights is, according to teach, “About a girl who never leaves the countryside”). (Henry Barnes)

EDIT: L'instituteur est effrayé par cette demoiselle entière, brutale. Il faut dire qu'il a eu le tort de lui offrir Les Hauts de Hurlevent. Les pages d'Emily Brontë ne sont pas réputées pour calmer les tempéraments ardents. Qu'il ne vienne pas s'étonner qu'elle lui saute dessus, après ça. (Eric Neuhoff in Le Figaro) (Translation)

Côté figures féminines fortes, on pense à la Catherine des Hauts de Hurlevent d’Emily Brontë. Nicole Garcia évoque celles à la fois littéraires et cinématographiques, de Madame Bovary à Adèle H., qui ont rêvé l’amour, en porte-à-faux avec leur société corsetée, débordant du cadre par toutes leurs fibres. (Odile Tremblay in Le Devoir) (Translation)

Cherwell looks back on the anniversary (May 14) of the death of Jean Rhys:

On May 14 1979, the widely acclaimed author of Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys, passed away in a small village in Devon. She left behind an incomplete text of her autobiography. She was born in the West Indies, and this featured as a backdrop for most of her writing. Her most famous work is the widely acclaimed Wide Sargasso Sea, written as a response to precede the events of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Rhys shone a new light on the infamous ‘madwoman in the attic’. Through the multiple deaths of Bertha, Rhys reveals that she is far more than merely a one-dimensional character.
Bertha Mason’s descent into madness is aptly demonstrated by the symbolism of fragments and pieces. The most obvious of this symbolism in this transition is the way Bertha is addressed by others. “Antoinette”, as she is first known, means ‘beyond praise’. She is then renamed by Rochester as “Bertha”, indicating her first death and a break from her original self. Ironically, “Bertha” means ‘bright one’ and is a glaring reference to her death in Jane Eyre, going up in flames in a dramatic ending. (Read more) (Samantha Phey)

Taz (Germany) reviews a recent German Jane Eyre audiobook:

Regisseurin Christiane Ohaus nutzt in ihrer Hörspieladaption von „Jane Eyre“ die Chance, zeitgenössischen Ballast abzuwerfen und die universellen Themen hervorzuheben, die den Roman zum Klassiker machen.
Sie fokussiert sich auf Jane Eyres unkorrumpierbaren Charakter, ihre Fähigkeit zur Selbstreflexion und besonders auf ihren emanzipatorischen Willen. Das macht den Stoff sehr gegenwärtig, doch Ohaus transportiert auch die Atmosphäre des viktorianischen Romans: die Schilderung des harten Alltags der jungen Jane, den Gruselfaktor der mad woman in the attic sowie die Bigotterie des Schulvorstehers Mr. Bocklehurst und die Blasiertheit der jungen Lady Ingram.
Die Erzählerin Jane Eyre und die Dialoge sind im rechten Lautsprecher zu vernehmen, Eyres hintersinnige Schlussfolgerungen im linken. Dadurch wird einerseits der Eindruck eines call and response erweckt und andererseits serviert dieser technische Kniff den ZuhörerInnen Wertungen und Zuschreibungen auf einem Silbertablett – das wirkt sehr lebendig. (Sylvia Prahl) (Translation)

DNA (France) interviews the writer Guillaume Musso:

Comment passe-t-on de prof à écrivain ?
J’étais un lecteur de BD et un téléphage. Et un jour, chez mon grand-père à Antibes, à l’âge de 11 ans, il y a eu une panne d’électricité, alors j’ai pris un livre, c’était Les Hauts de Hurlevent d’Emily Brontë. Ça a été un point de départ : grâce à ma mère qui était bibliothécaire, j’ai autant lu les classiques que les romans populaires… (Thierry Meissirel) (Translation)

Londra da Vivere (in Italian) describes the Victorian Age like this:

È l’era della prima Esposizione Universale, della costruzione della prima metropolitana, della nascita di alcuni dei musei più belli della capitale, della seconda rivoluzione industriale, di Charlotte e Emily Bronte, ma anche dello sfruttamento minorile, della povertà dilagante e dei romanzi-denuncia di Charles Dickens.(Alice Giusti) (Translation)

Film.org (Poland) reviews the film Miss You Already:

Zgadza się nawet na spontaniczny, szalony wyjazd tylko we dwie do Haworth – miejsca, gdzie siostry Brontë tworzyły swoje niesamowite powieści, w tym ukochane przez dziewczęta „Wichrowe wzgórza” – narażając tym samym nie tylko swoje zdrowie, ale także tak upragnioną ciążę. Kiedy odkrywa, co naprawdę popchnęło Millie do tego wyjazdu, nie kryje rozczarowania i na długie miesiące przyjaciółki zrywają kontakty… (Agnieszka Stasiowska) (Translation)

La República (Perú) talks about Jane Eyre:

Jane, una institutriz joven, huérfana, de moral cerrada y costumbres puritanas, se hace cargo de una niña llamada Adele. Rochester, el padre de la pequeña es un hombre reservado, de naturaleza hermética, con aura oscura de sexualidad. Desde que ella lo ve, subido a un caballo en el camino, siente un impulso irresistible hacia él. Pero debe contenerse. No puede traicionar su educación y sus principios. (...) ( Alonso Cueto) (Translation)

A student and Brontëite at the Victoria Advocate; according to 20 Minutos (Spain) the Brontës are some of the favourite writers of the Mexican author Cecilia González; Promoting Crime Fiction by Lizzie Hayes reviews Yuki Chan in Brontë Country by Mick Jackson; El blog perdido de Laura (in Spanish) has just acquired Juliet Barker's The Brontës and Nick Holland's In Search of Anne Brontë. The author of this last book posts on AnneBrontë.org on Anne and the Moravians. Suzie Komza's Art Things shares a Jane Eyre-inspired illustration.