Emily to be released in 2023

Variety reports that Bleecker Street has bought Emma Mackey’s Emily Brontë film from Frances O’Connor and will probably be released next year.

Bleecker Street has bought the U.S. rights for writer-director Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut, “Emily,” which tells the story of author Emily Brontë’s real-life romance in the lead up to her seminal novel, “Wuthering Heights.”

Bleecker Street is planning a 2023 theatrical release Stateside, while Warner Bros. will open the film wide in U.K. cinemas.

Promotional materials for the project describe “Emily” as imagining “the transformative, exhilarating and uplifting journey to womanhood of one of the world’s most famous, enigmatic and passionate writers.” [...]

Touche said: “At Ingenious we have made a deliberate push to bring more female driven films to audiences. We are delighted that Bleecker Street shares this vision as they are the U.S. distributor of many of them, including: ‘Military Wives,’ Mona Fastvold’s ‘The World to Come,’ Emma Holly Jones’ upcoming release ‘Mr. Malcolm’s List,’ Catherine Hardwicke’s ‘Mafia Mamma,’ which is currently in production, and now Frances O’Connor’s breath-taking directorial debut ‘Emily.'” (Manori Ravindran)

Financial Times reviews the biography I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys by Miranda Seymour.

Her fifth novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, a lush, groundbreaking prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, was finally published in 1966. Set against the poisonous legacy of plantation slavery in Jamaica, it tells the story of Mr Rochester’s “mad” Creole wife. It became a bestseller, earning its author, by then in her mid-seventies, fame and, at last, financial security. But for Rhys, as she ruefully said, success had come too late. (Annalena McAfee)

Canberra City News reviews Shake & stir's production of Jane Eyre.

Here company artistic directors Nelle Lee and Nick Skubij adapt “Jane Eyre”, Charlotte Brontë’s popular 1847 novel of the miserable experiences of a plain but vibrant governess.

Lee performs the title role with clarity and conviction, supported by a talented ensemble in Julian Garner, Jodie le Vesconte and Sarah McLeod, who populate Jane Eyre’s world with macabre but human characters.

Director Michael Futcher relishes the horror of the bleak opening scenes, but shifts into romantic comedy to build sympathy for the budding love between Jane and Byronic anti-hero Rochester (played by Julian Garner).

This problematic romance has been scrutinised by a hundred years of criticism and analysis, most famously in Jean Rhys’ subversive 1966 anti-Rochester prequel, “Wide Sargasso Sea”.

Garner plays up Rochester’s likeability, but the production does not shirk the visceral dread of his secret in the attic. Inevitably, a modern audience will question Rochester’s self-serving claims and decisions. By contrast, rival suitor St John Rivers (also played by Garner) gets an efficient and spectacular kicking in this script, steering the play towards an unequivocal happy ending.

Excellent design by Josh McIntosh gives the cast an interesting set to play in, supported by ghoulish and effective sound and light. Cast member McLeod also contributes plaintive songs with gentle flair.

Like the company’s “Wuthering Heights” adaptation, allegiance to the source material means the production veers into melodrama, but excess is forgiven as part of the delight of a Brontë story.

“Jane Eyre” successfully distills 500 pages of novel into two tight hours of theatre, for a ghost-train ride of delicious gothic fun. (John Lombard)

Still in Canberra, Her Canberra announces this year's plans for The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever (TMWHDE) on July 2nd.

Performing Kate Bush’s iconic interpretive dance and singing along to the Emily Brontë-inspired song, The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever (TMWHDE) is celebrating its sixth year of raising funds for Domestic Violence Crisis Service (DVCS) in the capital.

Inspired by UK performance art group, Shambush—whose 2013 event, the Ultimate Kate Bush Experience inspired Samantha Wareing (an Australian music teacher living in Berlin) to create TMWHDE—the event brings together wutherers from around the world to roll and fall in green for an important cause.

“Local groups of people get together, dress in red, dance Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights choreography but use it as an opportunity to raise funds for services or charities that support women,” explains Canberra TMWHDE organiser Brooke Thomas.

“It’s this great blend of encouraging people to try dance in a really supportive environment, while also raising money for important causes. And it’s just turned into a global event really organically, which is a really delightful thing to be a part of.” [...]

But this year’s Canberra performance is extra special: it promises more Brontë than ever before.

Taking place at the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) where the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition Shakespeare to Winehouse: Icons from the National Portrait Gallery London is currently taking center stage, dancers will be commemorating the only surviving group portrait of the Brontë sisters.

Painted by their 17-year-old brother Branwell around 1834, it’s a rare piece of art.

“Charlotte would have been 18, Emily 16, and Anne only 14 when they sat for it, so it was created more than a decade before the publication of the sisters’ best-known novels: Anne’s Agnes Grey, Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, and Emily’s awesome Wuthering Heights – all published in 1847 under assumed male names,” explains NPG Curator Joanna Gilmour.

“It spent many years folded up and gathering dust on top of a cupboard before National Portrait Gallery London acquired it in 1914. But, if anything, this just adds to the portrait’s appeal.”

“For one thing, it seems to speak to how gendered society was, and how closed the literary world was to women of the sisters’ class and situation—making it also a powerful demonstration of how extraordinary they were.”

According to the NPG’s Manager of Learning Programs, Krysia Kitch, they were inspired by the uniqueness of the portrait to reach out to TMWHDE—not only to celebrate Shakespeare to Winehouse but to support the heart-warming event that also carries a serious message.

“The Brontë sisters wrote about love and romance but also spoke about how that could be distorted. Emily’s writing really shocked society in its depiction of brutality in the home,” she says.

“We feel it is important for national cultural institutions to reflect society and be safe spaces to explore social issues. While TMWHDE is a joyous event it also serves to raise awareness and funds for services supporting women.”

Encouraging people to rustle up a red outfit and join the performance or come along to watch the Cathie’s dance through the NPG’s Tim Fairfax Forecourt (weather permitting), the performance and rehearsals are free for all who wish to take part. The only request for Canberra wutherers is that they donate what they can to DVCS.

And while it may not be a wily, windy moor, Brooke says the proximity to the painting of the Brontë sisters makes this year’s performance even more unique.

“It’s really lovely for the Portrait Gallery to reach out. Who knows, we might even run down to the lakefront afterward and do it one more time looking out towards Canberra!” (Erin Cross)

Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights makes it to number 4 on Smooth Radio's ranking of her '15 greatest ever songs'.

4. 'Wuthering Heights'

Written by Kate Bush when she was 18, this song is based on the novel of the same name by Emily Brontë. She was inspired by the last ten minutes of a 1967 BBC mini-series, and then read the book and discovered she shared her birthday with Brontë.

It is sung from Catherine’s point of view, as she pleads at Heathcliff’s window to be allowed in. The guitar solo is played by Ian Bairnson, known for his work with Alan Parsons. (Tom Eames)

This columnist from Daily Trojan is not a fan of Jane Eyre but may have read another version of the book as she describes Jane as an accomplice to Bertha's murder.

Or maybe you’ve heard this “happier” ending of “Jane Eyre,” a strong-willed youth who gets dulled down to a supporting character in her own life. This happens the second she falls for an older man, Rochester, and follows him with his plot to rid himself of his former wife. (Myriam Alcala)