'If someone picks up a copy of Wuthering Heights after watching then great'

The Observer gives 4 out of 5 stars to Emily.

Popular legend has it that the real-life Weightman was romantically involved with youngest sister Anne Brontë, but British-Australian actor turned writer-director Frances O’Connor’s thrillingly confident feature debut imagines him being torn between the attraction and repulsion that Emily inspires. Emily feels the sharp cut of that dual-edged sword too, although initially she appears more smitten with her brother, who lands and then squanders a place at the Royal College of Art and has the words “Freedom of Thought” scrawled on his forearm. Drink and opium will lead Branwell off the rails, and the film’s subdued palette turns to lush, oversaturated hues when Emily first shares his pupil-dilating vices in a grassy paradise. Later, they will peer in through windows in the dead of night, fleshly precursors of Cathy and Heathcliff.

These outdoor scenes, filmed with sensuous, hand-held grit by Nanu Segal, who shot Hope Dickson Leach’s The Levelling, recall the passionate landscapes of Francis Lee’s awards-winner God’s Own Country. Meanwhile, the sonic juxtapositions of inner and outer worlds (plaudits to sound designer Niv Adiri) put me in mind of William Oldroyd’s north-east England psychodrama Lady Macbeth, the film that made a star of Florence Pugh.

More unexpected is the shadow that Kaneto Shindô’s Japanese chiller Onibaba casts over a startling scene in which a mask turns a parlour game into a ghostly seance. With remarkable elan, O’Connor conjures a spine-tingling vision of an unquiet maternal spirit who seems to sweep in with the wind to possess her daughter. Is Emily really speaking with the voice of Mother (Nature), or are we all simply caught in the overwhelming power of her imagination? [...]

There’s something refreshingly untethered about the gusto with which she reimagines Emily, tossing aside the image of a shy, sickly recluse, replacing it with an antiheroine whose inability to fit in with the ordered world is a source of strength rather than weakness. Yes, Emily, into whom Mackey breathes intensely tangible life, suffers panic attacks when away from Haworth, but are these not simply the anguished cries of one separated from her first love? And while Emily’s angsty passions may fix upon Weightman, isn’t he simply in the right place at the right time – a convenient piece of garden furniture amid the rugged scenery that is her heart’s true desire?

Abel Korzeniowski’s score ramps up the gothic romance and adds a note of thunderous horror to otherwise demure scenes of cloistered walls closing in. Elsewhere, O’Connor makes pointed use of a vacuum-like silence to portray shock and bereavement – a momentary absence of life in a film that otherwise thrums with full-blooded vivacity. (Mark Kermode)

Stylist features Emma Mackey:

If there’s one thing Emma Mackey’s titular heroine Emily Brontë is going to do in the new biopic Emily, it’s roll her eyes. A curate delivering a sensual sermon about God being “in the rain”, a feeble acquaintance requiring the assistance of multiple gentleman to climb over a stepping stile, her brother Branwell gleefully yelling “freedom of thought!” over the Yorkshire moors: all moments in which ladylike respectability gives way to a rebellious spirit. According to the 26-year-old French-British star, the facial expressions aren’t deliberate.

“That’s just my face, it moves a lot!” Mackey laughs. “There’s a lot going on.” If you’re a fan of traditional literary biopics, this should be enough to tell you that actor-turned-director Frances O’Connor’s new film is not going to stay faithful to the facts. “Usually there are rules. We are told that there are rules in filmmaking. And I don’t remember ever thinking, “fuck, it’s my close up and I’ve got to sit here and do this,” Mackey enthuses. “I was left freedom in those moments”. [...]

While Wuthering Heights is a story that will never get old, one look at the back-catalogue of period dramas will tell you that risk-taking is in short supply. The same could not be said for Emily, which blends fact and fiction as it imagines Brontë’s life in the years leading up to her writing one of English literature’s most iconic novels. The script, Mackey tells me, didn’t feel “pretentious and stuffy”, which excited her. “A lot of period dramas genuinely feel like sort of tableaus of kind of historical characters,” she explains. “But I felt like this had a real different energy to it.” [...]

Mackey, who studied English at Leeds University, dove deep into research after accepting the role, hoovering up biographies and films such as Sally Wainwright’s To Walk Invisible and André Téchiné’s French interpretation The Brontë Sisters starring Isabelle Adjani – “she was my hero” – as Emily. But the biographical facts, Mackey soon discovered, clashed with the fantastical script she was reading.

“I had to let go of also my preconceptions and my kind of formatting that’s quite academic and quite confusing sometimes,” she admits. “And it was so nice, just to let all of that go and let it be a blank canvas and let it just be a story. And it just so happens it’s a story about Emily Brontë; but she’s the starting point, not the be all and end all. It can be a coming of age story, if you like, it can be a story about religion, it can be a family drama, it can be a supernatural film… it oscillates between lots of different kinds of genres. And that’s what pleases me, because it feels like a real coming together of different worlds.”

If Emily Brontë is the queen of gothic romance, then it’s fitting that the supernatural spirit is alive and well in the film. Early on, there’s a genuinely spine-tingling scene where Emily, her siblings and Weightman play a game with a mask. When it’s Emily’s turn, she pretends to be possessed by her death mother, turning the happy revelry into a frightening séance-like situation that lays bare the siblings’ grief. “It felt like a real set piece, you know that moment,” Mackey recalls. “It’s an homage to the Brontë’s life in the books that they read and the environment in which they lived was very gothic. And, you know, the fascination for the supernatural. The Victorians are known for the forbidden. And so it’s really, really charged, full of that energy. And that scene is really potent for that reason, because it switches the tone up and it also gives you an insight into the fascination for playing games and ghost stories and all of these things.” [...]

Even so, Mackey is apprehensive about how the romantic origin story will go down with Brontë purists. “I was always nervous, because I know it’s quite a bold take on it,” she says. “And I know that potentially more fervent documented Brontë fans might not appreciate it.” At the same time, she believes there’s space for modern period dramas that push the boundaries. “This whole film is about: where do stories come from? What is imagination? And what can I do with it? What can I make of this? What can I make of all these thoughts and these starting points, that kind of are just seedlings in my head? Where can these go?”

Regardless of the liberties taken with the biographical facts, it’s a given that Mackey’s role in the film will introduce new audiences to Emily Brontë and her landmark work – something that makes her excited.

“I’m intrigued to see how it lands,” she says. “And I think that’s definitely what Frances wants and is definitely one of the goals of this film. If someone picks up a copy of Wuthering Heights after watching then great; if someone feels hopeful and galvanised enough that they want to go and write a story or make a film or go out and take photos or whatever it is and be creative, then great. I just hope that this film, in a small way, will at least provide a bit of escape for two hours and just transport people to somewhere else for a little bit. And give them a bit of hope; I think would be ideal.” (Christobel Hastings)

The Guardian reviews The Moors at The Hope Theatre, London.

A governess arrives in a remote corner of the Yorkshire moors to find a household of oddballs. She has been wooed there by Branwell – the dissolute brother of the Brontë sisters – but there are only his sisters here and a house that creaks with creepy mysteries.

Inspired by the letters of Charlotte Brontë and boldly directed by Phil Bartlett, this black comedy by American writer, Jen Silverman, is a homage to the Brontës and a gothic pastiche in one.

The characters might be the Brontës themselves, stranded in Haworth and playing a sinister game of make-believe. Or they could be characters from several Brontë novels (most obviously from Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights), mashed-up with wandering strays from a zombie movie. [...]

The story captures some classic Brontë themes, from isolation and creativity to suppressed passion. Its queer desire feels genuinely dangerous, if under-explored, and there is a twist on the “madwoman in the attic” trope. We don’t always know what’s going on but we don’t care. There is great imagination and intrigue here and it is eminently entertaining, for Brontë fans and beyond. (Arifa Akbar)

The Yorkshire Post recommends the 'Top five staycations in Yorkshire to visit in autumn close to walking trails where you can admire the stunning views' and one of them is

Ashmount House, Haworth

This guest house and bed and breakfast is in the heart of Brontë Country.

It is set in the breath-taking surroundings of the historic village of Haworth and visitors can enjoy a relaxing retreat whilst also being close to beautiful landscapes without having to drive.

We suggest taking the Bronte Waterfalls Circular route. (Liana Jacob)