Sideburns, Piano Trios, Divorces, Mediums...

Vogue features Jacob Elordi at the Berlinale International Film Festival:

Out on the wily, windy moors—or, just the snowy Berlinale International Film Festival—Jacob Elordi has debuted another hair transformation. Gone is the impressively bushy beard that the Saltburn actor sported at the Marrakech International Film Festival in Morocco back in December: now, it’s all about the 17th century mutton chops. (...)

Elordi showcased a serious set of sideburns, likely grown for his next part as the brooding anti-hero Heathcliff in director Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation. His mutton chops reach down to the curve of his jaw, and the rest of his dark hair is kept long and tousled. (...)

As production reportedly continues, Jacob Elordi looks every bit of the Yorkshire Moors man. (Anna Cafolla)

Congratulations to the Trio Brontë. As published in The Strad:

The piano trio category finals of the 12th Franz Schubert and Modern Music International Chamber Music Competition took place on 12 February at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Graz, Austria. The trios performed either Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio no.1 in B-flat major D.898 or his Piano Trio no.2 in E-flat major D.929, as well as a contemporary work written after 1978 of the trio’s choice.

The Trio Brontë won the €13,500 first prize, which includes career consulting and guidance. The group also won the special prize for CD Production & Promotion. This prize goes to only one of the ensembles in the entire competition, which also includes piano duos and piano-voice duos.

Lima News reviews Catherine the Ghost by Kathe Koja:

Cathy Earnshaw. Catherine Linton. Mother. Daughter. They never saw each other alive. In Catherine the Ghost these two young women confront loss, captivity, and the dark edge of eternity itself, to claim their full existence and share their power. With hauntings that escape the page and passion that bleeds them red, Koja crafts a tale that transcends the material plane as an eerie comfort that ghosts keep loving long past the grave. This modern gothic punk remix of Emily Brontë’s classic “Wuthering Heights” is a ghost story told from the point of view of Catherine Earnshaw’s restless spirit from beyond the grave.

Air Mail News quotes the actress Aimee Lou Wood saying:

“I didn’t want to be an actor when I was younger,” says Aimee Lou Wood. “I wanted to be a writer, like Emily Brontë.” (Jeanne Malle)

The Washington Post explores novels using a contemporary trope, the divorce plot: 

“Divorce can be a journey in itself, not unlike its literary predecessor and contemporary companion, the marriage plot,” muses journalist Haley Mlotek in the latest entry in this burgeoning canon, “No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce.” She is the only one in her cohort to explicitly conceive of her story as an homage to an older form, the marriage plot, though she is not alone in seeking to subvert the tropes of the traditional narrative. “No Fault” is a nonlinear rebuke to the tidy ordering of the classics, which start with a meet-cute and conclude with a wedding. “Reader, I married him,” is the famed first line of the last chapter of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre.” (Becca Rothfeld)

Daily Bruin talks about a new play written and performed by UCLA students:

“Good Tidings,” a UCLA alumnus-written play presented by Los Angeles Theatre Initiative, is hosting its three LA previews Feb. 15 and Feb. 16 at Thymele Arts: Shirley Dawn Studio in East Hollywood. The play, which draws from inspirations such as “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights,” is an original work featuring students from both UCLA and Loyola Marymount University and tells the story of a commune that must perform a ritual to find a new spiritual leader after its previous medium dies. (Bettina Wu)

The Denver Gazette talks about the Grapefruit Lab's Jane Eyre production economy plan:

Grapefruit Lab has the freedom to perform whenever it has the resources to perform, then retrench until it has enough resources to perform again. From Jan. 17-Feb. 2, it remounted “Jane/Eyre,” a queer adaptation of the classic goth novel set to live music by local indie-rock icons Teacup Gorilla and Dameon Merkl.

The Lab paid $2,400 to rent Buntport Theater’s warehouse space for six weeks and sold about 375 tickets for its eight performances. The company has adopted the “pay what you feel like paying” model, and audiences offered up about  $6,800 in revenue, or about $18-$20 each. “Our goal is to just break even,” said Suzanne. And with private donations, they just about did.

The company, founded in 2009, has never received grant or government money, and its two leaders don’t pay themselves. They did pay everyone involved with “Jane/Eyre,” which came to about $7,000. Musician parents Dan Eisenstat and Sondra Eby didn’t want to be paid, so the company covered their child-care costs instead. (John Moore)

Times Now News lists books your teachers forced you to read but now you thank them for:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

For many students, 'Wuthering Heights' was simply an overly dramatic love story. But in reality, it’s a novel about obsession, revenge, and the destructive nature of passion. Heathcliff and Catherine’s turbulent relationship isn’t just romance—it’s a study of human flaws, unfulfilled desires, and how love can turn into something dark and consuming. The novel’s emotional complexity makes it a fascinating reread as an adult, where its themes take on new layers of meaning. (Girish Shukla)

Excelsior (México) lists Gothic novels:

Cumbres Borrascosas (1847) – Emily Brontë

En los últimos años, las hermanas Brontë han cobrado gran relevancia en el mundo literario. Si bien esta obra es la más famosa (y única) de Emily, durante mucho tiempo estuvo opacada por el trabajo de Jane Austen. Hoy, Cumbres Borrascosas es un referente del género gótico. En esta historia se narra un amor que trasciende el tiempo de forma sobrenatural, pero no así los prejuicios que rigen la sociedad. (Diana Oliva) (Translation)

A bit of belated Valentine's publications: Readings for Valentine's Day in Crónica (México):

Cumbres Borrascosas de Emily Brontë Un clásico de la literatura inglesa que nos sumerge en una historia de amor apasionada, tormentosa y llena de venganza entre Heathcliff y Catherine. Su relación es destructiva pero innegablemente intensa, con un amor que desafía el tiempo y la muerte. (Samantha Ivana Lamas Ramírez) (Translation)

Also in Informador (México), Closer (France). The Indian Express goes for the enduring appeal of romance novels:

In the mid-19th Century, authors such as Charlotte Brontë and Ann Radcliffe made the sub-genre of gothic romance popular – these typically had dark, foreboding settings with mysterious male leads who had a “softer side” for the plucky, but virtuous, heroine. (Arushi Bhaskar)

Forbes (Ecuador) presents Natalia Salazar,  head of innovative finance at ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) and Brontëite:

Disfrutaba de la lectura, especialmente la relacionada con literatura medieval. Recuerda haber leído varias veces Cumbres Borrascosas, porque le envolvía la forma en que estaba escrita y como describía la naturaleza humana. (María Judith Rosales Andrade) (Translation)

The House of Brontë vindicates Branwell Brontë.