Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others. As a result, we have reset the post(s) to "draft" status. (If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits. The URL(s) of the allegedly infringing post(s) may be found at the end of this message.) This means your post - and any images, links or other content - is not gone. You may edit the post to remove the offending content and republish, at which point the post in question will be visible to your readers again.Needless to say, we are shocked and, quite frankly, angry at the stupidity and arbitrariness of such a request. A look at the posts that are not available anymore doesn't show anything that can be even remotely illegal. Checking on Lumen is of no use as we were unable to see exactly why these posts were removed.
A bit of background: the DMCA is a United States copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. If you believe you have the rights to post the content at issue here, you can file a counter-claim. In order to file a counter-claim, please see https://support.google.com/legal/contact/lr_counternotice?product=blogger.
The notice that we received, with any personally identifying information removed, will be posted online by a service called Lumen at https://www.lumendatabase.org. We do this in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). You can search for the DMCA notice associated with the removal of your content by going to the Lumen page, and entering in the URL of the blog post that was removed.
If it is brought to our attention that you have republished the post without removing the content/link in question, then we will delete your post and count it as a violation on your account. Repeated violations to our Terms of Service may result in further remedial action taken against your Blogger account including deleting your blog and/or terminating your account. DMCA notices concerning content on your blog may also result in action taken against any associated AdSense accounts. If you have legal questions about this notification, you should retain your own legal counsel.
Sincerely,
The Blogger Team
Affected URLs:
http://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/jane-eyre-discussion-in-melrose-ma.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/hi-yo-jane-eyre-in-edmonton.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/jane-eyre-estate-agent.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/jane-eyres-anniversary-ghosts-reviews.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/reactions-to-third-episode-of-jane.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/jane-eyre-on-pbs-and-in-peak-district.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/talk-about-jane-eyre.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/jane-eyre-back-in-guthrie-theatre.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/jane-eyre-in-clovis.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/jane-eyre-recap.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/jane-eyre-2011-clips-ii.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/jane-eyre-2006-dvd-in-france.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/jane-eyre-ballet-back-in-shanghai.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/jane-eyre-in-bath.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/jane-eyre-in-holland-michigan-and-more.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2017/07/jane-eyre-tattoos.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/northern-ballets-jane-eyre-uk-tour.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2018/05/jane-eyre-in-williamsburg.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2018/09/treasures-of-british-library-jane-eyre.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/jane-eyre-in-indiana.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/bbcs-jane-eyre-for-christmas-and.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/greater-seattle-premier-of-jane-eyre.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/bewicks-birds-in-sidney-and-jane-eyre.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/georgie-henley-in-dunes-aka-jane-eyre.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/some-additional-names-for-jane-eyre.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/bront-comics-iii-dame-darcys-jane-eyre.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/hungarian-jane-eyre.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/jane-eyre-read-by-juliet-stevenson-on.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/jane-eyre-on-stage-1848-1898-review.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/kula-kumariya-jane-eyre-in-sri-lanka.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/jane-eyre-hathersage-trail.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/jane-eyres-daughter-likes-manga.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/jane-eyre-in-dublin.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/last-chance-to-see-jane-eyre-in.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/jane-eyres-husband.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/first-edition-of-jane-eyre-in-christies.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2018/10/jane-eyre-in-madrid.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/jane-eyre-1944-in-new-york.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/jane-eyre-in-indianapolis.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/jane-eyre-in-munich.htmlhttp://bronteblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/jane-eyre-in-newberg.html
She was eerily affecting in a tiny role in “Jane Eyre,” as the heroine’s sickly young friend, though her precocious contribution was not recognized at the time. (John Hartl)
The next year she played the consumptive Helen Burns in Jane Eyre, such a tiny part that she did not even receive a screen credit.Salon, quoting from David Thomson's The New Biographical Dictionary of Film:
In her next film, "Jane Eyre" (44, Robert Steven- son), she was like a young Lizzie Siddall as the child who dies.The New York Times:
“Remind me to be around when she grows up,” Orson Welles joked after watching the 10-year-old Ms. Taylor shoot a scene in “Jane Eyre.” It’s a half-funny, queasy comment and however made in jest (or so you hope), it’s also a reminder of the predators that were always lurking and could have swallowed Ms. Taylor whole. (Manohla Dargis)The London Evening Standard:
A rigid, often cruel, studio system milked and manipulated Taylor's sultry image as early as Jane Eyre (1944), when she was just 12 years old. (James Christopher)The age disparity seems to stem from whether they are taking the filming or the release of the film into account.
“Ever since I saw the child, two or three years ago, in I forget what minor role in what movie, I have been choked with the peculiar sort of adoration I might have felt if we were both in the same grade in primary school.” So James Agee wrote about Elizabeth Taylor (most likely referring to her performance in “Jane Eyre”) in The Nation, after seeing her in “National Velvet” in 1944. (David Denby)EDIT 26 March 2011:
“My most vivid memory of Elizabeth Taylor is my most recent. In anticipation of the latest adaptation of ‘Jane Eyre’ a few weeks ago, I revisited the 1943 version starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine, which I hadn’t seen since I was a teenager. And there, in early scenes of Jane Eyre’s sad childhood at Lowood School, was Taylor — who looks to be around 10 years old — in an uncredited performance as Jane’s consumptive friend Helen Burns. Her scenes are brief but indelible in that movie, her famous double-lashed eyes flashing like liquid embers, and each time she’s on the screen, she all but obliterates her young co-star Peggy Ann Garner. Even in 1943, Taylor had already appeared in two movies; her next, ‘National Velvet,’ would make her a bona fide star. But in those fleeting, incandescent scenes in ‘Jane Eyre,’ Taylor proved she was a real actress of focus, fire and mesmerizing force.” (Ann Hornaday)The Weekly Standard:
There was something within, a still serenity, as though the fact that she had not only retained the eerie gorgeousness of her adolescence (as seen in such classics as the 1943 Jane Eyre and the 1944 National Velvet) but had somehow actually improved on it gave her the confidence to know she had been blessed by the gods. (John Podhoretz)EDIT 27 March 2011:
Is it accident or foreshadowing that one of her early roles was that of Helen Burns in “Jane Eyre”? Helen was the one friend, the one warm relationship, orphaned Jane had when she was a girl. (Pam Platt)Categories: In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV
Countless websites are reporting the death of Joan Fontaine (1917-2013) at 96. One of the key roles of her acting career was the title character in Jane Eyre 1944 as many of said websites recall.Fontaine goes up against another cinematic titan, in this case Orson Welles, in wonderful voice as Mr Rochester in this adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel. Clearly by this stage Fontaine was making a speciality of playing timid – but resourceful – women way out of their depth.Variety remembers that,
During WWII, Fontaine worked for the Red Cross and did some of her best work, such as “The Constant Nymph” and “Jane Eyre.” (Richard Natale)USA Today says something along the same lines:
Fontaine scored a third best-actress Oscar nomination for her role in The Constant Nymph in 1943, and had notable turns as Charlotte Bronte's heroine in Jane Eyre in 1944 with Orson Welles, as well as roles in 1950's September Affair and in 1957's Island in the Sun. (Scott Bowles)The Hollywood Reporter also deems her role in Jane Eyre 'notable'.
Both Hitchcock films cast Fontaine as quiet, even mousy young women who eventually revealed an inner core of resilience, a quality she also brought to "Jane Eyre" in 1944. (Stephen Whitty)More obituaries: The Washington Post, Reuters, The New York Times, People, The Irish Independent, BBC News, The Independent, etc.
Fontaine personified the shy and unassuming governess in one of the most memorable adaptations of Charlotte Brontë’s novel. It’s a film that ably captures the mist and shadows of the book’s Gothic backdrop.El País (Spain) also highlights some of her most memorable roles, although the summary of the novel/film they provide is rather 'sketchy' (to put it mildly):
Orson Welles has the showier part as the tortured Rochester, but Fontaine gives a restrained and effective performance as the strong-willed orphan who falls in love. In many ways, her’s is the more impressive feat, as she remains naturalistic and steel-willed while Welles rages. (Brent Lang)
Joan Fontaine se puso en la piel de Jane Eyre (Alma rebelde), la celebérrima novela de Charlotte Brontë protagonizada por esta institutriz que deberá enfrentarse asimismo, como sucedía en Rebeca, a las sombras del pasado y de la enloquecida esposa del señor Rochester, que se oculta tras la identidad de una criada, Grace Poole. (Translation)More of her key roles on Digital Journal, though nothing is actually said about her performance as Jane:
Based on the renowned novel by Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre is a loveless orphan who is taken in by a lord of a strange house and hired to look after his younger daughter. The novel is described as legendary, ahead of its time and neoteric for the mid-19th century. (Andrew Moran)The Times thinks that,
As Jane Eyre, the second Mrs de Winter in Rebecca and the wife of the apparently murderous Cary Grant in Suspicion she honed her skills at looking terrified or bullied.The Telegraph follows the same train of thought:
Her signature roles cast her as a new kind of female character in Hollywood: a woman with low self-esteem, yet passionate and obsessive, a neurotic heroine in thrall to an homme fatale to an almost masochistic degree, yet very much at the centre of her own story. Thus she was ideally suited to play Jane Eyre opposite Orson Welles in Robert Stevenson's Gothic-styled 1944 version of the novel, albeit looking more glamorous than the self-described plain Jane of Charlotte Brontë's novel. (Anne Billson)The Guardian makes a selection of clips, including Jane Eyre 1944:
Fontaine goes up against another cinematic titan, in this case Orson Welles, in wonderful voice as Mr Rochester in this adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel. Clearly by this stage Fontaine was making a speciality of playing timid – but resourceful – women way out of their depth.RIP.
Last Night the RTÉ1 programme The Late Late Show interviewed Andrea Corr, who will be playing Jane Eyre, adapted by Alan Stanford, in Dublin next November 9. The interview can be watched here (starting around 25 min 15 s). Apart from a promotional picture and some brief comments nothing very relevant about the production was said.The producers of "Jane Eyre" have announced that the musical's run at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, has been canceled.The Times reviews the book Proust's Overcoat. The True Story of One Man's Passion for All Things Proust by Lorenza Foschini (illustrated by Eric Karpeles):
The show, the latest stage adaptation of the classic Charlotte Brontë novel, had been scheduled to open a short run Nov. 5. But Griff Duncan, general manager of Orange County's FCLO Music Theatre (which produced the project and is just wrapping up its world-premiere run there), said that "dismal" advance ticket sales made the staging financially impractical.
Those already holding "Jane Eyre" tickets are advised to call the arts center at (800) 988-4253. (James Hebert in San Diego Union-Tribune)
Literary relics are or aren’t interesting, depending on your point of view. The text should be the thing, and nothing else matters. Emily Brontë’s desk, Hemingway’s typewriter, William Burroughs’ heroin needles — these artefacts are the detritus of a life, a life support system for the disembodied brain.There’s something fetishistic about the effects of a dead author; we’re drawn and then repelled, sent back to the words, which are what count. (Linda Grant)We wonder which Jane Eyre the author of this article in the New Zealand Herald has in mind:
The Karaka-based scream park is set in the blustery, Jane-Eyre-like surrounds of the old Kingseat Psychiatric Hospital. (Jacqueline Smith)Probably a Jane Eyre reminiscent of Jane Eyre 1944 where Mr Brocklehurst was played by Henry Daniell. Varsity talks about his role in The Body Snatcher:
Neglected Henry Daniell, previously responsible for a terrifying Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre and a reptilian Moriarty in The Woman in Green emerges triumphant here. (James Swanton)If you want to see the film (Jane Eyre 1944) next Wednesday there is a chance in Milwaukee:
She's a governess, he's the brooding master of the house - of course, they'll fall in love, or her name isn't "Jane Eyre."The Boston Phoenix reviews a local production of The Turn of the Screw. You know, when a governess is spotted, Jane Eyre has to be mentioned somehow:
In the atmospheric 1944 telling of Charlotte Brontë's romantic drama, Joan Fontaine is Jane and Orson Welles is the smoldering Mr. Rochester. You can see their torment, and triumph, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Charles Allis Art Museum, 1801 N. Prospect Ave. Admission is $5; $3 for seniors, students and veterans; and free to museum members and active members of the armed forces. (Chris Foran in the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel)
Rice's interest in the gothic stems from a childhood spent reading Dickens, the Brontës and ghost stories from the New Orleans public library. (Emma Brockes)The Arizona Republic describes Joanna Newsom's latest album quite graphically:
Y, por muy improbable que resulte, nosotros nos lo creemos y la novela funciona. En Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë disfraza al señor Rochester de gitana y consigue que nosotros (y los huéspedes de Thornfield) le sigamos la ocurrencia. (Manuel Rodríguez Rivero) (Microsoft translation)La Voce d'Italia (Italy) about Coco Chanel:
Trasformò il "modesto" in "minimalista" e il "lineare" in "sofisticato". Lo stile campestre divenne urbano, quello maschile divenne femminile,L'Humanité reviews the latest book by Peter May, The Blackhouse, which is first published in its French edition (L’Île des chasseurs d’oiseaux):
le tunichette che da bambina affamata riceveva in beneficenza dalle suore rinacquero sotto forma di tubino e la sua infanzia da Jane Eyre sfociò in una marcia trionfale, con un happy end privo di marito. (Agnese Bazzoni) (Microsoft translation)
Dans un décor qui évoque les grands romans anglais du XIXe, les Hauts de Hurle-Vent, d’Émily Brontë, comme les Trafiquants d’épaves, de Stevenson, parcourant des landes fantomatiques, gravissant des falaises vertigineuses, Fin Macleod ne sera pas long à comprendre que la clef de l’enquête risque d’ouvrir une porte derrière laquelle sont enfermés depuis longtemps des secrets qui le concernent directement. (Roger Martin) (Microsoft translation)Le Monde and Il était une fois le cinema review the film Les Nuits de Sister Welch (2010):
Malheureusement, la direction d'acteurs de Jean-Claude Janer est trop approximative, et sa réalisation trop inscrite dans le premier degré pour nous embarquer, en dépit des clins d'œil à l'univers romantique des Hauts de Hurlevent et des sœurs Brontë, au Narcisse Noir de Michael Powell. (Jean-Luc Douin) (Microsoft translation)
Avec ses décors soignés de mers déchaînées, de falaises profondes et de ciels en flammes, évoquant "Les Hauts de Hurlevent" et l’imaginaire romantico-gothique anglo-saxon, ce film inclassable, mais pas déplaisant, aura toutefois du mal à trouver son public, sauf ceux qui aiment un cinéma qui dérange. (...)De Pers (Netherlands) talks about the Xbox 360 game Fable III:
Ce n’est pourtant pas un énième film sur les ados boutonneux, Les Nuits de sister Welsh (à ne pas confondre avec Sister Act), avec ses décors soignés de mers déchaînées, de falaises profondes et de ciels en flammes, rappelle aussi les films qu’on adorait naguère et qui évoquaient les Hauts de Hurlevent et tout l’imaginaire romantico-gothique anglo-saxon. (Jean-Max Méjean) (Microsoft translation)
En laat me raden, toen kwam je uit op een League of Extra-Ordinary Gentlemen-achtige wereld waarin goed en kwaad om voorrang vechten? Een wereld waarin mannen zich als Oscar Wilde-achtige dandy’s aan de dames in Jane Eyre-achtige hoepelrokken presenteren, waarin onze moderne tijd via koper-en-stoomtechnologie al aan de horizon gloort, maar nog precies genoeg op afstand wordt gehouden om ons niet aan moderne zorgen te herinneren? Origineel! (Arjan Terpstra) (Microsoft translation)Die Welt (Austria) compares the Brontës' imaginary worlds to Franziska Gräfin zu Reventlow's family's:
Aber wie ein kurzes Menschenalter zuvor die Brontë-Schwestern hatten auch die Reventlow-Geschwister ein geheimes Fantasieland, das "Königreich Reharere", dessen Topografie und Geschichte die Ausstellung mit einigen Skizzen enthüllt. (Ulrich Baron) (Microsoft translation)Several Hungarian news outlets talk about the release of a Hungarian edition of Jane Eyre (October 26) among the collection Pannon Lapok Társasága. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights is scheduled for next December 7.
For over 50 years screen legend Debbie Reynolds has been collecting and preserving Hollywood costumes and props from Academy Award winning films including Gone With the Wind, Ben Hur, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and Casablanca. This colossal collection includes garments designed by Travilla, Travis Banton and Edith HJanead some of the industry’s most renowned costume designers and were worn by film icons Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Charlton Heston, Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Gene Kelly, Richard Burton and more.The auction contained several Jane Eyre 1944 costumes (the film's costume designer was René Hubert):
The Debbie Reynolds Collection is deemed to be the most significant collection of Hollywood costumes and props since the liquidation of the MGM and FOX studios in the 1970’s. The entire collection contains over 3,500 costumes, 20,000 original photographs, several thousand original movie posters, original costume sketches and hundreds of key props from film history. Profiles in History plans to sell this massive collection through a series of auctions starting with this one on June 18, 2011.
Orson Welles “Edward Rochester” Gray blue wool top coat, pants and shirt from Jane Eyre
SOLD
20,000.00USD+ (4,600.00) buyer's premium + taxes, fees, etc...
Gray blue wool period topcoat with velvet collar and buttons worn by Orson Welles as “Edward Rochester” when he confides in Jane early in the morning in Jane Eyre. Red Western costume handwritten “Orson Welles 46 1” and stamped “A-4-4” and “Western Costume.” Fabric and velvet are faded. The ivory cotton shirt and blue wool pants were worn in the scene where Jane leaves. Shirt has red Western costume label handwritten “17999 Welles SET-2” and Western Costume stamp. Pants have red Western Costume label handwritten “Orson Welles 37 ½ 34 ½” and stamped 25192 and A-3-2.
Sara Allgood “Bessie” purple dress from Jane Eyre
NOT SOLD
Purple wool crepe period dress with buttons down front. Handwritten label “39401 SARAH ALLGOOD 32” and stamped “1-27-7-2286” and 20th Century Fox. Lace at collar has been added. Worn by Sara Allgood as “Bessie” when Jane returns to her Aunt’s house in Jane Eyre.
Margaret O’Brien “Adèle Varens” plaid dress from Jane Eyre
SOLD
1,400.00USD+ (322.00) buyer's premium + taxes, fees, etc...
Grey ribbed satin dress, orange plaid details and orange velvet piping with matching cape. Handwritten label “39434 M. O’BRIEN” and stamped “2 27 7 3744” which is also stamped in cape and has Fox cleaning tag 6AM 39239-2. The right sleeve on the dress and cape is torn, small holes on dress and red stains on front. Material soiled in places. Worn by Margaret O’Brien as “Adèle Varens” in the scene where Rochester tells her he is going to marry Jane in Jane Eyre.
Peggy Ann Garner “Younger Jane Eyre” grey dress from Jane Eyre
SOLD
950.00USD+ (218.50) buyer's premium + taxes, fees, etc...
Grey wool crepe dress with self collar. Handwritten label “394-19 GARNER DOUBLE” and stamped “2 85 1 1177.” Worn by Peggy Ann Garner as “the young Jane Eyre” when she is attending the Lowood Institution in Jane Eyre.
The New York Times reviews The Acting Company's Jane Eyre.As much as you would like to ignore her, there’s just no getting around the mad lady in the attic.New York is the last stop of the Acting Company's tour with Polly Teale's Jane Eyre. We hope many Brontëites have been lucky enough to see it somewhere along the way.
Hannah Cabell in the title role of the Acting Company’s “Jane Eyre.”
One of the most unforgettable and controversial figures in Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” Bertha Mason haunts the title character, as well as the many adaptors of the 1847 novel who struggle to make sense of this thinly drawn Jamaican who seems to be a symbol of Victorian confinement and gothic horror as much as a real person.
Jean Rhys’s “Wide Sargasso Sea,” a prequel of sorts, went so far as to imagine a back story for Bertha, but the Acting Company’s engaging new version of “Jane Eyre” keeps her as an evocative mystery. From the beginning of the play, which is staged as a kind of psychological drama by Davis McCallum, Bertha (Carie Kawa) stands right alongside Jane, a figment of her fevered imagination. The women — one rational, modest and in control; the other wild, sexual and almost demonic — make up a portrait of a mind at war with itself.
At times this conceit appears overly literal, but it’s easily forgiven since this brisk, persuasively acted production is presented with little fuss. The clunky transitions and excess exposition that are the hallmark of page-to-stage translations are mercifully absent. Faithful without being reverent, it reminds audiences of the dark undertones of this novel, and in that sense this “Jane Eyre” provides a counterpoint to the bloated Broadway musical from 2000 and the many chest-heaving screen versions that cast glamorous stars as the quintessential plain Jane.
Polly Teale’s adaptation prunes the novel to its essence: sometimes, in the scenes at school, for instance, the action flies by too fast to register emotionally. But Mr. McCallum slows down at the right places, as in the development of the central relationship between Jane and Mr. Rochester at the end of Act I. As Jane, Hannah Cabell, whose alert, intelligent eyes and flushed cheeks communicate more than a dozen soliloquies, delivers a marvelously contained performance of an almost pathologically restrained woman who refuses to let down her guard.
And why would she? With tousled hair, Christopher Oden’s overripe Mr. Rochester comes off as a bit of an infantile rogue, and even in the most heated moments you never forget that he is twice her age. Fluidly staged like a dream on an empty black stage interrupted with slivers of light, this “Jane Eyre” is a romance without an overly romantic view of the world. “Come out of the shadows,” Mr. Rochester urges Jane, but in this production it’s clear that that is easier said than done.
“Jane Eyre” is at the Baruch Performing Arts Center’s Nagelberg Theater, 55 Lexington Avenue, at 25th Street, (212) 279-4200, through May 5. (Jason Zinoman)
Picture Credits: Hannah Cabell in the title role of the Acting Company’s “Jane Eyre.” (Richard Termine)
Director Robert Stevenson’s Jane Eyre (1944) is perhaps the screen’s bleakest, darkest gothic romance ever filmed. Bronte’s novel has rather equal portions of nightmarish thrills and gushing love at first sight. The film, however, jettisons much of the latter, relying on a pervasive mood of tragic ennui that is strangely becoming to both the Bronte’s characters and the film itself.Just don't forget that you can still win a copy of this DVD by answering a very easy question!
Forced by the advent of WWII to ration expenditures on sets, Stevenson instead raided the backlots of 20th Century-Fox for old acquisitions of Victorian/Georgian architecture that were eventually patched together into Thornfield Hall, the terrifically foreboding home of Mr. Rochester. Originally, producer David O. Selznick had conceived the project for his own studio to make. However, after the release of Rebecca (1940) (virtually Jane Eyre made contemporary) Selznick balked, instead selling off all his preliminary work to Fox and Stevenson, who went forth from Selznick’s blueprint into the finished product. [...]
There is much to admire in Stevenson’s handling of Bronte’s maudlin and episodic elements, infusing the entire production with a spirited sense of immediacy and cohesion. As much as we, the audience find it unlikely that any lasting romance could be sustained amidst the craggy moors, we are captivated by the central performances of Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles – the former a portrait of sublime restraint; the latter, another gregarious and flamboyant characterization in Welles’ illustrious canon.
Fox’s DVD begins with the disclaimer that every attempt has been made to present the film in its best possible condition from less than stellar surviving filmic elements. Indeed, after 168 hours of restoration work, Jane Eyre looks far better than it ever has in previous home video incarnations. However, various sequences continue to suffer from an overly soft and slightly faded characteristic with an inherent loss of fine detail.
Intentionally shot in stark contrast, the B&W image also appears slightly more grainy than expected. Age related artifacts have been greatly tempered. A slight hint of edge enhancement intrudes now and then, but does not entirely distract.
The audio has been remastered to 2 channel stereo, though it often sounds strident and with a slight hiss. Extras are impressive; two separate feature length and very informative audio commentary tracks, a production featurette that makes short shrift of the careers of Welles and director Stevenson (who really is a largely neglected talent), an isolated score and effects track, a restoration comparison, stills galleries, and the film’s original theatrical trailer. Overall, a worth-while disc for your home library – even if the film elements are less than perfect.
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
3
And at the other side of the pond, Channel Four airs the film today (see our sidebar). The Times chooses it as The Film of the day:Without Orson Welles, Twentieth Century Fox’s 1944 version of “Jane Eyre” would probably join the other literary adaptations Fox is releasing on DVD this week — “Anna Karenina” (1948), and a double bill of the 1935 and 1952 versions of “Les Misérables” — somewhere on a back shelf in high school libraries, to be shown whenever an English teacher feels like taking an afternoon off.
But with Welles as the stormy Mr. Rochester, this movie becomes something different: something suffused with his personality and legend. Although this “Jane Eyre” is signed by the director Robert Stevenson, and Welles never made any authorial claims to it, generations of Welles scholars have found his fingerprints all over the film. Mr. Stevenson was a competent and at times superior craftsman, but the forced perspectives, exaggerated camera angles and meticulous attention to sound cannot be found in many of his other movies, like “Mary Poppins” (1964), to cite but one perhaps unfair example.
By the time Welles appeared in this film, he had already adapted this Brontë novel twice for radio: in 1938 for “The Mercury Theater on the Air” and in 1940 for “The Campbell Playhouse.” (Only the Campbell version survives.) And the screenplay, attributed to John Houseman, Aldous Huxley and Mr. Stevenson, is structured like a radio program, with a central narrator — Joan Fontaine as Jane — reading long expository passages from the book and actors stepping in to interpret crucial scenes.
Add to that a score by Welles’s regular collaborator Bernard Herrmann; a central set designed by the architect William Pereira that bears a powerful resemblance to Charles Foster Kane’s digs; and the presence of Mercury players like Agnes Moorehead and Erskine Sanford, and the case for “Jane Eyre” as a Welles film in disguise seems all but closed.
Welles gave “Jane Eyre” everything, it seems, except his genius. His first Hollywood film after his RKO contract came to a calamitous end, it is the work of someone playing it safe and sitting on his best instincts. Ms. Fontaine, effortlessly able to enlist the audience’s deepest sympathy when working for Alfred Hitchcock (“Rebecca”) or Max Ophüls (“Letter From an Unknown Woman”), here seems merely meek and recessive. And who wouldn’t be, confronted by a Welles fitted out with elevator shoes and one of the worst rubber noses in his large collection?
As critics at the time pointed out, Welles seems to be playing Emily Brontë’s thundering Heathcliff rather than her sister Charlotte’s downtrodden Rochester, completely overpowering poor Jane. Mr. Stevenson — or Welles, or the cinematographer George Barnes, or whoever was calling the shots — tries to make it up to Ms. Fontaine by framing her in tight, tremulous close-ups, and much of the movie consists of her looking beseechingly into the camera, pleading for an understanding that never comes.
Still this well-produced disc has much to recommend it, including two world-class villains, played by Ms. Moorehead and the incomparably snide Henry Daniell, and a startling appearance by an unbilled, very young Elizabeth Taylor, her perfect adult face perched on a tiny body, as Jane’s one childhood friend.
There are two commentary tracks, one by Joseph McBride (a Welles biographer) and Margaret O’Brien, the former child star who appears in the film as Rochester’s coquettish ward, and another by the film historians Nick Redman, Steven Smith and Julie Kirgo. An isolated music track lets Mr. Herrmann’s string-based score, one of his most emotionally wide-ranging, stand on its own. (Dave Kehr)
Film of the dayAnother adaptation of Jane Eyre, the latest one, is again on the news. Variety reports:
Jane Eyre (1944, b/w), Channel 4, 12.40pm
Charlotte Brontë’s classic 19th-century novel about the tempestuous romance between two emotionally scarred lovers has been adapted for the screen a dozen times, but this atmospheric version still ranks among the best. It was directed by Robert Stevenson with a little uncredited help from his male lead, Orson Welles. Joan Fontaine plays the eponymous heroine, an orphan who becomes a governess at the grand estate where she falls for her ill-tempered employer, Rochester. Played with a slightly deranged edge by Welles ( right), the sullen and remote Rochester may be an unlikely romantic hero, but he is tormented by ghosts from the past that eventually prove to be his undoing. Co-starring a young Elizabeth Taylor in one of her earliest roles, Jane Eyre was the only feature script credited to the actor John Houseman, whose long list of screen appearances include Three Days of the Condor and Scrooged. The British-born Stevenson later became a Disney regular, with Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks among his credits. Fontaine had played a similar role, as a neurotic second wife trapped in a lonely mansion, in Hitchcock’s Rebecca four years earlier. (97min) (Stephen Dalton)
BBC Worldwide, the Blighty pubcaster's commercial arm, has announced its first global clips deal with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV and a major content deal with Aussie pubcaster the ABC. (Steve Clarke)
And finally, another adaptation, the 1973 BBC one, is briefly discussed on this post aptly titled Jane Eyre Fevah!
Categories: In the News, Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV
The head of English Heritage praised local pride and efforts in protecting Haworth ’s rich history during a visit to the world-famous Brontë parsonage museum.Washington University News informs of a new adaptation of Jane Eyre to be performed at the 2012-2013 Edison Ovation Series in St Louis:
Baroness Andrews chose Yorkshire Day to visit one of Bradford district’s most important tourist traps, which is also a conservation area classified as in “very bad” condition in the organisation’s latest ‘at risk’ register.
English Heritage chiefs have described Haworth as being one of its top ten Yorkshire priorities, and have urged for more to be done to make it an international destination.
Baroness Andrews said: “Haworth has an extraordinary heritage and I can understand why it attracts people from all over the world. It’s a symbol of women’s writing and women’s freedom of expression and it’s in a most beautiful part of Yorkshire.
“The wealth of our country is not just its industry but is also its local tourism and its heritage, which creates wealth and employment. So valuing our heritage is not incidental or sentimental.
“In most places like Haworth, which have a level of international interest, you do see local pride kicking in.”
Baroness Andrews was on her first visit to Haworth with a delegation including English Heritage Yorkshire planning director Trevor Mitchell.
The English Heritage chairman stressed the need for historic villages such as Haworth to balance conservation with the needs of people who live and work in the area.
English Heritage is backing a project to renovate the rundown Old School Room, and is providing a £15,000 grant to pay for replacement windows.
It is also supporting the refurbishment of Haworth Parish Church, which contains the crypt where Emily and Charlotte Brontë are buried. After touring the parsonage museum, they were taken to see the Old School Room, the parish church and Main Street, and to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway before a tour of regeneration projects in Bradford. (Miran Rahman)
“What do I want? A new place, in a new house, amongst new faces, under new circumstances.”Marian Keyes in The Independent (Ireland) praises the work of the late Maeve Binchy:
So says young Jane Eyre, setting out to find her way in the world. Annie Loui sympathizes. Since the early 1980s, the St. Louis native has created ambitious theatrical hybrids for prestigious venues around the nation.
On Sept. 7 and 8, Loui will return to St. Louis with Jane Eyre, an original adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s beloved novel. The performance — the debut offering from Loui’s newly formed Counterbalance Theater — will launch the 2012-13 Edison Ovations Series at Washington University.
“Jane Eyre represents a emerging theatrical form, sometimes referred to as devised theater,” says Charlie Robin, director of Edison. Brontë’s text serves as the jumping off point for a process of structured improvisation, with Loui and performers building and refining their scenes, characters and movement vocabulary collaboratively and organically.
“It’s more akin to dance than traditional theater,” Robin says. Or rather, the show “represents the points at which dance and theater intersect.”(...)
The seven actors, dressed casually in jeans and tights — the occasional lace shirt providing a hint of the Victorian — play almost 100 roles, ranging from Brontë characters to animals, architecture and furniture.
“When the lights came up, it was like waking from a dream.” (Liam Otten)
As an example, Keyes has pointed out that there were raised eyebrows when 'Circle of Friends' first appeared on the reading list for the Leaving Cert, putting Maeve Binchy alongside names like Jane Austen and Emily Brontë. But that should not have been a surprise, Keyes says, because she believes Binchy deserves her place in the company of the great writers of the past.Digital Spy interviews Toby Stephens who remembers his Rochester in Jane Eyre 2006:
You were also in the BBC production of Jane Eyre. It seems completely different to the rest of your TV and film work, did you find it challenging at all?"The original book is a masterpiece and it's very personal to a lot of people. Many women sort of hold it dear. I was very lucky because I think we managed to do it service and I managed to play Rochester in a way that most of the people who were fans of the book liked. I wouldn't want to p*ss them off, there's a huge amount of them.Forest Leaves Sun Times recommends teen reads:
"Those sort of things are very gratifying to do. I think they are slightly overdone - they come up with great regularity and they can be slightly formulaic. Prior to doing Jane Eyre, they had been on a slide. There hadn't been any adaptations that had really made a mark, they were just sort of churning them out. I think Jane Eyre was successful because it made the characters very real.
"I think when they do break the mould and create a world that people find interesting and real, that's when they work. I think when they become just another generic period piece, it's a bit boring." (Daniel Sperling and Freddie Edwards)
A Breath of Eyre
Emma Townsend, who sympathizes with the titular character in “Jane Eyre,” finds herself lost in Jane’s 19th-century world when a lightning storm catapults her right into Jane’s body.
"Jane Eyre" a engrangé 51.846 sièges devant 90 salles, décrochant la meilleure fréquentation, après Batman, avec une moyenne de 576 personnes par écran. (Source: CBO Box Office 25-31 July) (Translation)IndieWire's The Playlist mentions Wuthering Heights 2011 but doesn't think it has many chances in the award's season:
And even if he had a bold take, that wouldn't necessarily be greeted well: Andrea Arnold's bold, Malickian "Wuthering Heights" is only just making it to theaters after mixed responses at festivals last year. (Oliver Lyttleton)Gaming Illustrated complains about the continuing issuing of inane sequels of good franchises:
The market is saturated with C-grade product, and instead of putting their noses to the grindstones, it seems developers opt for picking over the fur of sleeping dogs who should be left alone. But maybe I’m wrong; maybe they know something I don’t. I mean, Wuthering Heights 2: Bloody Redemption does have a sexy ring to it. (Becca Gray)Examiner interviews the writer Elisabeth Storrs:
What three novels could you read over and over?‘The Persian Boy’ by Mary Renault, ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Brontë and ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee. (Kayla Posney)Reading on the Wild Side talks to erotica writer Alice Gaines:
Kayla: What book has had the biggest impact on you?More writers and Brontëites. Cathy Hopkins on Daisy Chain Book Reviews:
Alice: (...) I guess the one book that never leaves my thoughts and dreams for very long is Jane Eyre. The idea that a plain Jane can win the rich and powerful Mr. Rochester because of her integrity and decency holds a powerful appeal. Then, she will only accept him on her own terms. Of course, I wouldn’t love the book if it didn’t have a happy ending.
What were some of your favourite books as a teen? Did any of the authors you read back then inspire you to become a writer?Or Colleen Connally on Lace and Lavender:
I loved Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. And yes, they probably did influence my writing. In both books, the relationships are with difficult and dangerous (in Heathcliff’s case) men. Both Brontë’s wrote with such passion. Their lovers were bound together by fate, their souls connected. Cathy in Wuthering Heights or Jane in Jane Eyre would never have settled for Mr Ordinary or Mr Boring. Cathy tried to for a while in Wuthering Heights but her heart was really with bad boy Heathcliff. In the same way, I’ve tried to create interesting boy characters and with them, love never comes easily. If it did, there would be no story.
LL: What is your all-time favourite book and why?Or Tracie Banister on Reading is Fashionable:
CC: Hard question. I love so many books and authors. I love all the classics from Jane Eyre to Wuthering Heights.
What books have most influenced your life most?Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, and Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights were the novels that greatly influenced me.A Girl Walks into a Bookstore... reviews Villette; Rebecca Chesney on Brontë Weather Project talks about the recent Literary Weather event at the Parsonage; After the Page Turns posts about Agnes Grey; A Romp in the Real World has visited Haworth; Blue Sky Daze... reviews Sheila Kohler's Becoming Jane Eyre; Les Livres du Jardin d'Asphodèle (in French) posts about Jane Eyre; Rochester Big & Tall reviews Jane Eyre's Daughter by Elizabeth Newark; Lasso the Movies posts about Jane Eyre 1944; El Programator (in French) review Jane Eyre 2011 and bloody bird (also in French) posts some drawings inspired by the film; Escaping with Books talks about The Flight of Gemma Hardy; Outra vez na rede (in Portuguese) posts about the Brontë sisters.
Because the new BBC Jane Eyre DVD (UK and US edition) is not the only Jane Eyre-related DVD that has been or will be released in the previous or next months:Eagle Entertainment has also released a documentary about Jane Eyre in their series Literary Classics:Jane Eyre (1934) appears as a bonus in the collection Elizabeth
Taylor & Irene Dunne: 5 Movie Romances (2006).
Product Description
Last Time I Saw Paris (1954) ; Father’s Little Dividend (1951) ; Love Affair (1939); Penny Serenade (1941)
Jane Eyre (1934) 67 min B&W
Starring: Colin Clive, Virginia Bruce; Director: William Christy Cabanne
A young Jane Eyre is hired as governess at the Thornfield Hall estate, but dark family secrets and a romance with the master force the heroine to flee until a haunting and bizarre incident brings the two together again.
Format: Color, NTSC
Number of discs: 2 Studio: Pop Flix DVD Release Date: September 26, 2006
Literary ClassicsAnd finally, let's not forget that next April, 20th Century Fox will release a new and restored edition of Jane Eyre (1944) with some extras:
The ‘Literary Classics’ series is an educational series which takes an informative and entertaining look at the work of some of the greatest authors who have ever lived. Imaginative and tasteful recreations from each work are used to ensure that the words of great authors are brought to new life.The ‘Literary Classics’ also features comment, analysis, interpretation and opinion from a specially-assembled team of authorities in their chosen field. This vivid and comprehensive series provides the perfect introduction to the true classics of literary history.
Episode 8. Jane Eyre (30 minutes)
Jane Eyre (1944) - The DVD is presented in its original black & white, full screen format and features English Stereo and Mono sound, as well as Spanish & French Mono sound and French & Spanish subtitles. Additional special features include:
Orson Welles’s Jane Eyre
Story Boards (12 stills)
Production Gallery (20 stills)
Restoration Comparison
Trailer
Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV. . . the transcendently romantic, tragic, gothic ghost story directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, with the captivating quartet of Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell and Dame Judi Dench – will forever be my Jane Eyre. (David Lamble)And despite admitting to not considering perfect, The Ram also considers it a favourite version now:
All in all, this is a wonderful adaptation of Jane Eyre, and my personal favorite of all versions I have seen. Whether or not you've read the novel (and everyone should at some point in their lives), this film is worth a trip to the movie theater. (Lauren Hathaway)The Delaware County News Network, however, is a bit confused when it comes to this film/story:
There have been many adaptations of Charlotte’s Brontë’s famed novel, Jane Eyre and we somehow missed them all until we caught this one starring Jane Wasikowska [sic] as Jane, an orphan who is bullied by her cousin and mistreated by her cruel aunt.Yeah, we'd be amazed too if told like that.
As an adult, she finds work as a governess for a gentleman (Mr. Rochester) played by Michael Fassbender whose initial bullying is met with Jane’s forceful rebuttal.
Rochester is twice her ages but Jane is attracted to his vibrant energetic master as she takes care of his young ward. It’s a nice story but I’m amazed it’s been done so many times. (Harvey Pollack)
Some remakes have faired better. “Jane Eyre,” starring Mia Wasikowska, opened earlier this year to strong reviews, though countless versions of the same story have been released in the last 70 years.Jane Eyre is also reviewed by Filmdrift (among others), Such Moving Pictures, Boredom and words of nothingness, Sue Katz: Consenting Adult (in just a dozen words - a negative review, though) and Movie Lover's Perspective.
However, since the film version of “Jane Eyre” is technically an adaptation and not an outright remake, it still does not serve as a strong example of how remakes can succeed creatively. (Mikayla Beyer)
Jackie as a wide-eyed naïf who haunts the White House like the batty first wife from Jane Eyre. (John Moore)Another Brontë 'lookalike' is found by The Telegraph when reviewing the book The Hunger Trace by Edward Hogan.
The more rackety plot contrivances are redeemed by superb passages of nature writing. Louisa’s sense of oneness with her falcons recalls Barry Hines’s classic A Kestrel for a Knave or TH White’s The Goshawk, and, in Louisa herself, the supremely solitary figure of Emily Brontë with her pet hawk. (Catherine Taylor)In the Middlebury Campus, Najla Said
recalls solidifying her friendship with her father [Edward Said] over discussions of Jane Eyre and shopping sprees in middle school. (Amanda Pertierra)
And this is something we think Anne Brontë would have loved (though she would have been very shy about it too). The Plain Dealer reports that[Daniel Bellinger has] named 19 of his own breeds [of daffodils], including 'Tilden,' noted for its orange petals and red corona, and 'Anne Brontë,' which charms with tiny red cups. (Julie Washington)They can be seen at the Cleveland Botanical Garden's Daffodil Show (April 23-24). (Picture source)
CNN Shanghai interviews singer, composer and director Eheart Chen whose latest album is "简, 爱" ("Jane, Love"). The Jane of the title has some relation to our Jane Eyre: The album’s addictive hit song is "Jane Love," which pays tribute to Shanghai’s popular dubbing actor Qiu Yuefeng, who passed away 30 years ago. The half-Russian’s legendary voice was the most recognizable one in the media for most Chinese people from the 1950s to 1970s.Click here to watch the "Jane Love" music video (Youku).
“Qiu was the voice behind Chinese dubbing classics like 'Jane Eyre.' Dubbed movies were culture symbols in Shanghai for several decades. It was the entertainment I grew up with,” explains Chen.
Chen made the song's music video by himself, using rare movie footage and photos he got from Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio and Qiu’s son. Chen also invited his friend Moz Wang, an editor at Shanghai's Chinese Timeout, to collaborate on the lyrics.
“I’m also a fan of Eheart’s music,” Wang says. “[He] might not be the best musician in Shanghai, but he’s definitely the most Shanghainese one. He uses music to relive the city’s past and to tell stories.” (Tracy You)
[Sara] Canning is talking from the Atlanta, Ga., set of the CW TV show The Vampire Diaries, which seems more than a few worlds away from the Emily Brontë-like mix of manners, corsets and doomed romance found in Black Field. (Eric Volmers)John Farr reviews several Joan Fontaine/Olivia de Havilland films for The Huffington Post. No review of Devotion (in which Olivia de Havilland was an improbable Charlotte Brontë) but there's one of Jane Eyre 1944:
Sent to a girls' reformatory by a hateful aunt (Agnes Moorehead), young orphan Jane Eyre (Fontaine) endures ten years of harsh discipline and abuse at the hands of a sadistic headmaster. Ten years later, Jane finds work as a governess at the gloomy estate of gruff, imperious Edward Rochester (Orson Welles), where she cares for his coquettish, French-born daughter, Adele (Margaret O'Brien). Though Rochester is clearly fighting some inner demons, he's also increasingly fond of Jane, who becomes his most trusted confidante. Welles put his distinctive stamp on this haunting adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's canonical novel playing the brooding, ill-starred baron who falls for his humble governess, movingly played by the fresh-faced Fontaine. Director Robert Stevenson worked closely with author Aldous Huxley on the script, but apart from the excellent cast and writing, what makes this version so memorable is its oppressive, darkly romantic Gothic atmosphere: in particular, Jane and Rochester's first terrifying meeting on the fog-shrouded moors will surely etch into your mind. Look, too, for Liz Taylor early on as Jane's consumptive childhood friend.The Hindu insists on Emily Brontë's influence on Sarita Mandanna's Tiger Walls:
When Sarita Mandanna sat down to write her first novel, she knew it would have to be in the mould of her favourite novels from childhood — the grand, sweeping sagas of Emily Brontë or Jane Austen. (Divya Kumar)Masala interviews actress Sonam Kapoor:
Tell us about your favourite real-life love story and your fave movie love story.Azar Nafisi remembers Neda Agha-Soltan (and mentions her Brontë interests) in The Huffington Post; Stitching Words, One Thread at a Time hates Jane Eyre as much as she loves Wuthering Heights; Gypsyscarlett's weblog posts about Wuthering Heights translated into German; Avant-garde reviews Jane Eyre. Several blogs review Wide Sargasso Sea: Seeing and Being Seen, The Long Distance Book Club and Soy Chai Bookshelf. Somehow it gets to be tomorrow posts icons of Jane Eyre 1944 and The Other Ayn icons of Jane Eyre 2006. Tädi-Blogi reviews the performances of Wuthering Heights in Vanemuine (in Estonian). Also in Estonian orkaani südames on vaikus posts about Jane Eyre. Finally PrimaveraLuna reviews Wuthering Heights in Lithuanian.
Real-life would have to be my mum and dad (Anil and Sunita Kapoor). From the movies, ‘Gone With The Wind’, ‘Wuthering Heights’, and ‘Mughal-E-Azam’. Wait a minute, none of them end very romantically, do they? (Nazia Khan)
Unless explicitly said
