Making the Brontë sisters proud

News outlets from Germany and France are still reviewing Jane Eyre 2006. From Germany: RTV, Süddeutsche, Hamburger Abendblatt, Frankfurter Allgemeine. From France: Glamour, Le Figaro, Le Parisien, Critictoo.

While Wuthering Heights 2011 is still making it into fall movie preview lists. The New York Times sums it up as follows:

The British filmmaker Andrea Arnold (“Fish Tank”) turns her hyper-realist eye to Emily Brontë’s classic novel, recasting Heathcliff as a black boy taken in by a Yorkshire farmer. With James Howson, Solomon Glave, Paul Hilton, Shannon Beer and Kaya Scodelario. (Dave Kehr)

The Film Stage:

After Cary Fukunaga‘s Jane Eyre last year, Andrea Arnold’s take on Wuthering Heights has set another benchmark for adapting classic literature. The Fish Tank director paints this world with a deft touch, crafting tightly focused close-ups to convey emotion rather than words. Establishing shots only open wide a handful of times, instead opting for a beetle crawling through the grass or a spiderweb oscillating in the cold wind. These little touches build the world more than any sort of exposition could dream to do. Read our TIFF review. (Jordan R.)

And Word and Film says,

Ever since catching a glimpse of an early of clip of writer-director Andrea Arnold’s modernist take on Emily Brontë’s classic staple of high school English class, we’ve been haunted by her feral vision of Cathy and Heathcliff as an interracial couple beset with unquenchable desire. Arnold is on solid ground here thematically: She beautifully captured the intoxicating havoc of forbidden love in her last film “Fish Tank,” which took home Cannes’ Grand Jury Prize in 2009. (Christine Spines)

More on films as more Kath & Kimderella reviews mention its Jane Eyre influences (!). According to The Hollywood Reporter,

Allusions to all manner of princess stories, as well as to Jane Eyre and even Danny Kaye’s The Court Jester, are flung about wildly with nary a laugh to be had, while only a glimmer of a plot can be discerned amid the farcical shenanigans and endless parade of bad 1980s fashions. (Megan Lehmann)

Australia's ABC's At the movies spoils readers about it:

I have to confess that I only saw part of one episode of the TV series Kath and Kim, and didn't think it was very funny. I know it's been hugely successful and that a lot of people love it, and perhaps they'll love the movie spin-off too, which takes the ladies - as well as Prue and Trude, their snobby alter-egos - from their Australian comfort-zone into the world of a European fairy-tale, with a castle, secret passages, duels, mysterious figures, a prince masked like a refugee from Phantom of the Opera, and a madwoman in the turret like the wife in Jane Eyre. Even Dame Edna makes a brief, and not very rewarding, appearance. (David Stratton)

The New Stateman's The Business End finds the trailer for the new season of Downton Abbey very Jane Eyre-ish as

a rent bridal veil falls from a stair case (has Julian Fellows, previously accused of nicking material from Little Women and Mrs Minniver, gone full Jane Eyre?) (Martha Gill)

Lisa Armstrong makes the following comment in passing about Jane Eyre and Fifty Shades of Grey in her Fashion column in the Telegraph:

Jane Eyre turns out to be a forerunner to Fifty Shades … (and a much gutsier and more interesting one at that). 

Now for a round of local news. According to The Telegraph and Argus, there's 'Fury over tourism funding allocation'.

Welcome to Yorkshire has criticised the way funding has been distributed by national body VisitEngland amid claims the region was not recognised as a tourist destination.
It comes as the Regional Growth Fund allocation, which is designed to stimulate employment to grow jobs in the tourism sector in England, was handed out to 14 local organisations, including Visit York and Marketing Leeds, but none to Yorkshire as a whole. [...]
Ann Dinsdale, of the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, one of the region’s top tourist destinations, said that while they were an independent museum and relied mainly on visitor numbers, any extra funding that could bring visitors to the region as a whole and the district in particular would have been beneficial.
She said: “We have been quieter during the Olympics and visitor numbers are down. So any extra funding to help draw people into the area would have been welcome.”

The Telegraph and Argus also publishes an important reminder:

Campaigners fighting plans for a wind farm on the moors which inspired the Brontë sisters' novels are warning residents there is only a week left to have their say on proposals to double the size of turbines at a nearby existing windfarm.

Examiner suggested Wuthering Heights as one of its National Read a Book Day (yesterday, September 6th) selection.

4. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Emily Brontë's tale of doomed love in the English Moors is still a very popular book. It's for those who want to take a break from Austen and for those are looking for a good Gothic romance. It has been made into many film and TV adaptations. (Kellie Haulotte)

And Examiner also wins at the silliest comment of the day.

While these two trends may seem contradictory, they actually fit each other very well. Brides are inspired by the likes of Kate Middleton--as opposed to the late Princess Diana--to choose elegant and classy gowns that would make the Brontë sisters proud. (Jennifer Duann)

Oh, absolutely. Because, you know, the Brontë sisters were, first and foremost, frightfully fashion-minded, known to all and sundry for their 'elegant and classy gowns'.

Wizza and Le 7ème oeil (both in French) both post about Jane Eyre 2011 while Flickr user philteez has uploaded a picture of the costumes exhibition at Haddon Hall. The Briarfield Chronicles discusses Louis Moore from Shirley. My Life is a Notebook reviews Tina Connolly's Ironskin. In So Many Words posts about Fritz Eichenberg's art for Jane Eyre and Cathy Cullis has created a new portrait of the Brontë sisters.