A Brontë kind of magic

Keighley News has an article on author Tracy Chevalier and her connection with this year's bicentenary celebrations.

She spent time last week scouring the museum’s collections for suitable items to put on display for the next few months at the Haworth museum.
Tracy will return tomorrow for the launch of Charlotte Great And Small, her major collaboration with the Brontë Society.
Brontë enthusiast Tracy been appointed the society’s ‘creative partner’ during the museum’s year-long celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth.
Tracy, writer of bestsellers like Girl With A Pearl Earring, has curated Charlotte Great And Small with the aim of exploring the contrast between Charlotte’s constricted life and her huge ambition.
She said: “I have always loved Charlotte’s work, and it has been a wonderful luxury while planning this show to get to know her life better.
“The place where she lived and worked, the clothes she wore, the objects surrounding her, all have a special magic that makes me feel as if Charlotte is just in the next room, nodding.”
At the parsonage Charlotte and her sisters lived in confined spaces, sharing beds and all working together in one room
They created miniature books and magazines, and Charlotte ruined her eyesight by writing, drawing and painting on such a small scale.
She also had big ideas about the kind of life she wanted and the contribution she expected to make to literature.
Highlights of the exhibition include Charlotte’s child-size clothes, tiny books and paintings she made, a scrap from a dress she wore to an important London dinner party hosted by Thackeray, and a moving love letter.
On the walls quotes from Charlotte’s letters and writings will demonstrate the scale of her hopes and dreams.
Contemporary art installations will also be displayed throughout the Parsonage by UK and international artists. [...]
Tracy will talk about the exhibition and the inspiration behind it at 2pm on Saturday in the West Lane Baptist Centre in Haworth.
Tracy has also edited a new collection of short stories influenced by the writing of Charlotte Brontë, entitled Reader, I Married Him.
The book will be launched in Haworth on April 7 with readings by Tracy Chevalier and fellow contributors Helen Dunmore and Salley Vickers. (David Knights)

Ashbourne News Telegraph reports that this year's Buxton Festival (8-24 July) will join in the bicentenary celebrations too.

This year's book festival includes 43 talks by the UK's best authors, covering topics from the railways to butterflies, trees to bible translations, the Loch Ness Monster to Charlotte Bronte.

It looks like Clare Harman will speak about Charlotte Brontë on July 13th.

Hereford Times reports that the filming of a new independent take on Wuthering Heights starts locally this weekend.

Filming will begin in Leominster this weekend for a new independent feature film adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights.
Crews will be filming at the Lion Ballroom in the Market Town on Sunday and then at Kilpeck Church in the south of the county.
Filmed solely in Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Powys and Shropshire it stars local actress Sha'ori Morris as Catherine Earnshaw and Paul Eryk Atlas as Heathcliff.
Other stars include Edward Fisher, who starred in the 2012 Great Expectations film and Stephanie Hazel.
The film, directed by Elisaveta Abrahall, will cover the story of Wuthering Heights from beginning to end, which follows the Earnshaw and Linton family over a 30-year period.
The film is going to all major film Festivals for the 2017 season after which there will be London Premiere following by an independent cinema release in summer 2017. (Rebecca Cain)

Two new reviews of Jane Eyre productions around. Bristol Old Vic's Jane Eyre is reviewed on Culture Fly:

If you’re partial to a literary classic smattered with high drama and romance, some good old fashioned theatrical magic and a touch of class, then watch this play. In town for just a few more performances before heading off on tour, tickets will no doubt be in high demand, so book now for what is sure to be a packed finale on Saturday evening. (Laura Summerhayes)

And the Rosemary Branch Theatre's one is discussed on Fairy Powered Productions:

Reader, I was bewitched.
Bryony J. Thompson’s production of Jane Eyre is simply stunning. This adaptation remains passionately faithful to the book, omitting any fluff and showcasing the dramatic and romantic set pieces – with style. (...)
This production creates Jane’s world in the audience’s minds through the intoxicating language and sympathetic movement – Jane’s discovery of the fire is haunting and exciting, and all done with no effects or props – amazing, and wonderful to be trusted as an audience to use your imagination and intuition. The satisfied sigh (along with a few Sense and Sensibility grunts) at “Reader, I married him” that came from the audience sums up the whole night.
Beautiful, moving and intelligent theatre. (Claire Roderick)

The Winonan recommends watching Jane Eyre 2011 - among other films - on Valentine's Day.

“Jane Eyre” has had a few film iterations since its release, but Cary Fukunaga’s 2011 rendition is by far the stand out. Starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, it tells Charlotte Brontë’s seminal story of romance in a world of tragedy and hardship. Wasikowska and Fassbender both pull off one of their best performances in their careers, while Fukunaga’s direction is gorgeous and subdued. A love story for the ages, “Jane Eyre” is perfect for those looking for a pure and classic romance. (Nathaniel Nelson)

While SBS (Australia) lists Wuthering Heights 2011 among its top 10 weepies.

Wuthering Heights
Howling near the peak of the world’s most literary weepies, the brutal, undying romance of doomed lovers Heathcliff and Cathy hangs at the heart of Emily Brontë’s only novel, the barren heath-set gothic horror of Wuthering Heights. Adapted here with startling originality by writer/director Andrea Arnold, alongside co-writer Olivia Hetreed, the devastating tale of twisted obsession screams anew, like a primal roar of animalistic expression that has us clutching at our bodices amidst gasped ejaculations of erotic tension. Kaya Scodelario is brilliant as the Cathy to James Howson’s raging Heathcliff – both outsiders, his casting across ethical divides is simply genius. (Stephen A. Russell)

Berkeley Beacon features Art., an 'Emerson Independent Video' which 'parodies avant-garde diehards'.

The two characters from the teaser, named Abcde and Cherish, will host the program. They’re portrayed by Lucy Deller and Christian Mudrick, the junior visual and media arts majors who also created the show. Mudrick is the executive producer while Deller is the head writer. According to them, Art. is one big joke.
“We’re satirizing the way that people perceive art, people’s ‘hoity-toity’ and pretentious attitude[s] toward art,” Mudrick said.
“Self-righteous, maybe?” Deller said.
“Like a self-righteous analysis,” Mudrick said. “Like, in Jane Eyre, [Charlotte] Brontë describes the curtains as blue. In an English class, you’re like, ‘That symbolizes her depression.’ But maybe Brontë just wanted her to have blue curtains.” (Mark Gartsbeyn)

Clash Music reviews Emily Wells's new album Promise:

Like a Brontë novel got boiled down into audio form, ‘Promise’ is heavy on the drama and atmosphere. (Sam Walker-Smart)

Keighley News reports that the 'Future of Haworth Visitor Information Centre [is] on the agenda at public consultation session'.

The first consultation session to decide the future of the district's threatened visitor information centres has taken place in Haworth.
This event was held at the Old White Lion, in West Lane yesterday evening. (Feb 2) Bradford Council's budget plans for the centres – at Haworth, Ilkley, Saltaire and Bradford – include a £19,000 cut this year and a massive £172,000 reduction in 2017-18, which the authority warns could result in closures.
The Haworth Visitor Information Centre is in West Lane.
Councillor John Huxley, chairman of Haworth, Cross Roads and Stanbury Parish Council, said: "Bradford Council has to make savings, and they believe new technology has a role to play – as do I.
"But the Haworth Visitor Information Centre is one of the places in the village which you never see empty.
"It is a very important facility and if we're going to be taken seriously as a tourist destination we must have a tourist office of some kind.
"As a parish council it's the kind of place we're anxious not to lose, and as a council it's the kind of facility we'd be interested in trying to save.
"But that's something we'd first have to discuss in depth at a full council meeting." [...]
Matt Stroh, chairman of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, said it was important Bradford Council retained a physical presence in Haworth to help visitors, even if it was not as extensive as the current information centre.
He suggested staff explored new ways of meeting the needs of many tourists who preferred to seek information before they set out from home.
He said: “I’d like there to be investment in tourism in Haworth. I appreciate the centres may have to change their focus to meet the needs of people nowadays, but I don’t think closure is the answer.
“I think Haworth would suffer greatly if there wasn’t some kind of physical hub for information and activity.”
Haworth Main Street trader Mike Hutchinson, who owns a bed and breakfast, said it was "ridiculous" to even consider axing the village's only tourist information centre.
He said that if such a closure were to happen, it would be the latest in a series of cuts to public services to hit the village.
"What on earth is Bradford Council up to with regards to Haworth?" he asked. "Are they creeping up on everything in Haworth with a giant axe to kill everything off?
"Don't they know Haworth is a tourist area bringing revenue to the whole area.
"As with a lot of other things, Bradford will go in years to come, 'Oops we shouldn't have done that.' A lot of these facilities are used by locals and visitors alike."

It does look like a fairly shortsighted move now that the Brontës' bicentenaries will be attracting lots of new visitors.

Actualitté (France) shares an English infographic on how several well-known love stories, including Wuthering Heights, end. Melbourne will also have its Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights day on July 16 as reported by Broadsheet. Daily Freeman News has an article on a local student who has won a regional poetry contest. One of the poems he recited was Ah! Why Because the Dazzling Sun by Emily Brontë. Another student is proud of her work on 'the value of intellect within relationships, as seen in Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre' as reported by Mainline Media News. Unabridged Chick posts briefly about Wide Sargasso Sea. Lit and Life reviews Alison Case's Nelly Dean.