Emily would approve

News 24 reviews the film Emily.

This is not a biopic, and Frances O'Connor does not pretend that her version of events is purely factual; it is a sort of 'what if' an imagined history of Emily Brontë, what could have happened. The film tackled her reclusive nature, devotion to her family, and mental health issues and added some what-ifs. What if she had a love affair that resembled that between Cathy and Heathcliff in her novel? What if she tried opium-like many other creatives during that time? What if she got involved in some shenanigans with her brother Branwell? What if she had a terse relationship with her older sister Charlotte? History tends to mute the characters' lives, especially when they are considered genial and classic. Frances O'Connor chose to bring new life into Emily Brontë's story to get us to second guess the depth behind her words that have haunted readers for centuries.

When Sex Education's Emma Mackey was cast in the title role, it seemed like a very deliberate choice. Known for playing the cool rebel Maeve, Mackey would bring a sort of rebellious nature to Emily. No one would believe that this incredibly beautiful and effortlessly cool girl would be a dowdy spinster who lived at home with her father and maiden aunt. But the portrayal of Emily being the 'strange' one and her darkness making her a pariah in the community kind of fitted Mackey's rebellious edge. I enjoyed watching Mackey in this part; she gives Emily confidence in herself and a sense of purpose that she knows she is different, and she revels in that. She also adds a layer of vulnerability to the character, as someone who wants to be pleasing to her father and her sisters but cannot find a way to not be herself. It is a complex way of interpreting the character of Emily, but Mackey seems to embody the role in a unique and magnetic way.

Many Brontë purists will lament this film because of how many liberties O'Connor took with Emily's life. And for those who are looking for a fact-based film, this is not the one to watch. However, very little is known about Emily because other than a short stint as a teacher in Belgium, she mostly stayed at home in her father's rectory, unlike her siblings, who attended different schools and held down jobs. She also did not keep a diary or write regular letters like other writers. Most of the knowledge about her comes from what was written by or about her older sister Charlotte, which could be a biased source. O'Connor also plays fast and loose with some actual facts, such as when Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre or what the actual first manuscript of Wuthering Heights looked like. But for me, all her script decisions made sense for the story she was telling. Perhaps it was too influenced by Wuthering Heights or by other fantastical stories, but it talks about how easily we dismiss people without knowing the lives that they might have lived. [...]

When leaving the cinema, I felt haunted. Throughout the duration of the film, I felt like I really knew this version of Emily Brontë, and even though one knows from history how she dies, and the film starts on that note, it is still a layer of doom that falls over it. I did not expect to enjoy the film as much as I did or to be affected by it. It is an ode to creatives who don't quite fit into a box, are a little different, and struggle with things that come easy to others. It might be a tale of Emily Brontë, which is unorthodox and not factual, but it is a tale that celebrates her brilliance and her intelligence in a fun way. (Caryn Welby-Solomon)

The Telegraph features Broughton Hall, one of the Emily filming locations, at which you can stay.

Tell me you have seen Emily, the new film about the Brontë sisters? If not, do so immediately. It is a delight, deserving of an Oscar, and the award should go to the Yorkshire countryside – those mysterious moorlands, wind-ravaged trees and ragged rivers that form the film’s most vivacious and powerful character. It made me want to drive through the night, just to run through the rain as Emily does. So that is what we did. 

The film is set at Broughton Hall, a 16th-century house on the edge of the Dales with a hell of a history. Over the past three years, 16 holiday homes have been opened across its 3,000 acres, ranging from one-bedroom hermit huts in the remotest wilds of the estate to the 22-bedroom, opulently restored hall at its very centre, which you now can rent in its entirety. Four are newly refurbished, including ours – the Manse. 

Staff won’t spill the beans on exactly which cast members slept in our beds but the Georgian building has been renovated to please all. There are yoga mats in the boot room; flagstone floors throughout; and a generously kitted-out kitchen with a Rangemaster oven and cookbooks. [...]

Broughton isn’t just an estate with cottages. In fact, we’re not meant to call it an estate at all. It is a “sanctuary”. The café – a glassy modern construction set inside a 14th-century walled garden – is called Utopia and serves plant-based food. [...]

If Utopia’s buddha bowls aren’t your vibe (and hey, open your mind – they were good enough for the starry cast of Emily), then the near-perfect lamb shank at the estate’s reassuringly traditional pub, the Bull, surely will be. We walked home through the estate’s winding lanes, in the pitch black, listening to the churning of a stream and the hooting of owls. Emily would approve. (Hattie Garlick)

More filming locations for Brontë films as The Times has selected 'Seven of the best UK market towns' and one of them is

3. Bakewell, Derbyshire

This pretty town on the River Wye is famed as much for its literary links as its eponymous sweet pudding, which you can try in the Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop. Visit Chatsworth House, thought to have been Jane Austen’s inspiration for Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice, and Haddon Hall, which featured as Thornfield in the 2011 film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. For novel inspiration, spend a night in the Jane Austen room at the Rutland Arms hotel. It’s claimed that she wrote Pride and Prejudice here. (Ed Grenby)

Irish Times recommends an event that will take place as part of the Irish Language Literary Festival on Friday, November 18th in Smock Alley, Dublin.

It is canny enough of IMRAM (Irish Language Literary Festival) to have part of their focus directed towards a unique songwriter (Kate Bush) and to have a singer (Caitríona O’Leary) that can more than confidently complement Bush’s pioneering fusion of numerous dramatic/theatrical styles. O’Leary will perform a selection of well-known Bush songs (including Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, and this year’s unavoidable Running Up That Hill) translated into Irish by Gabriel Rosenstock. Appropriate textured musical backing will be provided by Adrian Hart (fiddle), Éamonn Galldubh (flute, whistles, uilleann pipes), Matt Jacobson (drums), David Redmond (double bass) and Nick Roth (keyboard). Accompanying the music will be on-screen projections of the lyrics, with images created by visual communications consultant Margaret Lonergan. (Tony Clayton-Lea)

A Jane Eyre discovery moment in Melanie Reid's column in The Times:

Always in life there should be knowledge exchange. That night, having discovered to my horror during the walk that neither of these two very millennial millennials knew the story of Jane Eyre, it’s my turn to stretch them. I force-feed them the film with Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska, which, happily, they enjoy. “I expected a rom-com,” said my heathen son, relieved.