As a teenager growing up in Perth, O’Connor had always felt drawn to the wild landscape and two rebellious main character’s of Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff and Cathy. Later, as a “slightly older person”, Brontë’s poetry also spoke to her – “I really felt like you could feel her in the words.“After diving into research, she was sure she wanted to make a film about the author, considered one of the greats of English literature alongside sisters Charlotte and Anne.Yet she wasn’t interested in a straight biopic. “I just feel like as a genre it’s a bit hackneyed; I wanted to explore the spirit of who she was.” Instead, Emily blends both truth and fiction, imagining an origin story of sorts for Wuthering Heights.“I felt there was a story in there I wanted to locate, about what it is to feel a bit different, and to feel that who you are isn’t really valued,” O’Connor says. [...]“I feel that Bramwell’s [sic] a great prototype for Heathcliff and Weightman’s a great prototype for Edgar. So that’s when that triangle formed in terms of a story that’s connected to Wuthering Heights, but also connected to her real life.” [...]To play Emily, O’Connor wanted an actress who young women already identified with; Mackey fit the bill, aided by the fact she was “also just a bloody good actor”.“I really wanted the film to speak to a lot of young women who were maybe going through things that I went through when I was their age,” O’Connor says.“Emma is really popular and loved by young women at this particular moment, but apart from that, I felt like there was something about her that really said something about the part, in terms of it making it feel very modern without it being poppy.“She’s just someone who is very front-footed as a person, and she’s intelligent, she’s funny. There’s nothing passive about her. That was very important for the part, and for her to, against the other actors, look a bit different, a bit wild… That when people say ‘You’re the strange one’, we feel like that is true.” [...]So when it came to crafting a period film of her own, she was quite particular about how she wanted it to look.For one, O’Connor dislikes period films where it looks like you’re observing actors “behind a pane of glass”. Equally, she’s not keen on period pieces turned “poppy”, where “everyone is doing modern dance”.O’Connor wanted Emily to feel real; “it’s set in a period, but it’s about the story.” The costumes are made to look like clothes, the actors wear minimal makeup.Touchstones for her “gentle, handheld camera, observational” aesthetic were Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Biutiful and Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet. O’Connor wanted to be ‘in there’ with the actors, to give the feeling of “documenting these moments with real people”.The use of 2.39:1 aspect ratio was designed to give the film a classic feel, but cinematographer Nanu Segal worked with Hawk C anamorphic lenses to also create a sense of intimacy. [...]“It was great to hear the audience respond and laugh in the right places. The best thing for me is there’s always a couple of girls who come up every screening and say, ‘Oh, I feel that was me up there.“It’s lovely knowing that it’s speaking to young women, because that’s why I made it.” (Jackie Keast)
"Emily" does falter in some ways, though. O'Connor chooses to put the sisters, particular Emily and Charlotte, at odds with each other any time she gets. Sure, maybe there was jealousy between the two, but pitting them against each other just furthers an old stereotype of having women-against-women for the sake of entertainment. Here, it doesn't much entertain as much as it induces many eye rolls.Additionally, "Emily" doesn't necessarily stand out compared to several other period-set films, and often feels like a mashup of many other great works. There's a connection to "Pride and Prejudice" with the love story, although the 2005 film did it much better thanks to the undeniable romance between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. "Dickinson," a comedy/drama television series centered on another great writer, Emily Dickinson, found a way to stand on its own because of its quirky aspects, like that it breaks the fourth wall and has a modern feel to it. "Emily" just doesn't have something unique that would make people want to revisit it years down the line or choose it over some of these other works. When it does offer an exciting and engrossing moment − a masked guessing game that leads to Emily channeling her deceased mother and causing emotional turmoil among all the siblings − it's a fleeting scene that quickly gets pushed aside for more conventional storytelling.While "Emily" might not check all the boxes, it's still a film that will immerse audiences in its world thanks to beautiful cinematography by Nanu Segal, grand sound work and a stellar lead performance by Mackey. Who knows what other brilliant novels Brontë could have written had she not died so young (only 30 years old), but "Wuthering Heights" has proven to be enough to lure in readers and have them ask how she did it. "Emily" offers us one possible explanation, but perhaps what's more fun is that we may never know an answer. (Ema Sasic)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë; introduction by Juliette Atkinson and edited by Margaret SmithWritten in an intimate first-person narrative, this Victorian love story centers on the titular character Jane Eyre. The story reveals the intricacies, importance, and impact of valuing the self, first and foremost. As the love story between Jane and Mr. Rochester unravels deceit, madness, and betrayal, it eventually leads to understanding, self-worth, and deep love. More than being a love story, however, Jane Eyre is an emotionally charged narrative of valuing dignity and freedom through one’s own terms. (Ashendri Wickremasinghe)
Harry recalls the conversation in the graveyard that launched a thousand media broadsides.It’s difficult to accurately recreate any back-and-forth beyond one transition. After a bit, our recollections are smoothed into fiction. Maybe that’s why this one sounds so much like Emily Brontë:“Willy, this was supposed to be our home. We were going to live here for the rest of our lives.”“You left, Harold.”“Yeah – and you know why?”“I don’t.”“You … don’t?”“I honestly don’t.”The following 400-odd pages are the collective line that comes after that: Then let me tell you all about it.There’s a lot to that, most of it so trifling as to verge on satire. Do people like this actually exist? (Cathal Kelly)
More behind the scenes; today we’re in the Dining Room… pic.twitter.com/9gUN1XMAKB
— Brontë Parsonage Museum (@BronteParsonage) January 11, 2023
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