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Sunday, March 19, 2023

Sunday, March 19, 2023 11:28 am by M. in , , , , , ,    No comments
Jacobin writes an intense article about how much Emily, the film, does not represent the Emily the author of the article had in mind and how truly abject this thing is (sort of):
Emily Brontë is one of the most uniquely brilliant women writers who ever lived, the perfect subject for a feminist biopic. She deserves better than the shallow pop feminism of the new movie Emily. (...)
Not that any of this will matter to the majority of people who want to go see this film, I have to acknowledge. It’s enraging, but as far as I can tell, the simple version of complex, compelling subject matter is ever more preferred. Nobody much cares that Emily Brontë was nothing like this doofus portrayed in Emily, or that a wiser, more visceral, less falsely pretty film based on the actual life of the woman would be a hundred times more thrilling. The swoony romance, the dopey explanation for literary achievement, the fake feminism — people like that stuff. In this case, I write for the tiny minority of possible viewers who have some sort of investment in the Brontë sisters and their writing and can still be warned off. (Eileen Jones) 
Le Figaro (France) talks about the film and quotes Frances O'Connor reminding us that it's not a biopic
«Pas un biopic», le film intitulé Emily veut «mettre en lumière» le seul destin de la romancière, décédée à trente ans au terme d'une existence solitaire dans le presbytère de Haworth dans le Yorkshire, où son père était pasteur. Il ne se contente pas d'évoquer un destin mais revient aussi sur la relation «complexe» qu'entretenait Emily Brontë avec ses sœurs, et plus particulièrement avec l'aînée, Charlotte. «Il y avait quelque chose de l'ordre d'une lutte de pouvoir», souligne la réalisatrice, dont le scénario a pris des libertés avec la réalité mais qui assure avoir «consulté de nombreuses sources bibliographiques». (Translation)
42mag (France) finds the film to be not very original:
 L’interprétation d’Emilie Brontë par Emma Mackey est réussie, mais la beauté de l’ensemble manque d’audace. Le romantisme noir est présent tout au long du film, avec l’autodestruction de Branwell et l’amour impossible entre Emily et son frère. Ce romantisme noir est présent dans les textes de Brontë, notamment dans son roman « Les Hauts de Hurlevent ». (Simon Bornstein) (Translation)
For Radio France (France) the film is 
 Une ode à l’exaltation, à la différence et à la féminité. (Translation)
Premiere (France) also mentions the film and interviews Emma Mackey:
Thierry Cheze: Comment on devient Emily Brontë devant sa caméra ?
E.M.: D’abord de manière classique. J’ai relu Les Hauts de Hurlevent. Je me suis plongée dans la liste de biographies que m’avait envoyée Frances. J’ai regardé pas mal d’adaptations mais aussi Les Sœurs Brontë d’André Téchiné. Mais surtout je me replongeais régulièrement dans le scénario de Frances. Et petit à petit, j’en ai compris toute la dimension. Contrairement à ma première impression, son Emily était tout sauf un biopic mais une interprétation de sa vie, jouant avec les inspirations qui ont donné naissance aux Hauts de Hurlevent. Donc une fois ce travail préparatoire un peu scolaire effectué, j’ai compris que j’allais devoir lâcher prise. Aller contre ma nature en quelque sorte pour épouser le travail de Frances O’Connor qui, en jouant avec le fond, peut faire de même avec la forme : le son, les costumes… Il n’y a pas de code, pas de règle. Juste l’imagination de Frances à l’œuvre qui, pour avoir travaillé dix ans sur ce projet, maîtrise tout sur le bout des doigts et a une passion infinie pour elle. Son film raconte aussi cette passion- là. (Translation)

Also in Vogue (France), Serieusly (France). 

The Telegraph & Argus talks about Yorkshire: A Literary Landscape (Macmillan Collector’s Library), edited by David Stuart Davies:
Yorkshire’s landscapes, its moorland and coastline, and its people have long been depicted in literature; by poets from Andrew Marvell to Simon Armitage, novelists such as Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Bram Stoker, and the Brontës. All are represented in this collection. Then there are post-war novelists such as David Storey and Barry Hines, who wrote about life in mining towns in the 1950s and 60s, and much-loved rural characters, not least James Herriot and Yorkshire Shepherdess, Amanda Owen.
A chapter on coast and countryside explores Emily Brontë’s moorland poem High Waving Heather, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, sweeping into Whitby, Ted Hughes’ Pike, and Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, set in a Yorkshire country house. (Emma Clayton)
The Guardian discusses The Marriage Question by Clare Carlisle, a biography of George Eliot:
Like Jane Eyre’s Rochester, Lewes was ugly yet (or so Carlisle tells us) irresistible. Eliot was ugly too: Henry James, a great admirer of her fiction, described Eliot as “magnificently ugly, deliciously hideous”. But at least she was as weighed down with baggage as Lewes. Like Rochester, Lewes was already married. True, he didn’t keep Agnes Lewes in the attic as Rochester did with Bertha, his purportedly mad Creole bride; rather Agnes, after having had three sons by Lewes, betrayed him and went on to have four more children with his friend Thornton Hunt. (Stuart Jeffries)
The Cinemaholic discusses Level 16 by Danishka Esterhazy:
The filmmaker revealed, “I had two main influences. First, the movie ‘Logan’s Run,’ perhaps oddly, was one of my favorite films as a child. It was my introduction to the idea of dystopian stories and has always stayed with me. Second is the novel ‘Jane Eyre.’ I love gothic novels, I love the Brontës. And the first part of ‘Jane Eyre,’ which takes place in the Lowood Orphanage for Girls, has always haunted me.” (Naman Shrestha)
Oddly enough, Il Foglio (Italy) begins an article about Father's Day with a quote from... The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. Tenho Mais Discos que Amigos! (Portugal) lists artists who put together music and literature. Guess who features:
Kate Bush. Quando tinha 19 anos, a lendária cantora britânica lançou seu primeiro single chamado “Wuthering Heights”, mesmo nome do clássico romance de 1847 de Emily Brontë, publicado no Brasil como O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes.
Ali, Kate Bush traduziu perfeitamente uma sombria história sobre família e paixão para uma linguagem musical e visual, com um clipe performático e fantástico. Não à toa, a faixa foi a primeira escrita por uma artista mulher a chegar ao topo das paradas do Reino Unido, e é até hoje a canção mais vendida da cantora. (Rafael Teixeira) (Translation)
Lifestyle Asia talks about popular K-drama actors playing morally dubious characters:
Morally grey roles have long captured the attention of literature aficionados – take Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights for instance – slowly making their way into cinema and television. (Eshita Shrinivas)
Her Campus reviews the novel Bunny by Mona Awad:
 Killing two birds (or bunnies?) with one stone, Bunny also offers up a critique of the elitist writer trope, gently criticizing the usual discourse around creative writing degrees and small private colleges. Awad plays upon these tropes and drags them to extremes, making the Bunnies’ dedication to gothic lit and “intertextuality” ridiculous, the pretentiousness laughable. That their projects are all iterations of men from classic literature, a well-endowed Heathcliff or modern Mr. Darcy is genius, in my opinion, and a choice that reflects Awad’s own critique of the idealization and preciousness of the liberal arts. (Grace Roberts)
Télam (Argentina) interviews the author María Fernanda Ampuero:
Josefina Marcuzzi: En tus cuentos hay una mirada estética muy potente que se combina con una mirada política, y esto lo vemos en otras escritoras de tu generación como Liliana Colanzi o Gabriela Wiener. ¿La literatura opera como una suerte de voz generacional para hablar de ciertos temas?
M.F.A.:  Toda literatura es hija de su tiempo y del espíritu de su tiempo. Nosotras somos hijas de mujeres que todavía tenían los mandatos, la culpa y el deber ser mujer. Vengo de una ciudad en la que había poco acceso a la literatura y mucho menos a la literatura escrita por mujeres. Se leía lo que había: hombres, blancos, grandes, gringos. Más adelante en el tiempo somos un poco producto de las redes sociales, del Me Too, del movimiento feminista y abortista. Una ola inmensa de latinoamericanas que empezamos a salir del cascarón. Logramos cosas y tiene que ver con una toma de consciencia propia y social de que hay muchas cosas que ya no vamos a dejar pasar. Pero luego, revisando para atrás, encontramos a Clarice Lispector, Elena Garro, Amparo Dávila, Alicia Yánez. Y fuera de Latinoamérica un montón. Estas inquietudes ya estaban ahí, eran el germen. Las Ocampo, "Cumbres Borrascosas", "Mujercitas", todo lo de Virginia Woolf. (Translation)
Vanguardia (México) interviews Guillermo Del Toro:
Fabián Waital: ¿Te acuerdas la primera ‘mejor’ película que viste? 
GDT: La primera que vi fue Cumbres Borrascosas, de William Wyler con Laurence Olivier.
F.W.: ¿Cómo fue aquel día, la llegada, el cine... los detalles? 
G.D.T: Era un cine muy malo y mi mamá, no sé por qué, me llevó al cine en la tarde. Tenía sueño, empezó la película y me dormí. Me desperté en medio de una escena de lluvia y truenos y pasión, me volví a dormir y me volví a despertar en otra escena igual de barroca y gótica y todo y, creo que sí, me marcó un poco. (Translation)

 Touching Romantic Words of Wisdom, including one by Emily, in Kumparan.

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