The Brontë Industrial Complex

Cult MTL has a very interesting interview with Frances O'Connor:

SF: You’ve spoken in interviews about how this film is more historical fiction than biopic. How do you work within the framework and the freedom of historical fiction? 

Frances O’Connor: I did all my research and I wanted as much as possible to look real, feel real and be true to who the real people were in terms of dynamic and personality, but then to have the freedom to be inspired by the themes that were in Wuthering Heights. And I think that’s probably from the research I’ve done on how Emily wrote Wuthering Heights. She was playing Beethoven at the time. I feel like when you read her book, you kind of feel that. So just to be inspired by different elements that are not linear to create. I thought that it could be an interesting combination to be strongly accurate in terms of chronology, but then let my imagination play. I’m sure this film’s gonna offend historians, for sure. But I’m kind of okay with that. If the film reaches people who have a kind of heartfelt reaction to it, then I feel like, oh, I did a good job. You know, because I’m saying something about Emily Brontë, that will get communicated to them and will move them, hopefully. 

SF: And also if it inspires young people to read the Brontës.

Frances O’Connor: If I get some millennials to read Wuthering Heights, that would be amazing. Because it’s such a beautiful piece of work. 

SF: Yeah, that’s what always frustrates me about this dodged devotion to factual accuracy. There’s no art in facts.

Frances O’Connor: Totally. Like I’ve watched some things on the Brontës and it’s so respectful that it’s boring. You feel like you’re watching it behind glass and it might be 100% accurate, but it’s still not revealing. It’s not being pushed by a theme or something that you really wanna say. It’s just showing their life, you know? And I can read a book to do that. 

SF: Exactly. You can convey so much more facts in a book than you can in a film. Might as well just do what film can do instead of doing what books can do.

Frances O’Connor: I agree. Because cinema is emotional and it affects us and it’s one of the most powerful mediums that we have to tell a story in a way that’s emotional. So you wanna get in there. 

SF: And in terms of the Brontë Industrial Complex, did you try to read and watch everything you possibly could or did you read a little bit and then, as you say, fill in the dots yourself? 

Frances O’Connor: There are some really great books, and actually, while I was writing it, some other books came out. So I kind of kept dipping in. Juliet Barker has written one of the best books on the Brontës and her perspective on who they are is very common sense and not dramatic. So that’s a great reference. And then Lucasta Miller wrote this amazing one called The Brontë Myth and it’s about perspective on the Brontës. And that was also really helpful. So I read a lot of things. The mask was a little fact I came upon and then I kind of parked that. And then as I was evolving the rest of the story, I thought that could be a great kind of metaphor for how we feel about Emily. Because we do feel she’s kind of behind a mask and we don’t really know who she is, but also a great kind of symbol for the mother that they lost and creativity and wild female power. So that’s an example of something I found historically that then helped the theme of the piece. 

SF: And what was the most surprising thing that you learned in all your research? 

Frances O’Connor: I think that Charlotte burnt all of Emily’s poetry. I was kind of shocked at that, but at the same time, I understand it because Emily got a lot of flack for writing Wuthering Heights. It was seen as a very controversial novel. And I think Charlotte was very cognizant of protecting everybody and projecting an image of the family as normal and respectable. But the cat was out of the bag. She’d written Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre was a beloved novel, but it was still slightly controversial. So I understand why she did it, but it was pretty extreme. I mean, there’s a rumour that Emily was writing a second novel. (Sarah Foulkes)

Tristate gives 3.5 stars out of 5 to Emily.

Actress France O’Connor’s directorial debut is a brilliant and engrossing biopic of Emily Brontë. [...]

Parts of Emily are the stuff of staid dramas of manners that viewers of Downton Abbey and Jane Austen adaptations may recognize, and these scenes are often filled with weighty looks and awkward pauses. This is old territory, but the performances carry these scenes ably. However, the most remarkable performance comes from Mackey, whose expressive face and sometimes cutting behavior carry the film. Mackey gives the first great performance of the year, and Emily relies on her excellent work. 

Emily’s pacing is too slow, and there are too many shots of characters looking happy/sad against the backdrop of the beautiful English countryside. And there are elements of the story that are underdeveloped. Emily the artist and Emily the religious rebel become important elements of her character without as much on-screen exploration as possible. 

Overall, the real highlight of Emily is Emma Mackey. O’Connor trusts her with carrying the film, and she is up to the challenge. (Jim Hunter)

This reviewer from Observer gives it 2 stars out of 4 and is completely unambiguous about his total dislike of the film.

The movies just can’t get it right about the Brontë sisters. The family story of a strict, disciplinary, widowed Anglican vicar with a wild, uncontrollable son and a trio of repressed daughters who lived in a parsonage and ended up shocking the world by writing passionate potboilers that became historic literary classics is obvious fodder for Victorian soap opera. What a pity, then, that the fever-pitch hysteria of their melodramatic tale has made for such paralyzing tedium on the screen.  

Emily, a colossal bore that centers on Emily Brontë in the days before she wrote Wuthering Heights, is the latest bafflingly overrated attempt to turn the Brontë saga into a box-office triumph. Despite its visual appeal, its concentrated star performance by Emma Mackey and the dedicated obsession of Australian actress Frances O’Connor, making her debut as a writer-director, it gets almost everything wrong and seems more like a work of fiction than a believable biopic. [...]

 I liked Emily better in the 1946 Warner Brothers epic Devotion, when she was played by Ida Lupino. That was a black-and-white Hollywood concoction equally crammed with fictitious euphoria, but at least it was interesting. [...] Please refrain from visiting any cinema showing Emily, especially if you snore. (Rex Reed)

'Seems more like a work of fiction than a believable biopic'--well, perhaps because that's exactly what it is

NJ Arts reviews Wise Children's Wuthering Heights.

Yet, to put it mildly, Rice does not establish a consistent tone regarding the source material. At times, she seems to have a playful, mocking distance from it, and at others, she embraces Brontë’s melodrama wholeheartedly. Despite the “If you want romance, go to Broadway” line, there is romance here, though not of the happily-ever-after kind.

Rice uses music, dance and puppetry at various times in the show. The music (by Ian Ross, and played by an onstage band) is lovely — charmingly folksy at times, appropriately stately when that is called for, and sung uniformly well by the show’s cast. The puppetry (directed by John Leader) is imaginative and well-executed. And the dancing is energetic: The blustery Yorkshire Moors are personified as kind of Greek chorus that moves around the stage like a whirlwind, with the dynamic Jordan Laviniere playing the lead Moor. Rice comes up with some other other creative ways, as well, to portray the Yorkshire winds — a symbol of the unseen forces driving the characters’ tormented lives.

Yet for all the skill that is on display, I found this production easier to admire than to fully love. [...]

Rice offers some warmth and hope and the end of the tale, as did Brontë. But it’s the uncompromising fierceness of all that came before — plus the occasional touches of unpredictable, daring humor — that will stay with you. (Jay Lustig)

A contributor to Her Campus writes about she came to love reading.

Upon entering the English program at UWindsor, I was excited. Reading, admittedly, has become difficult. As I’ve stated before, the program requires a lot of heavy reading in several classes. But it also means that I get to read new books. I started growing a fondness over the last couple of years in the program for classics by Charles Dickens, the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, and more. And I have to add that it is my love for reading that inspired me to want to become an author. This love for reading easily sparked a love for writing. (Nawal Jasey)

While The American Conservative mourns the death of English departments.

The curriculum itself was fairly traditional, too, as long as you selected your courses carefully. I managed to steer clear of feminist poetry and postcolonial studies. I read the literature of the English Renaissance with the greatest living scholar of Edmund Spenser—an affable, donnish figure, then pushing ninety, who had studied at Yale with the New Critics and at Cambridge with C.S. Lewis. I read Jane Eyre and Kipling with an old-school elbow-patch lecturer, who did me more than a few favors in not letting me fail Victorian Literature. I read the modernist poets with a ponytailed South African eccentric, whose performative borderline madness brought the form and its substance to life. (Declan Leary)

GoBookmart lists '10 Incredible Character Transformations in Classic Literature' one of which is

Jane Eyre – Jane Eyre

In “Jane Eyre,” the titular character starts the novel as a timid and submissive governess who is often mistreated by those around her. However, through her experiences, she gains confidence and independence, ultimately becoming a strong and empowered woman. Jane’s transformation is marked by her ability to stand up for herself, pursue her dreams, and challenge the expectations placed on her by society. She learns to value herself and her worth, and she refuses to settle for a life that doesn’t align with her beliefs and desires. Jane’s journey showcases the power of self-discovery and the potential for personal growth, even in the face of adversity. (Shashank)