Women's History Month 2023 starts today

Mary Taylor (far left) climbing in Switzerland in 1874 at the age of 57.

Today is March 1st which marks the start of Women's History Month as well as the 130th anniversary of the death of Mary Taylor, a history-making woman indeed.

CNET recommends several films to watch this month and To Walk Invisible is one of them.

To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters

I've often had romantic notions of writers of yore meandering through their days, dreaming of their next story while sipping tea and taking walks through their estates. To watch this 2016 film and learn the brutal reality the Bronte sisters faced is a true wakeup call. 

Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë struggled in ways I cannot fathom. They were poor and isolated. Their alcoholic brother drained their family financially and emotionally. And they faced a publishing world that had zero interest in women authors. Yet they wrote and published (under male pseudonyms) some of the greatest works of English literature: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. This film is simultaneously haunting and inspiring. (Natalie Weinstein)

The Suffolk Journal has a disastrous review of Emily with the reviewer basically talking through her hat: Emma Mackey's surname is changed to 'Mackley' and the film is described as a 'poorly planned movie'.

However, the pace of the movie is extremely slow. It was probably O’Connor’s intention to slow it down to illustrate how life was in the countryside in the 19th century, but she might have crossed the line. 

Nanu Segal’s cinematography was not on point either. Sudden cuts and meaningless images downgraded the quality of the movie. The music score was very similar to other cliché period dramas, with a great deal of instrumental and classical. 

Despite the poorly planned movie, Mackley was phenomenal as Emily. The actress portrayed Brontë’s emotions with such passion that the viewers could feel it through a silver screen. 

The supporting cast’s acting was also top-tier and the story is compelling. Yet, the movie has no thrilling climax points that make the audience pay full attention. It already starts at the end, and it ends suddenly. The film is fairly good for a directorial debut, but it is far from being considered a great, Oscar-worthy bio-picture. 

Watching “Emily” is like reading a period book that, after finishing, will be forgotten. If the viewers want to know more about Brontë through newbie director O’Connor’s lens, this movie is a good call, especially for rainy days. (Elise Coelho)

Willamette Week does a better job:

Emily

From its opening, a question of selfishness pulses within this Emily Brontë biopic. How could Emily dare write a novel so rife with “selfish” characters as Wuthering Heights, her older sister Charlotte implores. Actor-turned-director Frances O’Connor’s debut film then flashes back to Emily’s teen years to consider the pain, passion and self-focus necessary for a young woman to pen an all-time-great novel in a culture deadening to her inspiration. Emma Mackey (star of Netflix’s Sex Education) plays Emily as a proverbial middle child, rebellious with a sly remove. She employs her senses as a sponge, soaking in the ghostly vigor of the West Yorkshire moors despite the Anglican influence of her father (Adrian Dunbar) and hunky new local preacher William Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). O’Connor’s script largely invents a web of Brontë family dynamics, positing her path to becoming the lit-loving clan’s simultaneous North Star and black sheep. That’s a welcome alternative to depicting staunch Victorian manners and Emily glued to a writing desk. Still, one wonders if a slightly bloodier performance (think Keira Knightly, circa 2007), as opposed to Mackey’s inherently modern-feeling cool, could have elevated the sensuousness. But as an act of risk-taking imagination, Emily gives a legendary novelist and the power of selfishness their rightful flowers. (Chance Solem-Pfeifer)

Amanece  en Metrópolis (in Spanish) reviews it too.

Town Topics reviews Wise Children's Wuthering Heights.

The stirring, eclectic songs have been written by composer Ian Ross. Wuthering Heights is not a musical along the lines of Hamilton, but the songs and incidental music are more than mere underscoring or mood-setting, and certain characters  — particularly Catherine and Heathcliff — sing.

In “Feral Joy” the chorus chants to a repeated pitch, to a rhythm that tends to eschew a steady pulse; in the middle is an expressive string solo. “Cut Through the Dirt” evokes a traditional English ballad; a contemplative instrumental opening gives way to a sweeping, insistent vocal line. “Cathy’s Curse” veers into heavy metal. Ross’ music demands — and gets — high energy and vocal power from the talented company.

The Moors are portrayed by Katy Ellis, who also plays Zillah, Heathcliff’s housekeeper; Stephanie Elstob; TJ Holmes, who also plays Dr. Kenneth; and several other members of the cast. The cast is accompanied by an onstage band: music director and bass guitarist Pat Moran, percussionist Vincent De Jesus, and guitarist Sid Goldsmith.

As the company sings — while moving to Etta Murfitt’s energetic, flowing choreography — Jai Morjaria’s lighting often makes the show resemble a rock concert, albeit one with a plot.

Along with the chorus, the Leader of the Yorkshire Moors (Jordan Laviniere) interacts with both the audience and the other characters. They disseminate exposition, question characters about their actions, and — likely anticipating the reactions of some audience members — opine about the complexities of the novel’s plot, sizeable chunks of which, sometimes, the show hectically conveys in minutes.

The use of a Greek chorus is one of multiple examples of Rice using an iconic theatrical device in a contemporary context. Another such example is melodrama. Ricardo Castro menacingly delivers the pithiest lines written for Heathcliff — an oppressed man who becomes an oppressor — with almost operatic forcefulness. He often does so while bathed in strobe lights.

The terms “melodrama” and “melodramatic” now tend to be pejorative, synonymous with simplistic characterizations and bombastic performances. However, Rice’s evocation of the genre here is apt, as it was popular with theatergoers at the time of the publication of Wuthering Heights. [...]

Rice further explores this notion through the use of vertical levels, placing them high up on a ladder with which Mortimer has furnished the stage. They are on the same level, metaphorically and now literally. (Rice uses a similar device to accentuate Heathcliff’s transformation from being the one who is beaten to the ground to being in a higher position than other characters.)

Rice and Mortimer favor startling visual juxtapositions, such as chandeliers that descend in front of (video projections of) open air. (Is this to point out that the estate intrudes on nature?) Mortimer’s costumes range from exaggerated period outfits to modern, casual apparel. This is a fitting dichotomy for a show that is aware of the period in which its story is set — but determinedly views it through the lens of our own time. (Donald H. Sanborn III)