Fine detail and contrast are as dialed-in as expected, with color representation leaving a huge impression due to the production team's careful choice of specific palettes in regards to paint, fabric, decorations, and other items to heighten the mood and tone in dramatic fashion. Framed at its original ratio of 1.85:1, this the kind of atmospheric picture that immediately holds your attention from start to finish and the 4K disc -- triple-layered, of course -- is thankfully encoded at a supportive bit rate, one that varies greatly depending on the scene but never wavers in its precision. Overall, this is a drop-dead gorgeous presentation of "Wuthering Heights" and one that fans will be happy to own. (...)Optional subtitles, including English (SDH), are included during the film and three featurettes below. A Descriptive Audio track is also on board, which I have not listened to but is probably pretty hilarious in spots.
Brandon Schreur: Obviously, this movie is based on such an iconic book that so many people grew up reading either in school or just for fun. I know that you’ve worked with Emerald before, but she comes to you and says that adapting Wuthering Heights into a movie is going to be her next project, and she wants you to do the production design for it. What’s going through your head at that point? Is that an exciting challenge to dive into, or is it more of a ‘Uh, how are we going to pull this off?’ kind of feeling?Suzie Davies: It’s a bit of a combination of both. I literally had that exact feeling — like, I cannot wait to read this. How are we going to do it? And, now, I can’t wait to actually make it. Yeah, it was like that whole roller coaster. I think the joy of working with Emerald for the second time was that we already had a sort of dialogue. We already knew each other.She actually spoke to me before I read her screenplay to let me know what her ambitions and desires were. So, I went in and read it already knowing she wanted me to build everything on a sound stage. She said she just wanted to never leave the studio. Everything we see was going to be on the sound stage.Being able to read her script with that in mind, it meant my first thoughts — which are usually your strongest, but they’d already been defined in that direction. So, off I went. It was one of the best scripts that I’ve ever read, as a production designer. Her stage descriptions; there is nothing better than reading, for instance, the skin room. The description of that skin room was just like, ‘Let me at it! Come on!’ But it was, like, everything. I kept going, ‘Hang on a minute, a doll’s house! Oh, it’s raining in Wuthering Heights!’ It just kept going on and on and on. It was brilliant.Totally. There are so many different scenes or different locations in this movie that I loved. As you said, the skin room really stuck out to me. Seeing that in the theater for the first time, that was just, like, something I haven’t seen before.Yeah, it’s exciting. If we could do Smell-O-Vision or Touch-O-Vision. Because you almost want all the other senses to be involved, especially for things like that. None of us could stop touching that wall. There’s something really — you just want to squeeze into it. It was amazing. [...]Getting into some of the specifics, the design and the look for the titular Wuthering Heights estate, I’m so in love with how it conveys feeling without ever actually having to say anything. Just the way it’s filmed, the way it looks — it’s so oppressive and ominous. Can you talk about the process of figuring out how the estate was going to look and how you went about making it feel so gloomy from the visuals alone?I think we knew that every surface, I wanted it to feel wet, sweating, or dripping with water or some sort of bodily fluid. It just needed to feel alive. Whenever you have surfaces that have reflections on them, I think it will give something uneasy — is it breathing, is it moving, what made it happen? There’s something else that’s happening.That was like, across the board, every surface is going to reflect or be able to take water as well. A little bit to what I alluded to before, because we’re on a sound stage and I had a certain size of stage to work with, everything is sort of built within a circle. So we get the horse and carriage in and out without turning around; it’s a circuit, basically, on the sound stage. Once you start getting some things you need to have, you begin to design outwards from those boundaries. Which, it’s really helpful to have boundaries, otherwise you sort of don’t know where you’re going.We were able to put, like, the tiles on the wall, which are sort of high-glass tiles. That’s a little bit of a nod to what’s really used in that part of the UK. They do build houses with big, brick tiles, but not black shiny ones like we had. But the proportions are right. That was enough of a broad brushstroke to say that we’re making a period drama, but it’s going to be in this weird, heightened version of a 14-year-old’s dream or imagination of what she thought when she read this book. It’s great when you have a writer/director to do things like that; to show the concepts of what we’re doing. We made models, and we had loads of different runs of what that color should be and the size of those tiles. Again, the workshops are all there, so Emerald could come and have a look.When you have a director who has also adapted the screenplay, you get the immediate answer of either ‘Yes, that works,’ or ‘No, that doesn’t.’ That just cuts through everything. You don’t have to phone someone up, wait, and go, ‘What do you mean?’ I just take her to the workshop and go, ‘This is what we’re going to put on the wall, does this work?’Then we had a big discussion about why we’re changing it for white in the gothic arch; at one stage, we were going to do it the other way around. But, actually, the house doesn’t look that dirty until we get later [into the movie] when it gets destroyed a little bit. But that also gives the great opportunity to see red splattered on the wall in that wonderful moment.And bouncing off that, you have Wuthering Heights, but then you have Edgar’s mansion, and it’s so different. Like, that’s a house I would actually want to live in, it feels so alive. How did the process of making that one differ from Wuthering Heights? Did you have to basically start from scratch doing that?Yes and no. Again, the brilliant stage description that comes very early in the description of Thrushcross Grange is actually the doll’s house. I did it the other way around — we built and designed the doll’s house, and then built the life-sized version of the doll’s house rather than the other way around. The doll’s house was slightly out of proportion because we knew we wanted that hand to come in with the model of Margot’s character into the shot. That’s where we started, from that little bit of detail. That made the windows [a certain size], which on a real house would then be [another certain size].What’s great, then, is that all of the characters in Thrushcross Grange, for real, are slightly too small. Because our original is slightly out; it’s a quarter-scale model. Which is a good scale, but it’s slightly off what it should be. So, the ceilings are a little bit taller, and the windows are a little bit bigger. So, once you start on that version, doing it that way, it just gives you that slight unease — like, I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s not quite right. That’s the feeling we wanted for the whole film. There’s just something hovering between reality and unreality. (Brandon Schreur)
It’s your second time working with Emerald Fennell and Jacob Elordi (both on Saltburn) and third time working with Margot Robbie (Babylon and Saltburn). Is there anything different in your collaborative experience with them this time around?[...] There were a lot of things from Emerald, like how [Heathcliff] lives in this barn and how he could see [Cathy] brush her hair in the window and how things were related – and then this rock that came through and all these things grew all over the house to take over. How it was suddenly winter seeing her father in misery. It was just more dramatically visualized than normal, which is fine because it’s so different and felt appropriate for this film to become heightened, letting you cry and letting you feel. [...]I listened to the commentary track on the disc and learned that some of the days were sunny outside and you needed to make them rainy and overcast?!“The biggest challenge for me is always weather on films. It’s rarely the way you want it to be, honestly. I could be particular in how i think it should look and I’m disappointed. On Bond [No Time to Die] in Matera [Italy], it was cloudy, which doesn’t at all look as brutal as it does in hard sun, so we actually came back and shot again to get a hard sun there. But that was the only thing that mattered that day was that it looked hard.In this case, we obviously had worked on soundstages first and established scenes. We decided scenes should be foggy and rainy. And then you come to the real world, which we were promised that in March, end of March, in the Moors, it’s gonna be miserable… in a good way. So we come there and it’s sunny and windy. If it’s sunny you can fog it up and make it look miserable, but if it’s windy, the fog disappears. But we did it. That was one of the few tools we had to tame nature was to add fog where we want, like when [Cathy and Heathcliff] walk amongst the rocks. That was important, because he’s finding her there and it should be obscured and not so clear.Same when she finds him returning and he’s invisible in the fog. That’s shot on location. There was no fog. It was sunny that day, but we had so much atmospheric smoke to be able to do that. Our genius special effects department was able to turn on a cue to make him invisible and become visible in a few seconds. It was like everything was in a play – like improvised jazz. It was cool how that eventually worked. On stage, that’s much easier because you can just do what you want.”I’m curious, you had said earlier you love learning. What did you learn that you were able to put into practice on Wuthering Heights?“I guess what I mean is that you learn so much from the people around you, especially intelligent directors that take you on this journey and develop a film together. It’s in all the small details that you learn from a director. It evokes situations that creates challenges that you have to figure things out that you don’t know how to do yet, and then you learn your own work.That happened, for example, on this film. I felt there was a certain amount of theatricality Emerald wanted. It’s sort of like these fantastical devices in the sets, like a rock [juts] out into the kitchen and the house is grown over by these cancerous [tumors] that are weird fabrics. There was always a level for allowance for that. At the same time, we felt that, instead of shooting on a green screen, or build a massive, super expensive Volume, I love the soft drop textiles that you print on and then you can light them for different looks – for a flat look or backlights through the clouds for a dramatic look. And that’s what we did on this film, which I’ve done before and isn’t what I learned.The thing was we were trying to get the sense, in the stage, that it was gonna be very real feeling. We knew it was going to have a stage look, but make it as realistic as we could make it. So we decided to paint the imagery so that it would have dark clouds on the top of the backdrop. On the ceiling, normally, you put white silks to create the skylight. But that bothers you if you shoot these big VistaVision shots indoors and you see the ceiling, it would have to be replaced by the visual effects. So we figured out, with that challenge, I recalled that I had seen gray silks. We did a gray silk that was the same color as the clouds in the photographed backdrop that went seamlessly together on the ceiling so the trans light kept going into the sky. With enough atmosphere, you could not see it wasn’t sky. I learned that the look of that, when you have that big gray sky, it looks so much more realistic than a white silk. So from then on, for every movie now, I’m gonna use that for sky. If you want to have light, it’s still soft, but if you pull out the lights, it doesn’t reflect lights, which would look fake.The beauty of working with interesting people is that you always learn so much. In the directing, it’s interesting to learn how directors work with actors. The actors are so important for the story and the cinematography, for me, is the tool – with the light and the lensing and the closeness or distance from the actor and the composition – that should do similar things that sound and music does with the audio.I think the cinematography should serve the emotions. It could be subtle, but it should rather serve the emotions than the plot. I’d rather feel the right feeling with the characters, if I just see an image, than if I understand what’s going on with the plot. It’s really important to focus on that. I feel like I want to be directed like Emerald’s directing actors. I want her to tell me what she tells the actors, because it’s about those things. That’s how we get the images in our heads. It’s better than coming in with visual images to show. I like to work with her telling me how to feel: like say ‘miserable.’ Well, how does that look in this world? Stuff like that.” (Courtney Howard)
What is your favourite book by a dead author?Wide Sargasso Sea is the book that revived Jean Rhys’s fortunes — brought her back from the dead while she was still alive, as it were — and it’s great, of course.
Haworth is a picturesque market town which was once the home of the famous Brontë sisters, a trio of 19th Century authors known for such classics as Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, along with a multitude of classic works with gothic themes and emotional resonance.It’s a lovely town, boasting narrow cobbled streets and a hodgepodge of old-fashioned shops, charming cafes and pubs, and surrounded by rugged moorland. I had a great time simply walking through the centre for the very first time and discovering all it had to offer.I was sent out to check out a restaurant called Haworth Old Post Office, located in the town’s converted old post office – the place where the famous sisters would have sent off their unpublished manuscripts. The post office dates all the way back to 1829, when the first penny post was used. (Samuel Port)
Imagine wandering through the desolate Yorkshire moors of Jane Eyre, or confronting the deadly Count in Bram Stoker's Dracula. It's one thing to imagine characters in these settings; it's another thing entirely to imagine yourself in them.Thanks to a new AI tool developed by chatbot program Character.ai, however, you can step into your favourite public domain novels with ease. The platform's latest "Books" feature enables users to literally insert themselves into some of the most beloved works of literature, from Pride and Prejudice to Frankenstein.Not only can you place yourself within the story, you can also embody existing characters, tinker with storylines, switch up settings and even change endings.Put simply, you can rewrite the classics.But should we? Interactive storytelling is nothing new – Netflix has released several "choose your own adventure" films since 2017, and video games have been playing with the concept for decades. These texts exist to be reinterpreted. The same can't necessarily be said for centuries-old novels. (Nell Geraets and Karl Quinn)
When I was 10, I walked into Duncraig Library as I'd done every week of my life thus far. I'd already worked my way through all the Enid Blytons, all the horse books, all the Chalet School series and all the Nancy Drews. The librarian wouldn't let me into the adult section of the library until I was 12. So I had to find something else in the children's section to occupy me. I decided to start reading the classics. Yes, I was a nerdy, bookish 10-year-old.I started with the "A" section, but some other nerdy, bookish 10-year-old must have visited the library that day because there were no Jane Austens left. I continued onto "B", and found a book called Jane Eyre. More than half the front cover featured a large image of Rochester on his rearing horse. In the bottom left-hand corner, taking up only about one-eighth of the cover space, was a woman. Yes, the woman whose name was on the front cover of the book was the smallest thing on that cover. That didn't strike me as particularly odd at the time — feminism hadn't quite found its way to Warwick, where I lived.I took the book home and started to read. Within a couple of chapters, I was lost forever to the magic of Charlotte Bronte's story. In an interview with Emerald Fennell about her Wuthering Heights adaptation, she said that her movie reflected the impression the book made on her when she first read it as a 14-year-old. That resonated with me. Back when I read Jane Eyre, what stayed with me was the so-called madwoman in the attic and Jane's best friend dying of consumption. Mysterious fires in bedrooms, men stabbed and bitten, an entire house burned down by the madwoman. It was only much later that I realised the main character of Jane had left hardly a mark on my consciousness.But when I reread the book as an adult, I couldn't believe that I'd been so seduced by the darkness and that I'd entirely overlooked the best part of the book — its heroine. (...)It was time to find a different era and setting for my next book, meaning I'd have to brainstorm an idea from nothing for the first time in years. (....)What if I reimagined Jane Eyre in some way? Immediately I could see Rochester's gothic Thornfield Hall transformed into the gothic Chateau Marmont. I had my book idea. I'd write The Chateau On Sunset, a reimagining of Jane Eyre, set at Hollywood's infamous Chateau Marmont during its 1950s and 1960s heyday. And I would tackle the sense of dissatisfaction I'd had with Jane's story since rereading it as an adult.What was I dissatisfied about? Well, there are many occasions in the book when Jane looks out at the hills that form a barricade between her and the rest of the world. She longs to cross those hills. She yearns to see the world, to have adventures. On the very first page of Bronte's novel, Jane's reading a book about birds and she imagines what it would be like to travel to the same places those birds do — the Arctic, Siberia. Does she? No. There's just one occasion in the book when she escapes beyond those hills. She runs across the moors and finds herself in a house with a man who's probably even more obsessive than Rochester. She promptly escapes back to Thornfield and her true love, Edward Rochester. It's no spoiler to say that, reader, she marries him. It's a romantically satisfying ending. As a child, I was completely happy with it. But as an adult I wondered — did Jane ever regret not having seen the wider world that she so longed to experience? Was there a way to give Jane Eyre an ending that was both romantically satisfying and personally satisfying?That's what's so wonderful about literary reimaginings. Jane Eyre is one of the first feminist heroines of literature. Who can forget her declaring to Rochester, in an era when the word feminism was foreign to most, that she was his equal? (Read more)
Favorite fictional literary character: Jane Eyre. There’s something powerful about a young woman of little social standing deciding she cares enough about herself to stick by her principles.
Poppy Nash: What are your favourite three movies of all time?JCG: Pride and Prejudice (2005), Jane Eyre (2011) and Marie Antoinette.
And this year’s Wuthering Heights film saw a tourism spike at Haworth and the Brontë Parsonage Museum. Haworth’s cobbles are well trodden by influencers wandering, wistfully, with a Brontë book. (Emma Clayton)
Saturday 25 April 2026 (morning)10.00 Talk by Irene Lofthouse: ‘Brontës, Boggarts & Brogues*: local voices and influences that helped shape the Brontës’* (Boggarts are mythical creatures found across cultures, and Brogue is the Irish term for accent/dialect.)The Brontë children were surrounded by storytellers from birth, hearing tales from different voices and areas. Their parents were from the North of Ireland and Cornwall, both places redolent with myths and legends. Genteel company in Thornton where the siblings were born would have contrasted with servants’ speech, which in turn would have been different to that in Haworth and Keighley. Dialect, myths and legends in each place were influenced by past migration and by new communities settling in the areas during the Brontës’ lives. In this talk, Irene looks at these influences, the accents and dialect the Brontës heard around them, and how these may have found their way into their written work.Irene Lofthouse is a first-generation Yorkshirewoman of Irish heritage who’s been telling tales since childhood. She’s careered around many incarnations – caver, consultant, shoe-seller, storyteller, petrol-pumper, publisher amongst many others – but stories have been integral to them all. A cultural historian/researcher, writer and actor, Irene’s appeared on the stage, in a Ken Russell film, on TV, radio and at festivals performing her one-woman plays or giving talks. She’s particularly interested in making visible, invisible or forgotten lives and voices, in exploring new ways of seeing old stories and collaborating with literacy, historic agencies and universities to create accessible and fun learning resources. Co-founder of two community theatre groups, her poems and prose feature in many anthologies and she is a trustee of various associations including the J.B. Priestley Society. In Keighley, where she lives, Irene leads regular tours ‘In the footsteps of the Brontës’.11.30 Presentation by Sharon Wright of the book Let Me In: the Brontës in Bricks and Mortar.Sharon Wright, author of The Mother of the Brontës and editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, will present the book Let Me In: the Brontës in Bricks and Mortar (2025), co-authored by Sharon and by Ann Dinsdale, principal curator at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.Guided walkSunday 26 April 2026Guided walk around Brontë places in Brussels in the Place Royale area. Fee: €10 per person, payable in advance. Free for members of the Brussels Brontë Group. To register, email brusselsbrontegroup@gmail.com.
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Brontë Birthplace EventsDate: Tuesday 14 April 2026 via Zoom at 18.30In 1842, a few years before becoming bestselling authors, Charlotte and Emily Brontë travelled to Brussels to improve their French. For Charlotte, her two years as a pupil and then teacher at the Pensionnat Heger were pivotal for her, both as a writer and personally. Life in a foreign city and the influence of her literature teacher Constantin Heger, for whom she developed something of an obsession, shaped her intellectually and emotionally and gave birth to two novels, Villette and The Professor. Drawing on Charlotte’s letters and novels, Helen MacEwan will look at her experiences in the Belgian capital -both positive and negative – and how these fed into her writings.Helen MacEwan is a retired translator and former teacher who has lived in Brussels for the last 20 years. Shortly after moving to the Belgian capital, she re-read Villette and became fascinated in Charlotte and Emily’s time in the city and the novels that came out of it. Helen is the author of The Brontës in Brussels and of Through Belgian Eyes: Charlotte Brontë’s Troubled Brussels Legacy. She has also written the life of Winifred Gérin, the renowned Brontë biographer. Her book Down the Belliard Steps: Discovering the Brontës in Brussels recounts her adventures as founder of the Brussels Brontë Group, which has been promoting interest in the Brontës through talks and guided walks since 2006.
It is now managed by the charity Brontë Spirit, which hosts community events, drinks festivals, craft fairs and wedding parties, and, in 2013, hosted a concert by rock singer Patti Smith.Council members voted to grant the licence on the condition a noise limiter be installed to prevent overly loud music from being played inside.Kathryn Thornton told members she had been organising events in the building for 14 years and there had only been one issue during that time.She said: "We never get complaints from neighbours. It is a great community asset for the village."She told the panel they had decided to apply for a full licence as it would reduce the reliance on Temporary Event Notices, which venues are only allowed a limited number of each year.However, the council's environmental health department said it was likely to get complaints that would "not easily be resolved".A spokesperson said: "I have received a complaint in July 2025 about the school rooms from a nearby resident, alleging loud music, raised voices and litter being thrown over the wall into gardens."The complainant said they could not sit out in their garden or open their windows when temporary events were being held, especially weddings or events involving music."Thornton questioned the complaint, pointing out there are three pubs a short distance from the schoolroom.Charlotte Kaygill, environmental health officer for Bradford Council, said the premises was not suitable for the licence, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.She said the protected nature of the building raised problems – the large, single glazed windows cannot be replaced with double glazing.Thornton acknowledged some bands had been "loud" in the past, but said having a dedicated licence holder on site would prevent this from happening in the future.She said the hall was more likely to host craft fairs than noisy parties, adding: "The School Room is a hive of activity, and we want to keep it vibrant. The last thing we want to do is upset anyone." (Chris Young)
Professor Aoife McLysaght, Irish geneticist and a professor in the Molecular Evolution Laboratory of the Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College DublinThis is a VERY hard question, and the answer seems to change over time. I remember reading Black Beauty and Alice in Wonderland as a child and loving those so much that I asked my grandparents to get me more of the same. They had beautiful hardback covers with gold embossed decoration, and I decided that I needed more books that looked like that, presuming I would enjoy them just as much. They found books with matching covers but they were the significantly more advanced books Jane Eyre and Little Women – these were quite a bit of a step up for me at the time, but then Jane Eyre became my favourite book. (Adele Miner)
If we look at “Wuthering Heights” solely within the context of what it sets out to achieve, Emerald Fennell’s latest project is a great success. As described by Fennell, the adaptation of Emily Brontë’s beloved novel is supposed to be a mix of what the 40-year-old director remembers from when she first read it at age 14 and what she wished had happened in Brontë’s version of the story. The resulting film may be far from a faithful recreation, but at least she’s the first person to admit that she “can’t say (she’s) making ‘Wuthering Heights.’” Hence the title’s stylized quotes.To give credit where credit is due, what results is, admittedly, a story best left in quotations — and not always to bad effect. The costume and set design, while historically inaccurate, establish a bold and evocative aesthetic that immediately sets the film apart from its moodier source material. The love story, while certainly racier than Brontë’s version, maintains the bones of Catherine (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff’s (Jacob Elordi) original tale of dark obsession and petty revenge. And, if we can forget for a moment that they are meant to be portraying teenagers, Robbie and Elordi’s performances are points of praise. It is, by all accounts, a perfectly decent film, so long as it is viewed only as exactly what Fennell promised: a pretty dream, colored not by realism but fantasy. [...]“Wuthering Heights” may have accomplished all it set out to do, but we cannot forget that art is not meant to be consumed in a vacuum, and the politics behind decisions like these are felt by audiences even if they aren’t addressed by creators. Film adaptations have a certain responsibility to engage with the source material as they translate it to a new medium and, in doing so, introduce it to a new audience. In the wake of a film like this, it becomes impossible to ignore how much is truly at stake in that act of translation, particularly when the role of translator is not taken as seriously as it should be. Fennell was perhaps right when she said “Wuthering Heights” is a difficult novel to adapt, though I don’t know that I agree with her assertion that to do so would be impossible. Instead, I am left with the impression that to do so might simply have been impossible for her.So, if you’re expecting an accurate adaptation of Brontë’s novel going into this film, expect to be disappointed. Instead of a harrowing family study that explores the nuances of generational trauma, obsession and revenge, “Wuthering Heights,” in Fennell’s hands, becomes a campy, sex-driven love story in the vein of Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” (a far superior film). Yet, while Fennell might be a master of cheap aesthetics — something that may be enough to make some people forgive the movie’s many shortcomings — I personally struggle to think highly of a film that is essentially just $80 million fanfiction. I’d rather just reread the book. (Camille Nagy)
Waterstones Brussels and the Brontë Brussels Group presentMarch 12, 19.00-21.00Waterstones BrusselsWe’re holding on to the winter chill just a little longer as we head to the English Moors for a very special event, in partnership with @brusselsbrontegroup. Join us at our shop on Thursday, March 12, at 7:30 PM.We’ll be discussing all things Wuthering Heights! Expect games, drinks, and fabulous prizes for our lucky winners.The event is free, but be sure to RSVP at events.brussels@waterstones.com
When most of us think of the Brontë sisters, we are transported to the wild, windswept moors of Yorkshire in northern England, where the celebrated sisters were born and raised – and where many of their books were set.But for a crucial two-year period in the early 1840s, two of the Brontë sisters – Charlotte and Emily – briefly became Brusseleirs. From 1842 to 1843, before their literary careers took off, the women taught at a girls’ boarding school called Pensionnat Heger in the city centre.“Very few people would associate the Brontës with Brussels, and they wouldn't think of Charlotte and Emily Brontë eating waffles in Grand Place – but they probably did,” says Helen MacEwan, a leading expert on the Brontë sisters and co-founder of the Brussels Brontë Group. (...)Helen, who moved to Brussels in 2004, has made it her mission in life to educate people about the Brontë sisters and their time in Brussels. Villette provided her gateway into what she describes as her “obsession” with the Brontës.“Shortly after moving here to work, I re-read Villette and became fascinated by the Brontë sisters’ time in Brussels,” says Helen. “You could say I became obsessed.”The novel resonated with her because, she explains, it is an “expat novel”.“It’s about an expat in Brussels observing, trying to adjust to a foreign city and foreign life. And it feels very modern, not only is it about a working woman, but there's a lot about mental illness in it – depression and isolation – and finding your place in a foreign city.”According to Helen, Charlotte Brontë’s feelings towards Belgium were “intense, but they were also painful”.“It was the place where she fell in love,” she says. “But she had mixed feelings because it was an unrequited love.”Charlotte was, Helen explains, “fairly satirical about the country and the people in general”. She criticised Belgians, primarily for their Catholicism, but also for being “too phlegmatic, too laid back – and for not really caring very deeply about anything”. (...)Over the years, Helen and the Brussels Brontë Group have made valiant efforts to inform people about the Brontë sisters’ link to Brussels – but she feels more can be done by local authorities to promote the connection.“I've always thought that the fact that the Bronte sisters lived here for two years is a really good literary link for Brussels and Brussels has never made as much of it as it could,” says Helen.In addition to the guided walks (organised via Waterstones) the group, which was founded in 2006, has organised numerous literary events over the years to celebrate the Brontë link.Emerald Fennel’s recent film interpretation of Emily Brontë’s only novel, Wuthering Heights, has been a boon for the group, reigniting interest in the sisters’ work among a new generation of readers.While the reviews for film have been mixed to say the least, Helen is not among the naysayers. “Let's just say that I went expecting to hate it, and I found that I was quite well entertained,” she says. “It's just visually so wonderful.” (Katie Westwood)
Hamnet author Maggie O’Farrell has spoken about the figures who have shaped and inspired her career, as she appears on The Independent’s Influence List marking International Women’s Day.From winning the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020 to seeing Hamnet adapted for the stage by the Royal Shakespeare Company — and most recently transformed into a star-studded film featuring leading British talent — O’Farrell has reflected further on the literary influences that have shaped her work.“There are so many women I look up to,” she says.“Creatively, I think about the Brontë sisters in their passage, writing, all three of them sat around the table and discussing their work and walking around and round the room reading it aloud to each other.” (Lucy Leeson)
Plans for an escape room attraction on a picturesque street near the world-famous Brontë Parsonage in Haworth have been rejected.The application included converting the upper floors of two Grade II listed cottages into an eight-room venue above a cheese shop but planners said the works would result in "substantial unjustified harm" to the building. (Chris Young)
It’s incredible to think that several of the greatest English novels were written by different authors in the same house, let alone that they were all related, and talent as rare as the Brontë sisters seems unbelievable, but in their Yorkshire home, titles like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall were penned by Charlotte, Emily, and Anne.The siblings were born in the village of Thornton, before moving to nearby Haworth, where their father became the perpetual curate at the parsonage – it was this small village, surrounded by sweeping countryside moors and perpetually gloomy weather, that inspired the sisters’ work, although one street in particular unlocked the key to their eventual success.Take a trip to Haworth, and you can visit the Brontë Parsonage, where relics of the family’s creative endeavours and personal lives are on display… You can even see the very spot where Emily succumbed to her weakening health, passing away at the age of just 30, but once you walk a short distance up the street, past the churchyard where you can see a plaque dedicated to Emily and Charlotte, you’re on the main street that runs through the village, and it was here that the sisters were granted access to a world beyond their own.
Last year, fellow Jane Austen fans had a bumper harvest of new shows and audiobooks as part of the 250th anniversary of her birth.And though the response to Emerald Fennell’s 2026 film version of Wuthering Heights has been pretty mixed, there’s no denying it’s brought about a bit of a Brontë boom; sales of the book have skyrocketed.(If you ask us, that’s a good reason to adapt the two Brontë novels that have never had a TV or movie version made).To me, that also means we’re long overdue for an Elizabeth Gaskell revival. After all, the author is said to have been influenced by Austen’s Pride & Prejudice when writing North & South (to great success, IMO).She also wrote the world’s first controversial Brontë biography, The Life of Charlotte Brontë; she had been friends with the subject. (...)I think The New York Times were right to call her a “very Victorian feminist”. And I reckon fans of Brontë and Austen will enjoy her novels immensely; I certainly did. (Amy Glover)
Eat your heart out, Emerald Fennell.You may have the alluring stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi cavorting on the moors in your crimson adaptation of “Wuthering Heights.” But for radioactive romance, you can’t beat Washington.Emily Brontë’s Cathy and Heathcliff are selfish, manipulative creatures, destroying each other and all around them as they indulge their passions and egos. But their damage was kept to one windswept village.With MAGA’s version of “Wuthering Heights,” the far less alluring but equally intertwined Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski have been cavorting over the swamp, scandalizing the capital as they’ve spread their cruelty far and wide. (To Lewandowski’s credit, he didn’t try to kill a dog like Heathcliff did. That’s Noem’s department.) (...)Like Heathcliff, Lewandowski is known as a menacing presence who has been accused of having some dark physical exchanges with women. (Now there’s a dog Noem won’t put down.) (...)Like Cathy in “Wuthering Heights,” Noem was aspirational, always trying to move up. Cathy traded up to the big house nearby; Kristi commandeered the Coast Guard commandant’s waterfront residence. (Maureen Dowd)
Books, unsurprisingly, are his lifelong companions. As a child, he was shaped by classics such as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. (Rashmi Gopal Rao)
Jane Eyre´by Charlotte BrontëA landmark Victorian novel tracing Jane’s journey from hardship to self-respect. Her insistence on dignity and independence gives the romance enduring depth and power. (Sangeeta Das)
And now, the Wuthering Heights 2026 section:
El enorme mérito de la versión cinematográfica 2026 de Cumbres borrascosas es haber destruido, con una ráfaga de ametralladora de utilería FN SCAR–H color rosada, el malentendido –la maldición bienintencionada– trenzado durante casi dos siglos sobre Emily Brontë y su obra.El grito de horror propinado por las lectoras de literatura romántica ante la brutalidad –el grado cero de sevicia– del héroe brontëano del film, Heathcliff, es el grito de todas las generaciones que se rehusaron a aceptar la verdad intolerable de la demoníaca novela original.Ya fuera por razones de marketing, por su asociación con el género de terror, porque las prácticas BDSM exploten las taquillas; ya sea por los motivos más espurios, viles, bajos, antiartísticos y mercantiles, ninguno va a lograr opacar el hecho contundente de que esta versión capturó el espíritu bestial de la novela.Un espíritu que ninguna de las hermosas –románticas– versiones anteriores pudieron tomar. Aunque Lawrence Olivier haya sido el más grande actor trágico inglés y Juliet Binoche atesore toda la espiritualidad de la que carece Margot Robbi; pese a que Ralph Fiennes –¡un Heathclif rubio!– actuara y transpirara el personaje, cosa que no pudo hacer Jacob Elordi; aun así, las adaptaciones anteriores de Cumbres borrascosas son más infieles a Brontë que la directora Emerald Fennelll.A excepción, claro, del genial Luis Buñuel, que con el 1% del presupuesto de Fennelll, bajo los chaparrales tórridos de México y en las peores condiciones posibles, con actores de telenovelas con acento polaco –pese a que la productora se llamaba Tepeyac– logró realizar la más embrujada y fantasmagórica versión de Cumbres borrascosas del cine.El artefacto se llamó Abismos de pasión y, a diferencia del film de Fennelll, el suyo comulga hasta el tuétano con la pasión metafísica, el material del que está hecha la novela. Con sus actores de cuarta categoría, un vestuario lastimoso y los acentos espurios, Buñuel trazó con maestría las tensiones entre una superficie dramática y las profundidades del bien y del mal.Porque Cumbres borrascosas, y eso Buñuel lo entendió muy bien, es un romance metafísico: trata más de fuerzas que de personas. (Translation)
Emerald Fennell’s misbegotten adaptation of ‘Wuthering Heights’ destroys the very structure of Emily Brontë’s classic story. (...)But for most of the film’s running time, I was bored. After about an hour, I began to wonder when, how, and if all of this was going to end. Part of the problem is that for all their strenuous exertions, there’s no chemistry between Elordi and Robbie at all. Elordi is good-looking and swarthy enough, but he doesn’t have the hammy charisma of, say, Laurence Olivier in William Wyler’s 1939 adaptation. It doesn’t help that, for the first third of Fennell’s movie before he makes his fortune and cleans himself up into Hot Mr. Darcy, Heathcliff resembles a stringy-haired, bushy-bearded hobo (like Charles Manson, but a lot taller). Whenever he kissed Margot Robbie, much less licked her fingers, I recoiled on her behalf. (...)Nor is Robbie well-served by the movie’s much-praised but actually ugly and unflattering costumes—the handiwork of Jacqueline Durran (who also designed the costumes for Barbie). Nearly every one of Robbie’s frocks features a tight-waisted bodice that makes her look like an opera coloratura instead of a Yorkshire ingenue, and a neckline (if it can be called that) cut to emphasise her heaving cleavage (I don’t know whether it was push-up bras or nursing, but Robbie isn’t that busty). (Charlotte Allen)
I am a sucker for movie adaptations of literary texts. So, despite the deluge of bad press, I simply had to watch Emerald Fennell’s recent remake of Wuthering Heights. Let’s say, the only good thing to have come out of that experience was my keen desire to revisit Emily Brontë’s first and only novel, published in 1847 under the pseudonym “Ellis Bell”, a year before her untimely death at the age of 30.My singular takeaway this time around is a deep appreciation of the story’s resistance to following a single arc or steady moral compass. The plot is unsuited to quick judgements because it is hard to affix feminist or misogynist labels on the text and be done with it. The psychological complexity of Brontë’s characters creates a slippery cognitive terrain for the reader. The frequent twists and turns in the plot, triggered by the gap between action and intention, leave us confused, unsure of whether to align our feelings with Catherine or Heathcliff, the two central figures. This difficulty also explains Fennell’s Mills & Boons-style interpretation in her movie version. The only way she could attempt to tame, and make presentable, a sublime but rugged masterpiece was by turning it into a Hollywood-style sob story. (Somak Ghoshal)
What remains largely unacknowledged is the middle ground between these poles – between the “savage” and the over-civilised, between material necessity and aesthetic excess. It is precisely this missing middle that makes the film so revealing. In glossing over labour while amplifying wardrobe spectacle, Wuthering Heights inadvertently mirrors the logic of contemporary fashion culture.Clothes come and go. Identities shift. Surfaces remain immaculate. What quietly disappears is the work – and the responsibility – that makes such transformations possible.Wuthering Heights ultimately gestures toward a reality the film itself only partially acknowledges. Beneath the heightened emotions and romantic excess lies a far more persistent force: the clothes that quietly regiment bodies, environments, and outcomes. (Piret Ilves)
Con todo esto, Fenell ha hecho su película importándole un bledo el realismo, la coherencia histórica y, sobre todo, la fidelidad a la obra original, porque a lo que es fiel a su propia visión y a lo que para ella significa la novela. Y, francamente, nada que objetar a esto. La creadora, cualquier creador, puede hacer lo que le dé la gana con los materiales previos. Libertad creativa, se llama eso. (...)¿Que le ha salido desequilibrada y desigual? No hay duda. ¿Que a ratos funciona y a ratos no? Así es. ¿Que es muy bella, pero en algunos momentos parece carecer de alma? También, también. Pero, ¿que esto es cine autoral, por más comercial que parezca la operación y todo el marketing previo? Indudablemente. (Áurea Ortiz Villeta) (Translation)
Esta Cumbres Borrascosas, es pésima, porque no cuenta la historia real, sino que un relato frívolo de quienes son la pareja de actores "bella" de la época. Obvio, no busca ser la versión definitiva y eso está bien, pero no es una película para quien espere un romance gótico clásico. Es una disección del amor cuando se convierte en obsesión. Y en ese sentido, es coherente, aunque no siempre equilibrada, lo cual la hace olvidable. (Leonardo A. Ramiro Reyes) (Translation)
Before we get into the meat of the thing, WB’s Wuthering Heights passed $75 million domestic on Friday and had previously passed $200 million globally on Thursday, with an as-of-Friday $205 million worldwide total. That probably deserved its own post, but... at least for the moment, discussing yet another “not what conventional wisdom says is successful” win for Warner Bros. is yet again a bitter pill. Once again, the likely reward for such efforts will not be fortune, glory, and/or promotions, but another round of consolidation-motivated lay-offs. That’s not even getting into broader concerns about consolidation and the political machinations behind what gets made and why.
A lucky Jacob Elordi fan got the surprise of her life last month when the Aussie actor gifted her with a piece of priceless memorabilia.Patricia Albassit had a chance encounter with the 28-year-old Brisbane-born actor during a commercial flight while he was in Australia to promote his new movie, Wuthering Heights.After landing, Elordi excused himself and ducked into a nearby bookshop and returned with a copy of Emily Brontë's famous novel.Elordi gifted her the book after he signed his autograph and included a message: 'Dear Patricia! I hope the sun comes out for you today. Love, Heathcliff.' (Anthony James)
Hace unos días, el portal Milanuncios anunciaba que el estreno de Cumbres borrascosas el pasado 13 de febrero había disparado las búsquedas del libro en plataformas de segunda mano, que habían aumentado un 455%. Club Victòria y Proa –que disponen de versiones en catalán del libro de Emily Brontë– han explicado a la ACN que el film ha impactado positivamente en las ventas, ampliando y renovando lectores. "Hay una nueva generación que lo ha descubierto, y eso es significativo" sostiene Josep Lluch de Proa. Blanca Pujals, de Club Victòria, cuenta que tuvieron que sacar adelante una nueva edición para servir bien a todas las librerías y subraya que es su título más vendido desde febrero. (...)El éxito de Cumbres borrascosas también ha puesto el foco en otras obras y ha hecho que lectores se interesen por ejemplo por Jane Eyre, de la hermana de Emily Brontë, Charlotte, un hecho que Lluch encuentra comprensible teniendo en cuenta que se trata de otra de las "grandes novelas inglesas del XIX".También lo confirma Pujals, que reconoce que ya se está notando "tímidamente" y que puede ser una tendencia que vaya a más. "Cuando uno empieza con una Brontë, tiene ganas de más", bromea. (Borja Duñó) (Translation)
Incidentally, The Sunday Times Bestsellers list puts Wuthering Heights as number 5 in the Fiction paperback section.
No sabemos quién es Heathcliff. En la novela, es un crío sucio, hambriento y oscuro que el señor Earnshaw recoge en las calles de Liverpool, lo que ahora llamaríamos un MENA, acrónimo que se ha convertido en un insulto que dice más y peor de quién lo enarbola en una manifestación contra un centro de acogida, que de los propios niños solos en un mundo tan violento como el de Cumbres borrascosas. (...)A Heathcliff, de existencia y corazón miserable, nada le importa más que su recuerdo y a los cineastas no les importa que la novela vaya mucho más allá de la muerte de Cathy. Emily no redime a nadie. Todos pierden en Cumbres borrascosas y, sin embargo, cuánta belleza en esta novela despiadada. (Mercedes Corbillón) (Translation)
El Español (Spain) visits Haworth, including the KVWR heritage train, the Parsonage and the moors. El Comercio (Perú) mentions a live Peruvian TV Cumbres Borrascosas from 1964, of which no recording survives. The Telegraph & Argus asks locals about Haworth pronunciation and well... it's complicated.
A view of Whitby Abbey framed by a whalebone arch under a cloudy sky, showcasing historical architecture in North Yorkshire, England.Sometimes, when a storm hits the UK, rain batters the pavements and wind whips the trees, it's easy to feel swept up in the kind of awe-inspiring conditions that helped Emily Brontë to write her classic novel, Wuthering Heights.There is a little town in Yorkshire, 100miles from Cathy and Heathcliff's home, but steeped in as much Gothic drama, where every day feels like you've tumbled into such dark Victorian melodrama. (...)If you walk along the coast from the nearby villages of Saltmoore and Sandsend, the gothic ruins stay within your sightline. Lucky hikers will get to see the sea fog - which locals used to believe was the fiery breath of a dragon - come in to cover the abbey. You'll feel like you're trekking the same paths Heathcliff did as he searched for Catherine's ghost, not least because Emerald Fennell's new film was shot about two hours away, in the Yorkshire Dales. (...)The most remarkable sight comes when you walk back towards Whitby, as when the fog clears, the Abbey can be seen looming through a gap between the cliffs. It's terrifying and awe-inspiring all at once. I felt drawn towards the ruins, much as Cathy is drawn to Heathcliff or as an entranced Lucy is drawn to Dracula. How could anyone resist such a terrible sight? (Yasmin Vince)
I was advised to visit Hill Garden and I’m so glad I did. The sun shone down on the terrace, and it was a nice place to sit and gather my thoughts after having walked around for a couple of hours. I’ve been reading Wuthering Heights in preparation for the new movie that’s coming out in a few days, and I couldn’t help but feel like Hill Garden came straight out of a Brontë novel. (Helena Sauriat)
The brutal Brontës! Wuthering Heights author Emily beat up her dog, toothless Charlotte spitefully held back Anne's career and all three died close to their 30th birthdays... not to mention their opium addict brother.
The famous family of writers endured everything from opium addiction to water contaminated by a cemetery, as well as a string of tragically early deaths that saw three out of four siblings - including their only brother, Branwell - deceased within a year of one another, all close to their 30th birthdays.And their precocious beginnings are almost as well documented as their 'spiteful' attitudes, with biographers remarking on the sisters' history with animal abuse, disdain of young children and 'anger management issues'.As revealed by literary critic Claire Harman in Charlotte Brontë: A Life, there was also the matter of the sisters' 'plain' and 'poorly' appearance.According to the writer, Emily had a large protruding tooth, while Charlotte had hardly any teeth at all.Undersized and undernourished, she was described by her fellow novelist, Elizabeth Gaskell, as having a forehead that was 'square, broad and rather overhanging'.Emily, for one, while posted at Law Hill School in Halifax, reportedly said she 'preferred the company of the house dog' over her pupils, as shared by author Juliet Barker.
And while not as combustible as her sister, Charlotte wasn't to be trifled with either. When she taught at a girls' school in Brussels, she gave any student who displeased her a tremendous tongue-lashing.'If those girls knew how I loathed their company, they would not seek mine as much as they do,' she wrote in her journal.In fact, several of her pupils seemed to have loathed her as much as she loathed them - one even threw a stone at her.
Charlotte's family, it seems, were not immune from her criticisms. In an introduction to her sister Anne's second novel, Charlotte shared that 'Wildfell Hall it hardly appears to me desirable to preserve'.'The choice of subject in that work is a mistake – it was too little consonant with the character – tastes and ideas of the gentle, retiring, inexperienced writer,' she continued.Historians have dubbed the jabs an attempt to 'consign her sister’s novel to oblivion'.Emily's temperament was also well known and has been a topic of discussion for historians - despite claims that Charlotte had tried to 'clean up' her sister's image posthumously.
Sex-mad doggers are romping in the countryside that inspired Wuthering HeightsAs new raunchy film version of Wuthering Heights has just hit cinemas randy revellers are getting frisky where the Brontë sisters penned their acclaimed books.And we can reveal that randy revellers are getting frisky where the Brontë sisters penned their acclaimed books. There’s plenty of bodice-ripping action as lust-crazed couples invade the moors around the picturesque parish of Haworth for bawdy al-fresco frolics. (John Ward)
And Jacob reveals there was sizzling chemistry between him and Margot, who plays love-struck Cathy, from the moment they met.He said: “It’s like, ‘Action’ and it’s like a horse at the race track — straight out of the gates.”But he insists that sex scenes are actually “no different to choreo- graphing a fight scene or a dance sequence”, explaining: “It’s super- technical, especially the scene where, it’s not a sex scene, but where I’m on top [of Margot] with my hands — that’s choreographed because, in that kind of light, you only have so much space to move. (Nadia Cohen)
A (Leeds) reader of The Sunday Times defends Jacob Elordi's Yorkshire accent in the film.
Most film adaptations of Wuthering Heights leave half the story untold. And while Emerald Fennell’s steamy adaptation may have caused a surge in sales of Emily Brontë’s novel, it is very much a different creation. The Easy Classics version follows the original far more literally.
However, the true failing of “Wuthering Heights” lies in its unwillingness to offer anything genuinely new. We are, perhaps, well past the cultural moment where explicit sex alone can pass for provocation. The shock value has dulled, and what remains feels curiously dated. The omission of the novel’s second half, a section frequently sacrificed in screen adaptations of Wuthering Heights, further positions this film as just another iteration: more polished, glamorous and decidedly raunchier than its predecessors, yet reluctant to meaningfully reinterpret its source material. The whirlwind sexual crescendo ultimately achieves little. Cathy’s fate is preordained and her death carries no tragic inevitability when the emotional groundwork has been hollowed out.Gothic literature thrives on transgression and repression: on the past’s refusal to remain buried. Strip away those tensions, and what remains is superficial. Here, the Gothic is reduced to aesthetic texture: wind-swept moors, crimson palettes, feverish bodies, a dark synth-pop soundtrack. Its spirit—moral rot, psychological cruelty, generational obsession—is conspicuously, and regrettably, absent. In the end, while “Wuthering Heights” may dazzle the eye, it hollowly fails to evoke Brontë’s corrosive psychological and social commentary in favour of lavish spectacle, sexualised shock, and aestheticised cruelty. (Hannah Tang in Strand Magazine)
I am a deeply proud Northern lass, and not many media pieces ever acknowledge our little corner of the world. Emily Brontë and her sisters were deeply inspired by the Moors in which they resided. It influenced their writing and greatly impacted their local community for what is now well over the past 170 years. It saddens me that Emily’s deeply intelligent work is being passed off as what is essentially explicit fanfiction (seriously, what was up with kneading the bread?) If this piece wins any awards, I will be questioning Hollywood’s, obviously declining, sanity. (Lily Orton in HerCampus)
Does all this contemporary hindsight into the fabric of Brontë’s epic novel make for a quintessential “Wuthering Heights?” Even allowing that such a thing were possible, probably not. While it presents a stylishly crafted and thrillingly cinematic take on this complex classic, richly enhanced by a superb and adventurous cast, it’s not likely to satisfy anyone looking for a faithful rendition, nor does it reveal a new angle from which the “romance” at its center looks anything other than toxic — indeed, it almost fetishizes the dysfunction. Even without the thorny debate around Heathcliff’s racial identity, there’s plenty here to prompt purists and revisionists alike to find fault with Fennell’s approach.Yet for those looking for a new window into to this perennial classic, and who are comfortable with the radical flourish for which Fennell is already known, it’s an engrossing and intellectually stimulating exploration of this iconic story in a way that exchanges comfortable familiarity for unpredictable chaos — and for cinema fans, that’s more than enough reason to give “Wuthering Heights” a chance. (John Paul King in Los Angeles Blade)
Robbie puts in the worst performance of her career by turning Catherine into a bratty, unbearable hypocrite; meanwhile, Elordi’s script must have only said, ”Stare maniacally”.The film also struggles with its presentation. So much of it feels like a scene from Alice in Wonderland, but without the charm. It’s drab and gross.Even the scenes in Edgar Linton’s mansion, which is supposed to be a grander-than-life setting, have an unsettling, unnatural sheen. It’s like the entire film was shot on a stage, but instead of sets, the film chooses to have a nasty greenscreen backdrop.Funnell committed a terrible practical joke by releasing this film on the weekend of Valentine’s Day. Every couple expecting an intimate, romantic depiction of a famous novel will instead be subjected to a cruel and unusual parody.The film is a miserable experience and is the first truly horrible movie of 2026.Wuthering Heights is showing in cinemas around the country. (Jarryd Rowley in Region)
Then again, maybe Fennell is just having a laugh at our expense. If you want to watch a spiritually faithful adaptation of Wuthering Heights, complete with sexually charged graveyard visits, a decades-long real estate scheme, and uh, yearning in spades, Saltburn is already that movie. It’s hard not to suspect that Fennell, in her clever and cynical way, just wanted to see if she could get away with turning fantasy casting plucked from the recesses of Tumblr into a major motion picture. Because the only other explanation I can conjure for the gooey mess that is “Wuthering Heights” is that Fennell doesn’t realize her promising artistic vision has been cuckooed by something all too ordinary instead. (Nicole Penn in The Dispatch)
The film "Wuthering Heights" is an anti-love story that goes for visual feast and shock factor with the way the characters fulfilled their sexual fantasies rather than an exploration of a fierce love that defies class and convention. (Rachelle Siazon in Philippine Entertainment Portal)
“Cumbres borrascosas”, el libro, el clásico, no se parece a nada porque lleva los vínculos al límite.Heathcliff no es un héroe trágico: es la violencia que una sociedad ejerce sobre él y la que él mismo reproduce, implacable. Catherine queda atrapada entre su deseo y la necesidad de encajar en un orden que la asfixia-Por eso el libro sigue ahí, embrujándonos a todos, y mucho más arriesgado que esta adaptación que le baja el voltaje y la convierte en una versión vistosa, hot y descremada. (Verónica Bonacchi in Diario Rio Negro) (Translation)
Brontë no buscaba la perfección romántica; creó un universo de pasión desmedida, de frustración y de tormento. Un amor áspero, inquietante, que deja el alma en desasosiego. La película, en cambio, parece desconfiar de la inteligencia del espectador, como si fuera necesario subrayarlo todo, explicarlo todo, hacerlo más evidente —incluso a través de escenas prescindibles— para garantizar su comprensión.El final, además, da la impresión de cerrar definitivamente la puerta a la continuación de la historia, como si la segunda generación nunca hubiera existido.En conclusión, si deseas disfrutar plenamente de la película, quizá sea mejor no haber leído la novela. Pero si lo que buscas es comprender la intensidad, la oscuridad y la complejidad del amor que imaginó Emily Brontë, entonces acude al libro… y no esperes demasiado de la película. (María Beatriz Muñoz Ruiz in Diario Sabemos) (Translation)
El resultado es una película que traiciona el espíritu del libro en nombre de una supuesta autenticidad. Porque el corazón de Cumbres borrascosas no es el sexo; es la imposibilidad. Es la herida abierta de un amor que no encuentra lugar en el mundo. Es el resentimiento que fermenta durante años. Es la crueldad que nace del abandono. La novela es violenta, pero su violencia es moral, psicológica, casi metafísica. Aquí, en cambio, la violencia se sexualiza. El dolor se erotiza. Y el espectador asiste a una saturación de escenas íntimas que no construyen personaje ni conflicto: solo ocupan tiempo.Y, sin embargo, la película ofrece una paradoja que la redime parcialmente. En su tramo final, cuando el frenesí carnal se agota y los cuerpos dejan de ocupar el centro del encuadre, algo cambia. De repente, el silencio vuelve a tener peso. Las palabras, esas grandes ausentes durante buena parte del metraje, recuperan su lugar. Los personajes hablan, se enfrentan, se reprochan, se reconocen. Y entonces, casi milagrosamente, la película encuentra la profundidad que había estado buscando a golpes de piel.Es en ese último acto -cuando el deseo ya no se expresa en sudor sino en diálogo- donde asoma la grandeza que el conjunto prometía. Las miradas pesan más que los cuerpos. Las frases hieren más que cualquier escena explícita. El dolor se verbaliza y, al hacerlo, adquiere una dimensión trágica que conecta, por fin, con el espíritu de la novela. Resulta irónico que la adaptación alcance su mejor momento precisamente cuando renuncia a su estrategia más insistente. (Amanda Ramos in El Plural) (Translation)
Una adaptación es una lectura, y las lecturas se definen no sólo por lo que se conserva del original, sino por lo que se elimina. Esa chica de 14 años, si le creemos a Fennell, quería más sexo, y por qué no. Cathy y Heathcliff se lo merecen. Pero hay muchas otras cosas que llevan al infierno en Cumbres Borrascosas, y acá es donde aparecen los lectores con el texto en la mano, porque esas otras cosas son esenciales y no están en la película, ni en texto ni en subtexto.Fennell decide que Heathcliff no sea un abusador, un golpeador y un hombre cruel. ¿Por qué? Heathcliff, de origen incierto, es una víctima de abusos, está tan dañado que se transformó en un monstruo vengativo y solo se hizo rico para destruir a quienes lo rechazaron, maltrataron, degradaron y aislaron. El Heathcliff de Fennell recibe una paliza, pide permiso hasta para besar y jamás resulta peligroso. ¿Por qué llamarlo Heathcliff, entonces? ¿Si no se suicida, es Ofelia la de Hamlet? Fennell también cambia a la esposa de Heathcliff, Isabella, que en la película tiene una relación sadomasoquista con él, más o menos consentida, y chistosa. Elegir como alivio cómico a una mujer en cuatro patas, atada a la chimenea de lo caliente que está con Jacob Elordi es una provocación, por supuesto. Pero resulta que en la novela, esa mujer, después de ser golpeada, y (seguro) violada y encerrada, logra escapar con siete meses de embarazo y tira su anillo a la chimenea de marras, y esto en 1847, cuando la esposa era propiedad del marido. Es muy radical. ¿Por qué convertirla en alguien de quien reírse?Los ejemplos pueden seguir, pero la decisión es clara: la tragedia está aplanada y sustituida por la historia de dos enamorados pasionales separados por las circunstancias y enloquecidos de deseo. En la novela, Heathcliff no vuelve en plan recuperar a su amada, regresa como una tormenta de odio que condensa y perpetúa toda la injusticia social que provocó su daño irreversible. No es cuestión de purismo.(...)A veces, ser ligero y provocador es un alivio, es frescura y fiesta, una forma de desafío al poder. Y otras veces, como en estas Cumbres borrascosas, esa ligereza resulta hueca y reaccionaria. (Translation)
La visione di Fennell, innegabilmente personale, piena di gusto per l’iperbole e di forte intensità visiva, si scontra in definitiva con ciò che rende 'Cime tempestose' un classico: la sua capacità di trasformare dolore e desiderio in un’esperienza narrativa che non si esaurisce nello sguardo ma scava nelle viscere del lettore. Così alla fine, uscendo dalla sala, resta la sensazione di aver assistito a qualcosa di intenso ma incompleto. Come se il film avesse scelto di incarnare la tempesta, rinunciando deliberatamente a mostrarci le sue conseguenze. (Dario Vassallo in PrimoCanale) (Translation)
The best -known adaptation (until this year) is probably the 1939 film with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon – although AIP tried their luck with Timothy Dalton in 1970, and Cliff Richard did a musical Heathcliff, and there was a very respected 1953 BBC television version starring Richard Todd from a script by Nigel (Quatermass Experiment) Kneale. In fact, that BBC version was so respected that in 1959 the ABC decided “wow let’s use 1700 pounds to shoot this script even though it would be cheaper just to import a kinescope of the BBC production and we could have spent the rest of the funds on shooting a something local.” Incidentally, the BBC filmed Kneale’s script again in 1962 with Claire Bloom and Australia’s own Keith Michell in the leads – so, even if Kneale wrote it very hastily, by his own admission, he did pretty well out of it.We’ll be upfront – we haven’t seen the 1959 ABC TV film of Wuthering Heights. It’s entirely possible that no copy survives – but we’ve read a lot about it and reproduce what knowledge we’ve ascertained below. (...)The driving force behind the production was director Alan Burke, who specifically asked to do it. Burke was a competent director and from all accounts a very nice man, but like many Australian directors of his time (and now) he really wanted to be directing foreign scripts rather than local ones. (...)Burke’s production of Wuthering Heights starred deejay Lew Luton as Heathcliff, Delia Williams as Cathy, Annette Andre as Isabella, and Richard Davies as Hindley. It was shot in Sydney and was mostly done live with some prerecorded segments. (Read more) (Stephen Vagg)
Jane Eyre 2011If you’re looking to put more of the psychological in psychological romance, this movie should do it. It’s what Fennell’s movie should have had, with more book accuracy and a weird plot twist. (Hannah Trimble)
Ragioni e sentimenti - radici dei classici e narrazione contemporanea - è il tema di “Incontri d’Autore”, la trasmissione coordinata da Francesca Cosentino, a cura della redazione Cultura e Spettacoli del Giornale Radio Rai, in onda domenica 22 febbraio su Rai Radio1 alle 00.40, per parlare di libri, di letteratura e di tutto quanto ci gira intorno. (...) Natalia Augias racconta della biografia di Charlotte Bronte scritta da Eleonor Houghton. Classici e cinema, le tante versioni di "Cime tempestose” - il servizio è di Baba Richerme. (Translation)
The Brussels Brontë Blog posts a summary of a recent talk by Jones Hayden, who set out to prove that the Brontë sisters had a genuine sense of humour, drawing on comic moments, witty character names, and laugh-out-loud exchanges from across their novels.
Unless explicitly said
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