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Monday 12 November 2012

Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights

Jenna Holmes writes:
Andrea Arnold’s 2011 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights will be screened in Haworth on Friday 23 November, 7.30pm, at the West Lane Baptist Centre. The gritty film is a minimalist take on Emily Brontë’s novel which strips away the traditional conventions of a period drama. Featuring a cast of unknown actors, and depicting a mixed race Heathcliff for the first time on screen, the film’s cinematography by Robbie Ryan foregrounds the wild, brooding Yorkshire landscape and the soundtrack is taken purely from nature. With a limited cinema release last year, this is another chance to see the film on the big screen if you missed it the first time around! 

The screening is a collaboration between the Parsonage and Haworth Cinema. The film has been programmed to coincide with the landscape exhibition Ways to the Stone House, currently on display at the Parsonage. Haworth Cinema successfully turns Haworth’s Baptist church into a cinema twice every month to show a programme of new releases.

The novel has been adapted for film and television many times, including the 1939 Hollywood version starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, and the 1997 version when Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche took on the title roles. Andrea Arnold took a very different approach to the book, filming in North Yorkshire using hand held cameras, and casting mainly non-professional actors, including unknown Leeds actor James Howson who took the lead role of Heathcliff, and was the first black actor to play the part on screen.

Tickets are £3 on the door; no need to book in advance.  Certificate 15.

 Watch the trailer

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1 comment:

B. Skilet said...

That sounds like a very good evening- I hope to be there.After reading about the thought provoking evening, on the Saturday of the June weekend, and the discussion, by the impressive panel, about the doucmentary-' A Regular Black- The Hidden Wuthering Heights', I look forward to seeing the latest film incarnation of Emily's masterpiece.