Helen MacEwan writes:
One of the main Brussels public libraries, Bibliothèque Riches Claires, has organised an excellent exhibition on Charlotte and Emily Brontë's stay in Brussels in 1842-43. This is an initiative of the chief librarian, who had the idea after reading Brontë Society member Eric Ruijssenaars' books on this subject.
The library, with assistance from the Brussels Brontë Group, is also organising a conference on Saturday 19 April with six speakers including Robert Barnard and a member of the Heger family.
The organisers agreed to time the exhibition and conference to coincide with the Brussels Brontë Group's annual weekend of events.
This is an opportunity to see a lot of interesting pictures, photos and books on Brussels in the period of the Brontës' stay and to find out more about the Quartier Isabelle and the Pensionnat Heger. There is also plenty of material on the Brontë and Heger families, and a display of Brontë novels and biographies in French from Brussels libraries with Wuthering Heights translated in at least seven different ways!
Exhibition Les Soeurs Brontë à Bruxelles, Bibliothèque des Riches Claires, rue Riches Claires 24, 1000 Brussels, from 10 to 29 April 2008. Exhibition opening hours: Monday to Friday 13.00 to 17.00; Saturday (except for 19 April): 10.00 to 12.00
Details of the conference on 19 April and of the other events taking place can be found on the Brussels Brontë Group website
Sunday, 13 April 2008
Friday, 11 April 2008
Facebook Brontë
Alan Bentley, Director of the Parsonage Museum, writes:
Why not join the Facebook Brontë group?
There are now fifty-four members. The link to the site is here. Of course, you will have to join Facebook.
We are also looking at setting up a Myspace page and are about to tender for a revamp of the main website - www.Bronte.info
Friday, 4 April 2008
Brontë in Chicago
Remy Bumppo Theatre Company presents the American premiere of Brontë, 20 March to 4 May at the Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theatre, 2257 N Lincoln Ave. Chicago , IL 60614 .
Brontë Parsonage Blog readers are invited to take advantage of a special half price ticket offer for any Friday performance. Contact the company (see below)
This is from the publicity:
How is it possible that three Victorian spinsters, living in isolation on the Yorkshire moors, could have written some of the most powerful and passionate fiction of all time? Polly Teale's inventive drama - directed by James Bohnen - examines the lives of three of the most studied and discussed writers of all time.
Spurred by their brother's tumultuous personal life, Charlotte , Emily and Anne Brontë write from their remote home on the Yorkshire moors. Brontë evokes both the real and fantasy worlds of the Brontës, as the sisters' austere surroundings give way to the boundless power of imagination.
Contact Remy Bumppo
Tomorrow, 5 April, members of the Region 5 American chapter will attend a performance. You might still have time to join the party, in which case please contact the Region 5 representative, Dr Margot Peters at margot.peters@charter.net
Below, production shot of Heathcliff and Cathy:
Brontë Parsonage Blog readers are invited to take advantage of a special half price ticket offer for any Friday performance. Contact the company (see below)
This is from the publicity:
How is it possible that three Victorian spinsters, living in isolation on the Yorkshire moors, could have written some of the most powerful and passionate fiction of all time? Polly Teale's inventive drama - directed by James Bohnen - examines the lives of three of the most studied and discussed writers of all time.
Spurred by their brother's tumultuous personal life, Charlotte , Emily and Anne Brontë write from their remote home on the Yorkshire moors. Brontë evokes both the real and fantasy worlds of the Brontës, as the sisters' austere surroundings give way to the boundless power of imagination.
Contact Remy Bumppo
Tomorrow, 5 April, members of the Region 5 American chapter will attend a performance. You might still have time to join the party, in which case please contact the Region 5 representative, Dr Margot Peters at margot.peters@charter.net
Below, production shot of Heathcliff and Cathy:
Friday, 28 March 2008
April in Brussels
For information on the forthcoming Brussels Brontë Weekend (18 to 20 April) please scroll down a little and click on the link on the right for the Brussels group. All you need to know is there.
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
The Brontës: Revisiting Inner Space
This one-day conference is on 28 March, organised by l'Université Toulouse II-le Mirail, France (see previous post), with Catherine Lanone, Laurence Talairach-Vielmas and Charlotte Borie as directors.
This is the conference's introductory statement:
Much has been said about the way in which Charlotte and Emily Brontë transposed the Gothic sense of enclosure and located alienation within the domestic constraints imposed upon women. This colloquium aims to study the ways in which the sisters negotiate the boundaries of self and society and (re)locate or conceal intimacy, especially through the tropes of sincerity and theatricality.
Interest may range from the way in which they create a visual world of their own in the juvenilia, pictures, poems, letters or novels— not to mention the essays written in Belgium, which obey and challenge the constraints of form and language.
Particular attention may be paid to the function of embedded pictures or theatrical moments within the novels, reflecting or challenging the way in which the narrative voice represents the self. The dialectical play on mask and revelation may be connected with wider cultural debates and issues, possibly focusing on the way in which the private self may be exposed through
transpositions, from the Victorian performances of Jane Eyre on stage discussed by Patsy Stoneman to twentieth-century rewritings.
This is the conference's introductory statement:
Much has been said about the way in which Charlotte and Emily Brontë transposed the Gothic sense of enclosure and located alienation within the domestic constraints imposed upon women. This colloquium aims to study the ways in which the sisters negotiate the boundaries of self and society and (re)locate or conceal intimacy, especially through the tropes of sincerity and theatricality.
Interest may range from the way in which they create a visual world of their own in the juvenilia, pictures, poems, letters or novels— not to mention the essays written in Belgium, which obey and challenge the constraints of form and language.
Particular attention may be paid to the function of embedded pictures or theatrical moments within the novels, reflecting or challenging the way in which the narrative voice represents the self. The dialectical play on mask and revelation may be connected with wider cultural debates and issues, possibly focusing on the way in which the private self may be exposed through
transpositions, from the Victorian performances of Jane Eyre on stage discussed by Patsy Stoneman to twentieth-century rewritings.
Daphne
On Friday 18 April
at 7.30pm, at the Parsonage, Justine Picardie will be reading from her new novel Daphne
and discussing the Brontës and Daphne Du Maurier with Du Maurier's
eldest daughter Lady Tessa Montgomery.
This event includes champagne and canapes and a special opportunity to view rarely seen Branwell Brontë manuscripts once owned by Du Maurier. £10 - Tickets in advance (£10) from jenna.holmes@ bronte.org. uk/
See Kazam Media News
This event includes champagne and canapes and a special opportunity to view rarely seen Branwell Brontë manuscripts once owned by Du Maurier. £10 - Tickets in advance (£10) from jenna.holmes@ bronte.org. uk/
See Kazam Media News
Monday, 10 March 2008
Conference in Toulouse
Charlotte Borie writes:
At the University of Toulouse, we have created a website to promote a one-day conference on 28 March.
We invite everyone to take a look at it here.
At the University of Toulouse, we have created a website to promote a one-day conference on 28 March.
We invite everyone to take a look at it here.
Kosminsky's Wuthering Heights
Peter Kosminsky’s 1992 adaptation of Wuthering Heights stars Sinead O’Connor as Emily Brontë and Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche as Heathcliff and Cathy. It will be shown at 7.45pm at the West Lane Baptist Centre in Haworth on Friday 28 March
With a screenplay by Anne Devlin, Kosminsky’s is the first film adaptation to include the whole of the story. The film has spectacular cinematography by Mike Southon, a wonderful musical score by Ryuichi Sakamoto and the dubious distinction of having been spoofed in the Simpsons: Kamp Krusty.
Tickets are £5/ £3 (under 16s) and should be booked in advance from
jenna.holmes@bronte.org.uk - .
Resurgam
Jenna Holmes writes:
Resurgam is the title of an exhibition of paintings, inspired by the Brontës, by artist Bob Littleford, which opened last weekend and will continue until 19 April.
A self-taught artist, Bob Littleford was born in Oldham in 1945 and worked riveting door handles and as a dustman before becoming a full-time artist in the 1970s. He began producing paintings inspired by the Brontës after hearing Bernard Herrmann’s opera adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
Resurgam is an exhibition of new work based on his response to the Brontës' lives and works.
This exhibition is free on admission to the museum.
Below, I flew as in a dream and Last Lines:
Resurgam is the title of an exhibition of paintings, inspired by the Brontës, by artist Bob Littleford, which opened last weekend and will continue until 19 April.
A self-taught artist, Bob Littleford was born in Oldham in 1945 and worked riveting door handles and as a dustman before becoming a full-time artist in the 1970s. He began producing paintings inspired by the Brontës after hearing Bernard Herrmann’s opera adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
Resurgam is an exhibition of new work based on his response to the Brontës' lives and works.
This exhibition is free on admission to the museum.
Below, I flew as in a dream and Last Lines:
Monday, 3 March 2008
Wild at the Parsonage
Parsonage Director Alan Bentley showed a party of six film-makers around last week, all of them connected with Brontë - the movie - which will start filming in May and which is directed by Charles Sturridge.
Amongst them was Nick Wild, managing director of Film Squared, the production company based in Holmfirth, Yorkshire.
"The party was given a pretty comprehensive guided tour," Alan told the blog. "They were taken behind the scenes and looked at every detail.
They were particularly interested in the current exhibition - No Coward Soul.
It is still unlikely that the film will include shots of the Parsonage, but Nick Wild is talking about using Haworth.
We are now expecting visits from the principals: Natalie Press is coming soon....."
Brontë is being backed by Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment production company and was quite a topic of conversation at the recent Berlin Film Festival.
Below, Natalie Press (to play Charlotte) in a scene from the TV production of Bleak House:
Amongst them was Nick Wild, managing director of Film Squared, the production company based in Holmfirth, Yorkshire.
"The party was given a pretty comprehensive guided tour," Alan told the blog. "They were taken behind the scenes and looked at every detail.
They were particularly interested in the current exhibition - No Coward Soul.
It is still unlikely that the film will include shots of the Parsonage, but Nick Wild is talking about using Haworth.
We are now expecting visits from the principals: Natalie Press is coming soon....."
Brontë is being backed by Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment production company and was quite a topic of conversation at the recent Berlin Film Festival.
Below, Natalie Press (to play Charlotte) in a scene from the TV production of Bleak House:
Tuesday, 26 February 2008
Ceilidh on 15 March
Pat Berry, Chairman of The Friends of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, writes:
After the success of last years St Patrick's Day Ceilidh, the Friends of the Brontë Parsonage Museum will again be celebrating the event. This year the ceilidh will be held in The School Room, Church Street, Haworth where Patrick Brontë himself started a Sunday School and Charlotte Brontë taught.
The ceilidh is on Saturday 15 March from 7.30pm until 11pm - and once again the music will be provided by popular band Northern Comfort. There will be a licensed bar and the ticket price includes a pie and peas supper.
Tickets are available from the Museum Shop or by ringing and cost £8.50 for adults and £3.50 for children. Why not come along and have a great night out and support the work of the Museum at the same time?
After the success of last years St Patrick's Day Ceilidh, the Friends of the Brontë Parsonage Museum will again be celebrating the event. This year the ceilidh will be held in The School Room, Church Street, Haworth where Patrick Brontë himself started a Sunday School and Charlotte Brontë taught.
The ceilidh is on Saturday 15 March from 7.30pm until 11pm - and once again the music will be provided by popular band Northern Comfort. There will be a licensed bar and the ticket price includes a pie and peas supper.
Tickets are available from the Museum Shop or by ringing and cost £8.50 for adults and £3.50 for children. Why not come along and have a great night out and support the work of the Museum at the same time?
Saturday, 23 February 2008
Bob Barnard in Headingley
The first ever Headingley LitFest takes place soon, beginning on Wednesday 12 March with an illustrated talk by Nicolette Jones, who is not only the children's book reviewer for The Sunday Times, but the author of a biography of the Victorian philanthropist Samuel Plimsoll and his campaign on behalf of sailors The Plimsoll Sensation (Little, Brown) which was published in 2006. The name of the book is the name of the talk, which will be delivered in Headingley library at 7pm on Wednesday 12 March.
Saturday events in the LitFest include Tea with the Brontës - which will begin at 4pm in the New Headingley Club in St Michael's Road. The audience will be able to sip tea and consume cakes, listening at the same time to a talk by Bob Barnard entitled People the Brontës Knew, based on A Brontë Encyclopedia by Bob and Louise Barnard (Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN: 978-1-4051-5119-1) which was published in July 2007.
Headingley is part of Leeds, a city about twenty miles from Haworth. Headingley is well-known for its stadium (cricket and rugby) but not so well-known for its literary connections: Arthur Ransome (Swallows and Amazons) was born there, before being sent to school in the Lake District, Alan Bennett (History Boys) lived over his father's butcher's shop there, J R R Tolkien (Lord of the Rings), who before Oxford was a professor at Leeds University, had a terrace house on the Otley Road and Kay Mellor (Ring of Gold, television version of Jane Eyre) lives there today.
For full details, go the Headingley LitFest.
For tickets to any events, ring 0113 2786948 or 0113 2756652
Saturday events in the LitFest include Tea with the Brontës - which will begin at 4pm in the New Headingley Club in St Michael's Road. The audience will be able to sip tea and consume cakes, listening at the same time to a talk by Bob Barnard entitled People the Brontës Knew, based on A Brontë Encyclopedia by Bob and Louise Barnard (Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN: 978-1-4051-5119-1) which was published in July 2007.
Headingley is part of Leeds, a city about twenty miles from Haworth. Headingley is well-known for its stadium (cricket and rugby) but not so well-known for its literary connections: Arthur Ransome (Swallows and Amazons) was born there, before being sent to school in the Lake District, Alan Bennett (History Boys) lived over his father's butcher's shop there, J R R Tolkien (Lord of the Rings), who before Oxford was a professor at Leeds University, had a terrace house on the Otley Road and Kay Mellor (Ring of Gold, television version of Jane Eyre) lives there today.
For full details, go the Headingley LitFest.
For tickets to any events, ring 0113 2786948 or 0113 2756652
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
Patrick Brontë - Father of Genius
Dudley Green's biography, published by The History Press , should appear in May this year, priced at £20. ISBN: 978 1 84588 625 7
This is from the publisher:
Patrick Brontë (1777–1861) was the father of the famous ‘Brontë Sisters,’ Anne, Charlotte and Emily, three of Victorian England’s greatest novelists, but he was a fascinating man in his own right and not nearly such an unsympathetic character as Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë would have us believe.
Born into poverty in Ireland, he won a scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, and was ordained into the Church of England. He was perpetual curate of Haworth in Yorkshire for forty-one years, bringing up four children, founding a school and campaigning for a proper water supply.
Although often portrayed as a somewhat fobidding figure, he was an opponent of capital punishment and the Poor Law Amendment Act, a supporter of limited Catholic emancipation and a writer of poetry.
This is the first serious biography of Patrick Brontë for more than forty years.
This is from the publisher:
Patrick Brontë (1777–1861) was the father of the famous ‘Brontë Sisters,’ Anne, Charlotte and Emily, three of Victorian England’s greatest novelists, but he was a fascinating man in his own right and not nearly such an unsympathetic character as Elizabeth Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Brontë would have us believe.
Born into poverty in Ireland, he won a scholarship to St John’s College, Cambridge, and was ordained into the Church of England. He was perpetual curate of Haworth in Yorkshire for forty-one years, bringing up four children, founding a school and campaigning for a proper water supply.
Although often portrayed as a somewhat fobidding figure, he was an opponent of capital punishment and the Poor Law Amendment Act, a supporter of limited Catholic emancipation and a writer of poetry.
This is the first serious biography of Patrick Brontë for more than forty years.
Saturday, 2 February 2008
New exhibition opens
News release:
No Coward Soul is the new and special exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum celebrating the life and work of Emily Jane Brontë.
For the very first time members of the public are invited to come and view our entire collection of objects and artefacts associated with the world famous Brontë sister and author of Wuthering Heights.
The exhibition guides our visitors through the most significant aspects of Emily’s life: her childhood, her love for animals, her writing, and how she felt about spending time away from her home here at the Parsonage.
We have chosen to display some very special and rare objects belonging to Emily to accompany the information about her life.
We hope that visitors to this unique Emily exhibition will gain a deeper insight into the life and soul behind the legend.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum is open seven days a week.
Please contact the museum on 01535 642323 for information on opening times and entry charges or Ann Dinsdale - Collections Manager on 01535 640198, for information on the No Coward Soul exhibition 2008.
No Coward Soul is the new and special exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum celebrating the life and work of Emily Jane Brontë.
For the very first time members of the public are invited to come and view our entire collection of objects and artefacts associated with the world famous Brontë sister and author of Wuthering Heights.
The exhibition guides our visitors through the most significant aspects of Emily’s life: her childhood, her love for animals, her writing, and how she felt about spending time away from her home here at the Parsonage.
We have chosen to display some very special and rare objects belonging to Emily to accompany the information about her life.
We hope that visitors to this unique Emily exhibition will gain a deeper insight into the life and soul behind the legend.
The Brontë Parsonage Museum is open seven days a week.
Please contact the museum on 01535 642323 for information on opening times and entry charges or Ann Dinsdale - Collections Manager on 01535 640198, for information on the No Coward Soul exhibition 2008.
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Restoration work begins on Brontë piano
Sarah Laycock from the Parsonage writes:
After over a hundred years build-up of dust, dirt and strands of Emily’s hair, the Brontë family piano is finally going to be restored to full working order. The only problem we have now is - who’s going to play it?
Up until now, the cabinet piano, presented to the museum in 1916, has been displayed and admired as a piece of authentic Brontë furniture but with the help of private funding, we are now able to restore the inside mechanism so that it can be appreciated by all as a musical instrument.
The piano was mainly used by Emily, although Branwell and Anne would have also used it to a lesser extent. Ellen Nussey once described Emily playing ‘with precision and brilliancy’ and by the time Emily went to Brussels in 1842, her playing was of such a high standard that she was taught by one of the best music professors in Belgium.
The piano was probably made in London between 1810 and 1815. It bears the inscription John Green, music agent of 33 Soho Square, London. It has a fairly short five octave keyboard of ivory keys which will be kept intact, and the broken hammers and strings which are hidden behind a screen of maroon-coloured pleated silk will be replaced so that the piano will play for the first time in over one hundred years.
Piano restorer Ken Forrest (pictured below) has examined the piano and informed us that there are parts missing which will need to be replaced and it will need to be completely restrung. He also said that the ivory keys are going to be kept but are in need of some renovation. He is going to be researching similar pianos in order to gather together more information before restoration can take place. Cabinet pianos were popular in the 1830s and 1840s but today are rather unusual when compared to the more valuable pianos such as the Grand.
Our cabinet piano is one of many items that were auctioned off in the 1861 sale of Brontë objects. It was bought by a Mr Booth of Oxenhope and sold many times before it was donated to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in 1916.
After over a hundred years build-up of dust, dirt and strands of Emily’s hair, the Brontë family piano is finally going to be restored to full working order. The only problem we have now is - who’s going to play it?
Up until now, the cabinet piano, presented to the museum in 1916, has been displayed and admired as a piece of authentic Brontë furniture but with the help of private funding, we are now able to restore the inside mechanism so that it can be appreciated by all as a musical instrument.
The piano was mainly used by Emily, although Branwell and Anne would have also used it to a lesser extent. Ellen Nussey once described Emily playing ‘with precision and brilliancy’ and by the time Emily went to Brussels in 1842, her playing was of such a high standard that she was taught by one of the best music professors in Belgium.
The piano was probably made in London between 1810 and 1815. It bears the inscription John Green, music agent of 33 Soho Square, London. It has a fairly short five octave keyboard of ivory keys which will be kept intact, and the broken hammers and strings which are hidden behind a screen of maroon-coloured pleated silk will be replaced so that the piano will play for the first time in over one hundred years.
Piano restorer Ken Forrest (pictured below) has examined the piano and informed us that there are parts missing which will need to be replaced and it will need to be completely restrung. He also said that the ivory keys are going to be kept but are in need of some renovation. He is going to be researching similar pianos in order to gather together more information before restoration can take place. Cabinet pianos were popular in the 1830s and 1840s but today are rather unusual when compared to the more valuable pianos such as the Grand.
Our cabinet piano is one of many items that were auctioned off in the 1861 sale of Brontë objects. It was bought by a Mr Booth of Oxenhope and sold many times before it was donated to the Brontë Parsonage Museum in 1916.
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Wuthering Heights this Sunday
If you are in the UK, you might like to note that the Richard Cavanagh - Orla Brady version of Wuthering Heights is to being shown on ITV3 this Sunday 3 February from 15.20 to 17.45.
Orla Brady is now an almost unbelievable 46 years old (see the photo below and the previous post) and is apparently the 'lady in red' in The Singing Butler - the ubiquitous Jack Vettriano watercolour in which two lovers are dancing on a windswept beach.
The self-taught Vettriano used The Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual as a starter, he revealed when the original painting went for three quarters of a million pounds in 2004. The hacks then started digging and found that Orla was one of the models in the guide, and his muse.
Find more in this article from You magazine.
www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/you/article.html?in_article_id=509011&in_page_id=1908
Orla Brady is now an almost unbelievable 46 years old (see the photo below and the previous post) and is apparently the 'lady in red' in The Singing Butler - the ubiquitous Jack Vettriano watercolour in which two lovers are dancing on a windswept beach.
The self-taught Vettriano used The Illustrator's Figure Reference Manual as a starter, he revealed when the original painting went for three quarters of a million pounds in 2004. The hacks then started digging and found that Orla was one of the models in the guide, and his muse.
Find more in this article from You magazine.
www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/you/article.html?in_article_id=509011&in_page_id=1908
Friday, 25 January 2008
Searching for the perfect Catherine
Paul Thompson writes:
Having now watched my fifth version of Wuthering Heights (the 1978 Hutchison/Adshead version), I set to wondering why none of the actresses who played Catherine (the elder) quite worked for me. The answer came to me as I looked at the timeline of the novel and I think it boils down to their ages.
If we look at five of the best-known versions and compare the approximate ages of the 'Catherines' at the time, we get:
Film Actress
1939 Merle Oberon aged 28
1970 Anna Calder-Marshall aged 23
1978 Kay Adshead aged 24
1992 Juliette Binoche aged 28
1998 Orla Brady aged 37
In the book, Catherine is 15 when Heathcliff runs away and just 18 when she dies. Even the youngest of the actresses is five years older and the oldest is 19! (although, admittedly, Orla Brady looked much younger). However, each of the actresses appears clearly adult, not the teenager than Catherine was. We should also remember that an 18 year old was not the adult they are considered today: people did not come of age until 21.
If you think of Catherine as a slightly immature teenager rather than an adult, it brings a whole new aspect to the story. Her spitefulness towards Isabella, the "dashing her head against the arm of the sofa", her attempts to make herself ill: these become more believable if we imagine a younger teenager performing them. There is also a deeper pathos to the scene in chapter 12 where Catherine in her delirium wishes she were back in Wuthering Heights. If we think of her as a child then rather than a spoilt adult, we can have more sympathy for her. We could feel the loneliness and sadness of a child forced into an adult's world.
It would be fascinating to see a version of Wuthering Heights with Catherine played by a teenage actress (or one who could pass as teenage). It would be rather like seeing Juliet of Romeo and Juliet played as the 13 year old she was supposed to be. It would need an actress of great skill and subtlety, of course, able to switch from mature love to childish petulance, but what a role. And what a new interest it would add to the scenes with Heathcliff.
(As an afterthought, looking at those rumours of Angelina Jolie being lined up to play Catherine, her age this year will be 33 - not a good omen.)
The Reader’s Guide to Wuthering Heights
Below, Merle Oberon with Laurence Olivier in the 1939 version
Having now watched my fifth version of Wuthering Heights (the 1978 Hutchison/Adshead version), I set to wondering why none of the actresses who played Catherine (the elder) quite worked for me. The answer came to me as I looked at the timeline of the novel and I think it boils down to their ages.
If we look at five of the best-known versions and compare the approximate ages of the 'Catherines' at the time, we get:
Film Actress
1939 Merle Oberon aged 28
1970 Anna Calder-Marshall aged 23
1978 Kay Adshead aged 24
1992 Juliette Binoche aged 28
1998 Orla Brady aged 37
In the book, Catherine is 15 when Heathcliff runs away and just 18 when she dies. Even the youngest of the actresses is five years older and the oldest is 19! (although, admittedly, Orla Brady looked much younger). However, each of the actresses appears clearly adult, not the teenager than Catherine was. We should also remember that an 18 year old was not the adult they are considered today: people did not come of age until 21.
If you think of Catherine as a slightly immature teenager rather than an adult, it brings a whole new aspect to the story. Her spitefulness towards Isabella, the "dashing her head against the arm of the sofa", her attempts to make herself ill: these become more believable if we imagine a younger teenager performing them. There is also a deeper pathos to the scene in chapter 12 where Catherine in her delirium wishes she were back in Wuthering Heights. If we think of her as a child then rather than a spoilt adult, we can have more sympathy for her. We could feel the loneliness and sadness of a child forced into an adult's world.
It would be fascinating to see a version of Wuthering Heights with Catherine played by a teenage actress (or one who could pass as teenage). It would be rather like seeing Juliet of Romeo and Juliet played as the 13 year old she was supposed to be. It would need an actress of great skill and subtlety, of course, able to switch from mature love to childish petulance, but what a role. And what a new interest it would add to the scenes with Heathcliff.
(As an afterthought, looking at those rumours of Angelina Jolie being lined up to play Catherine, her age this year will be 33 - not a good omen.)
The Reader’s Guide to Wuthering Heights
Below, Merle Oberon with Laurence Olivier in the 1939 version
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Brontë - the movie
NEWS RELEASE:
Local film maker looks to regional businesses to keep Brontë movie in Yorkshire
One of the largest movies ever to be filmed in Yorkshire is in danger of leaving the region, warns leading Yorkshire movie producer, Film Squared based in Sheffield. The company is offering local businesses the opportunity to help bridge a gap in the financing of its latest project Brontë which is being represented by Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment at next month’s Berlin Film Festival and is due to start filming this spring.
The film about the lives of Yorkshire’s most famous writing family and starring a raft of UK and US talent is short of just £350,000 after a backer withdrew because of the current problems with the international money markets.
“As a result of the funding problem, we may be forced to relocate the filming to another more cost-effective location, but we desperately want to keep the film in Yorkshire,” explained Producer Alistair Maclean-Clark.
“This prestigious project will encompass the very best of Yorkshire – its production has been made possible by local investment, including the support of Screen Yorkshire, Business Link and Objective 1 and it will be directed by the Emmy and BAFTA award winning Yorkshire-man Charles Sturridge of Brideshead Revisited fame. We believe Brontë is set to become another great film building on the current successes of the British film industry – it would be tragic for it to be shot anywhere but Yorkshire.”
The £5million movie is a joint project for Film Squared and Pinewood Studios-based AMC Pictures - and unlike many UK films, Brontë has already secured distribution and global representation through Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment.
Film Squared’s Nick Wild believes that the Yorkshire business community will rally round, “We have already had great support from some passionate local private investors and financial professionals and are now looking to extend that opportunity. With global cinema and DVD distribution the project offers great possibilities for local brands to be involved with this high profile project and spread their brand around the world. We are working with many of the local agencies and have a whole raft of opportunities to be involved from high-level corporate sponsorship to tax efficient investment regimes for private investors.
“We are also calling for help from local companies who may be able to reduce production costs by providing support services, anything from hotels to car hire. The project is an important media project for Yorkshire that will boost the local economy and stimulate tourism; it would be fantastic if the local business community played its part in helping us to make this great film happen in the region.”
Maclean-Clark added, “Unfortunately time is not with us. The impending Screen Actors Guild strike in June and the end of the tax year means that we have to move quickly over the next month if we really want to make this happen.”
For more information, please visit the movie's web site (see links) or contact Nick Wild at Film Squared on .
Local film maker looks to regional businesses to keep Brontë movie in Yorkshire
One of the largest movies ever to be filmed in Yorkshire is in danger of leaving the region, warns leading Yorkshire movie producer, Film Squared based in Sheffield. The company is offering local businesses the opportunity to help bridge a gap in the financing of its latest project Brontë which is being represented by Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment at next month’s Berlin Film Festival and is due to start filming this spring.
The film about the lives of Yorkshire’s most famous writing family and starring a raft of UK and US talent is short of just £350,000 after a backer withdrew because of the current problems with the international money markets.
“As a result of the funding problem, we may be forced to relocate the filming to another more cost-effective location, but we desperately want to keep the film in Yorkshire,” explained Producer Alistair Maclean-Clark.
“This prestigious project will encompass the very best of Yorkshire – its production has been made possible by local investment, including the support of Screen Yorkshire, Business Link and Objective 1 and it will be directed by the Emmy and BAFTA award winning Yorkshire-man Charles Sturridge of Brideshead Revisited fame. We believe Brontë is set to become another great film building on the current successes of the British film industry – it would be tragic for it to be shot anywhere but Yorkshire.”
The £5million movie is a joint project for Film Squared and Pinewood Studios-based AMC Pictures - and unlike many UK films, Brontë has already secured distribution and global representation through Mel Gibson’s Icon Entertainment.
Film Squared’s Nick Wild believes that the Yorkshire business community will rally round, “We have already had great support from some passionate local private investors and financial professionals and are now looking to extend that opportunity. With global cinema and DVD distribution the project offers great possibilities for local brands to be involved with this high profile project and spread their brand around the world. We are working with many of the local agencies and have a whole raft of opportunities to be involved from high-level corporate sponsorship to tax efficient investment regimes for private investors.
“We are also calling for help from local companies who may be able to reduce production costs by providing support services, anything from hotels to car hire. The project is an important media project for Yorkshire that will boost the local economy and stimulate tourism; it would be fantastic if the local business community played its part in helping us to make this great film happen in the region.”
Maclean-Clark added, “Unfortunately time is not with us. The impending Screen Actors Guild strike in June and the end of the tax year means that we have to move quickly over the next month if we really want to make this happen.”
For more information, please visit the movie's web site (see links) or contact Nick Wild at Film Squared on .
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Wuthering Heights, 2009
Classical comics has been in touch with the Parsonage Blog to inform us that their new version of Wuthering Heights will be coming out in 2009. More details nearer the launch, no doubt.
Monday, 21 January 2008
The best version
WUTHERING HEIGHTS 1978: A WINNING CHALLENGE BY THE BBC
Maddalena De Leo from Ascea Marina, Italy, writes:
I’ve just finished watching the 1978 BBC dramatization of Wuthering Heights on two DVDs which I bought last summer in the Parsonage shop and now I really consider it to be the best among the various screen adaptations of Emily Brontë’s novel ever realized.
Of course I knew that BBC dramatizations are always of the finest level (Pride &Prejudice, North and South etc.) but I was amazed in finding this almost unheard of adaptation so adherent to my beloved novel and above all, so careful and attentive to those particulars often ignored by other directors, with only a few differences from the original text. No wonder that the BBC never attempted to adapt Wuthering Heights again.
Thanks to its running time of 255 minutes and its five episodes, the mini-series Wuthering Heights (directed by Peter Hammond and starring Ken Hutchinson and Kay Adshead, originally transmitted in the UK from September to October 1978) boasts many strong points, from the particularly vivid atmosphere of the moors conveyed from the beginning to the very last scene and the authentic use of Emily’s own language and phrases. Cathy and Heathcliff’s affection for each other is rendered through the intensity of their looks and not by words while the recurrent close-ups underline the force of passion in a most effective way.
Also the minor characters are well-drawn, each in his or her own peculiarity, although we find a ‘milder’ Joseph and a pleasantly strong Isabella with a will of her own, which departs from any other known adaptation of the novel. For once we have no narrator of the story and Nelly Dean appears only in her role of a servant, not always or entirely convinced that her master's actions are right. Notably the burning fire in the enormous fireplace at the Heights is put into the limelight just when the main characters’ souls are torn by agony and their inner cold.
On the other hand, there are obviously a few weak points, mainly the missing snow substituted by a frequently driving rain on the moors always announcing fatal events or, in episode two, a too long childhood against a too short teen period for Cathy and Heathcliff. This last character appears as an old man even when he is still young, almost as a hunchback with a displeasing voice, but Ken Hutchinson’s interpretation of him in the last stages of the character’s life is superlative.
The image of dying Heathcliff is not easily to forget. A regrettably missing moment in so attentive an adaptation is the beautiful passage in the book in which while lying in the moor the second Cathy and feeble young Linton speak of what they like more in life.
What else is to be said? All Brontë lovers can only enthusiastically welcome this blessed reproposed offer by the BBC after so many years of oblivion.
Maddalena De Leo from Ascea Marina, Italy, writes:
I’ve just finished watching the 1978 BBC dramatization of Wuthering Heights on two DVDs which I bought last summer in the Parsonage shop and now I really consider it to be the best among the various screen adaptations of Emily Brontë’s novel ever realized.
Of course I knew that BBC dramatizations are always of the finest level (Pride &Prejudice, North and South etc.) but I was amazed in finding this almost unheard of adaptation so adherent to my beloved novel and above all, so careful and attentive to those particulars often ignored by other directors, with only a few differences from the original text. No wonder that the BBC never attempted to adapt Wuthering Heights again.
Thanks to its running time of 255 minutes and its five episodes, the mini-series Wuthering Heights (directed by Peter Hammond and starring Ken Hutchinson and Kay Adshead, originally transmitted in the UK from September to October 1978) boasts many strong points, from the particularly vivid atmosphere of the moors conveyed from the beginning to the very last scene and the authentic use of Emily’s own language and phrases. Cathy and Heathcliff’s affection for each other is rendered through the intensity of their looks and not by words while the recurrent close-ups underline the force of passion in a most effective way.
Also the minor characters are well-drawn, each in his or her own peculiarity, although we find a ‘milder’ Joseph and a pleasantly strong Isabella with a will of her own, which departs from any other known adaptation of the novel. For once we have no narrator of the story and Nelly Dean appears only in her role of a servant, not always or entirely convinced that her master's actions are right. Notably the burning fire in the enormous fireplace at the Heights is put into the limelight just when the main characters’ souls are torn by agony and their inner cold.
On the other hand, there are obviously a few weak points, mainly the missing snow substituted by a frequently driving rain on the moors always announcing fatal events or, in episode two, a too long childhood against a too short teen period for Cathy and Heathcliff. This last character appears as an old man even when he is still young, almost as a hunchback with a displeasing voice, but Ken Hutchinson’s interpretation of him in the last stages of the character’s life is superlative.
The image of dying Heathcliff is not easily to forget. A regrettably missing moment in so attentive an adaptation is the beautiful passage in the book in which while lying in the moor the second Cathy and feeble young Linton speak of what they like more in life.
What else is to be said? All Brontë lovers can only enthusiastically welcome this blessed reproposed offer by the BBC after so many years of oblivion.
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