If you live within reach, you should note these dates!
BATH LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2006
Thursday 9 March 7.30-8.30pm
Exploring the Brontës : Polly Teale in conversation with Caroline Maynard
Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
Tickets £7 (£5 concessions)
Shared Experience theatre director Polly Teale discusses her new play Brontë and its use of Paula Rego's Brontë prints with director Caroline Maynard. An unmissable chance to view the prints and get a glimpse into a working relationship between artist, theatre director and the inspiration to both: the Brontës themselves.
Sunday 12 March 1-2pm
Michele Roberts and Patricia Duncker - Exploring the Brontës
The Guildhall, Bath
Tickets £6 - £4 concessions
Michele Roberts and Patricia Duncker both acknowledge the powerful influence of the Brontës on their own novels (Charlotte Brontë is a central character in Michèle Roberts's The Mistressclass) and bring their skills as leading literary critics to bear on the passionate world of the Brontë sisters, exploring in particular the significance of their portrayal of domestic violence and cruelty.
The brochure for the 2006 Bath Literature Festival is published this month with the website at www.bathlitfest.org.uk. Bath Festivals Box Office on 01225 463362 or boxoffice@bathfestivals.org.uk
Friday 13 January 2006
The Parsonage in winter
The Parsonage is currently closed to the public. This is so that staff can clean up exhibits, change displays and examine precious artefacts before re-opening on February 1st 2006.
Curator Polly Salter, who is in charge of the operation, is anticipating welcoming the seven millionth visitor this summer.
The museum opened in 1928. Roughly calculated, one million visitors have walked through the front door each decade.
Every exhibit must be carefully scrutinised, displays must be updated and essential maintenance must take place. A new exhibition called Face to Face with Charlotte is being set up - in her bedroom, where she died in 1855.
Staff can still be contacted, and would love to hear from you. For details of events, email andrew.mccarthy@bronte.org.uk
To join the Brontë Society email hedley.hickling@bronte.org.uk
Heath Ledger
The 26-year-old Heath Ledger is "straight and guyish" according to Howard Feinstein in his piece in the Guardian on Friday January 6, but he has not balked at playing the part of gay cowboy Ennis Del Mar in Ang Lee's exquisite, Wyoming-set Brokeback Mountain, an adaptation of Annie Proulx's 1997 short story.
His mining engineer father and French teacher mother named him after Emily Brontë's Heathcliff, who might also be described as straight and guyish.
"...there is something seductive about him," says Feinstein, who goes on to quote Lena Headey, who co-starrred with him in Terry Gilliam's Brothers Grim: "I can't imagine anyone anywhere being able to say no to him. His energy is infectious."
His mining engineer father and French teacher mother named him after Emily Brontë's Heathcliff, who might also be described as straight and guyish.
"...there is something seductive about him," says Feinstein, who goes on to quote Lena Headey, who co-starrred with him in Terry Gilliam's Brothers Grim: "I can't imagine anyone anywhere being able to say no to him. His energy is infectious."
Thursday 12 January 2006
Remember Milton Rosmer?
The search is on for what might be the first ever film version of Wuthering Heights, one of the few adaptations to have stuck closely to what Emily Brontë actually wrote.
Only a few stills and photographs taken in and around Haworth during the filming remain as clues to its whereabouts. The search was launched after the Parsonage was given an album of these which were presented originally by the film's producer, A V Bramble, to Jonas Bradley, a very active Brontë Society founder-member and a teacher at the school in Stanbury, who had helped find appropriate locations for the crew.
The film, shot in 1920, was a six-reeler which lasted for about an hour and a half. It was made by the long-gone Ideal Film Company, based in London's Soho .
Milton Rosmer starred as the adult Heathcliff, with three other actors playing the character in his youth. Rosmer was considered by some to have been one of England's answers to Rudolph Valentino, and would have boosted box office takings.
Cathy was played by three actresses including Anne Trevor and child star Twinkles Hunter.
"No-one seems to have a copy," Parsonage Librarian Ann Dinsdale told this blog. "We have contacted an impressive number of people and organisations, from the Academy of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles and the Library of Congress, to Kevin Brownlow, an acknowledged expert on silent films.
We believe it may be in private hands.
It would be wonderful to have in our collection. We have a huge number of programmes and stills of all the many adaptations and in recent years there has been a huge interest in the films.
The film's makers went to a lot of trouble to ensure the accuracy, shooting it on location. It covers the entire novel while most modern adaptations end half-way through."
More than eighty years ago, canisters of the film, billed at the time as 'Emily Brontë's tremendous story of hate' might have remained in Yorkshire after the showings, but are more likely to have been taken to some central distribution point, probably London.
Although some early films have survived fairly well, many forgotten classics have decayed beyond the point where they can be restored. Thinking optimistically, it is possible that Wuthering Heights on its cellulose nitrate base was once copied on to modern safety film.
Ann Dinsdale is optimistic: "Previous curators have tried to find it, but did not get far. We decided that the time has come to make a concerted effort.
We want to hear from anyone who might have any information at all about the film. Perhaps your grandparents talked about the fascinating events in the village, which must have caused a stir.
And ultimately, has anyone got a copy?"
*Email this blog if you have details! heveliusx1@yahoo.co.uk
Milton Rosmer (pictured above, but not as Heathcliff)had a lengthy and successful career as an actor, director and writer. He appeared as Mr Bennett in a 1952 television version of Pride and Prejudice and in many popular films in the preceding decades, for example Goodbye Mr Chips, made in 1939.
His direction of Dreyfus in 1931 was much praised.
In 1920 cinema audiences would probably have known him for his roles such as Theodore Lawrence in Little Women (1917) or Sir Roger de la Haye in The Chinese Puzzle (1919).
As a stage actor, he was much admired, and was briefly (in 1943) Director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford.
Only a few stills and photographs taken in and around Haworth during the filming remain as clues to its whereabouts. The search was launched after the Parsonage was given an album of these which were presented originally by the film's producer, A V Bramble, to Jonas Bradley, a very active Brontë Society founder-member and a teacher at the school in Stanbury, who had helped find appropriate locations for the crew.
The film, shot in 1920, was a six-reeler which lasted for about an hour and a half. It was made by the long-gone Ideal Film Company, based in London's Soho .
Milton Rosmer starred as the adult Heathcliff, with three other actors playing the character in his youth. Rosmer was considered by some to have been one of England's answers to Rudolph Valentino, and would have boosted box office takings.
Cathy was played by three actresses including Anne Trevor and child star Twinkles Hunter.
"No-one seems to have a copy," Parsonage Librarian Ann Dinsdale told this blog. "We have contacted an impressive number of people and organisations, from the Academy of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles and the Library of Congress, to Kevin Brownlow, an acknowledged expert on silent films.
We believe it may be in private hands.
It would be wonderful to have in our collection. We have a huge number of programmes and stills of all the many adaptations and in recent years there has been a huge interest in the films.
The film's makers went to a lot of trouble to ensure the accuracy, shooting it on location. It covers the entire novel while most modern adaptations end half-way through."
More than eighty years ago, canisters of the film, billed at the time as 'Emily Brontë's tremendous story of hate' might have remained in Yorkshire after the showings, but are more likely to have been taken to some central distribution point, probably London.
Although some early films have survived fairly well, many forgotten classics have decayed beyond the point where they can be restored. Thinking optimistically, it is possible that Wuthering Heights on its cellulose nitrate base was once copied on to modern safety film.
Ann Dinsdale is optimistic: "Previous curators have tried to find it, but did not get far. We decided that the time has come to make a concerted effort.
We want to hear from anyone who might have any information at all about the film. Perhaps your grandparents talked about the fascinating events in the village, which must have caused a stir.
And ultimately, has anyone got a copy?"
*Email this blog if you have details! heveliusx1@yahoo.co.uk
Milton Rosmer (pictured above, but not as Heathcliff)had a lengthy and successful career as an actor, director and writer. He appeared as Mr Bennett in a 1952 television version of Pride and Prejudice and in many popular films in the preceding decades, for example Goodbye Mr Chips, made in 1939.
His direction of Dreyfus in 1931 was much praised.
In 1920 cinema audiences would probably have known him for his roles such as Theodore Lawrence in Little Women (1917) or Sir Roger de la Haye in The Chinese Puzzle (1919).
As a stage actor, he was much admired, and was briefly (in 1943) Director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford.
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