'Jane Eyre': yet another adaptation
OK, if I were cool, I would be posting about the Hitchhiker's Guide movie. But I haven't seen it yet. One thing got in the way of another, and, well, long story short, I ended up watching most of a Jane Eyre miniseries on DVD this weekend. It's this one, the 1983 rendition from the BBC, which I didn't know existed until just the other week. (Thank you, Netflix!)
That's kind of remarkable, too, since I've been a Jane Eyre fangirl for much longer than I've been a LOTR fangirl. I first read Bronte's novel (sorry, I'm skipping the umlaut) when I was about 15, and fell totally in love. I've now read it 3 times. I also tracked down all the other Bronte novels and read every single one--not just Charlotte's, but Emily's and Anne's too. More on that later. I watched the William Hurt film version of Jane Eyre, but that was kind of a mess. Knew about the old Orson Welles one, but never saw it. I read and loved Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, too, but didn't realize until later that it was based on Jane Eyre. (Duh! That glare in your eyes would be the lightbulb coming on over my fool head.) And, no, I have not yet read The Eyre Affair, but I do intend to, so you don't need to tell me about it in the comments.
Now that I look at Amazon, I see there are about five other filmed versions of Jane Eyre besides the BBC one and the William Hurt one. Oy. Well, someday I may get to those. But for now, I'll rate this one:
I would say 4 out of 5 stars. The casting was good but not quite perfect. The acting and costuming and settings were fine. The dialogue was extremely faithful: it's practically a word-for-word transcription of the novel. However, the cinematography kind of sucks. It looks like someone's home movies, or a videotaped play. It's bad enough to be distracting. The lights shining off people's hair and casting shadows, indoors, are clearly 20th-century lightbulbs, not 19th-century chandeliers. I usually don't even notice that kind of thing; that's how obvious it was. Also, they apparently didn't have the budget for weather effects, so some of the passion was lost in a crucial scene: Rochester's proposal, outdoors at night, is supposed to end with a sudden thunderstorm that drenches our lovers and splits a chestnut tree in half. It's an important piece of symbolism, and it didn't work very well for me when the night remained calm, and Jane and Rochester strolled back inside dry as a bone. *sigh* Ah well.
You want to know my favorite adaptation of the story, so far? The musical. I saw it in California a couple years back, and holy gosh, this is good stuff. (Just my opinion, of course.) Eyreophiles should have a listen to the samples on Amazon. Story got condensed, yes, but it works for me. Beautiful. One of my favorite musicals ever, and I can be mean and snarky about musicals.
The note I meant to mention on the other Bronte novels: Emily's Wuthering Heights is fine, and gets all the attention, but my second favorite after Jane Eyre was actually Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. There is a lovely miniseries of that one too, starring Tara Fitzgerald, the perilously cute Toby Stephens, and the wicked hot Rupert Graves. (Those heavily into gay fiction will already know Mr. Graves for his role in Maurice as the bit o' groundskeeper tail.)
Anyway, may you all have a Gothically romantic week.
That's kind of remarkable, too, since I've been a Jane Eyre fangirl for much longer than I've been a LOTR fangirl. I first read Bronte's novel (sorry, I'm skipping the umlaut) when I was about 15, and fell totally in love. I've now read it 3 times. I also tracked down all the other Bronte novels and read every single one--not just Charlotte's, but Emily's and Anne's too. More on that later. I watched the William Hurt film version of Jane Eyre, but that was kind of a mess. Knew about the old Orson Welles one, but never saw it. I read and loved Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, too, but didn't realize until later that it was based on Jane Eyre. (Duh! That glare in your eyes would be the lightbulb coming on over my fool head.) And, no, I have not yet read The Eyre Affair, but I do intend to, so you don't need to tell me about it in the comments.
Now that I look at Amazon, I see there are about five other filmed versions of Jane Eyre besides the BBC one and the William Hurt one. Oy. Well, someday I may get to those. But for now, I'll rate this one:
I would say 4 out of 5 stars. The casting was good but not quite perfect. The acting and costuming and settings were fine. The dialogue was extremely faithful: it's practically a word-for-word transcription of the novel. However, the cinematography kind of sucks. It looks like someone's home movies, or a videotaped play. It's bad enough to be distracting. The lights shining off people's hair and casting shadows, indoors, are clearly 20th-century lightbulbs, not 19th-century chandeliers. I usually don't even notice that kind of thing; that's how obvious it was. Also, they apparently didn't have the budget for weather effects, so some of the passion was lost in a crucial scene: Rochester's proposal, outdoors at night, is supposed to end with a sudden thunderstorm that drenches our lovers and splits a chestnut tree in half. It's an important piece of symbolism, and it didn't work very well for me when the night remained calm, and Jane and Rochester strolled back inside dry as a bone. *sigh* Ah well.
You want to know my favorite adaptation of the story, so far? The musical. I saw it in California a couple years back, and holy gosh, this is good stuff. (Just my opinion, of course.) Eyreophiles should have a listen to the samples on Amazon. Story got condensed, yes, but it works for me. Beautiful. One of my favorite musicals ever, and I can be mean and snarky about musicals.
The note I meant to mention on the other Bronte novels: Emily's Wuthering Heights is fine, and gets all the attention, but my second favorite after Jane Eyre was actually Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. There is a lovely miniseries of that one too, starring Tara Fitzgerald, the perilously cute Toby Stephens, and the wicked hot Rupert Graves. (Those heavily into gay fiction will already know Mr. Graves for his role in Maurice as the bit o' groundskeeper tail.)
Anyway, may you all have a Gothically romantic week.