Rewatching Jane Eyre (the BBC 2006 adaptation)
Episode 2 of 4
Ignore what I said in the last post, they did bring in the Gypsy, only Rochester didn’t dress up as her, which worked perfectly well. (As a result, I decided to hold out on posting until I rewatched all the episodes.) Still, even though that proves how unreliable my memory is, I do believe that a third of this adaptation was made up, and I didn’t always approve of those choices. I get that there’ll be changes when you dramatise a novel, but there are plenty of threads to be followed in the novel instead of bringing in things that don’t seem all that Charlotte Brontëish (e.g. the twin guests.)
The high drama came from the book, anyway, starting with Jane rescuing Rochester from a burning bed, Jane having to tend to Mason while Rochester fetched the doctor and making what she would of Grace Poole, who Jane thought was responsible. (Because of this, Jane comes off as rather rude to Grace Poole.) And then there was Jane asking for leave to visit a dying Mrs Reed, and the very real emotional response from Rochester as Jane was about to leave him. (He, who could leave at will, and had in the past. )
The adaptation implied rather heavily that Rochester invited the house party to make Jane jealous - she’s very contradictory in trying to get Adele not to be so looks obsessed, but succumbing to it around Blanche. (That is there in the novel, but played differently.)
Anyway, we ended with an actual Bertha’s POV shot, making me idly wonder what modern medicine would diagnose her condition as, other than Convenient For The Plotitis.
Ooh, I wouldn’t mind reading a fic about Blanche’s reaction AFTER, to learning that Jane Eyre finally became Mrs Rochester, but that there’d been another Mrs Rochester previously, and Rochester wasn’t poor but he was disabled and the house had burned down. Admittedly, they’ve developed Blanche a bit more in this adaptation, and certainly her mother so that Francesca Annis would be interested in playing her, presumably (although trying to develop all these supporting female characters bring its own problems.)
Episode 3 of 4
Started off with Jane returning to Gateshead at the request of a dying woman who had done her more wrong than she knew, so we got more of Tara Fitzgerald’s incredible voice, and just the one scene (although it is from the book, I believe) of the two sisters, polar opposites, hating each other, suggesting that, despite the abuse, Jane had dodged a bullet by nt being treated like Mrs Reed’s own daughter.
This adaptation continued to emphasise Jane’s need to be loved as she came back to find Blanche leaving, but everyone, except perhaps Blanche and Rochester, assuming she’d soon be back. Jane pretty much gave herself away before the critical scene, while Rochester came off as cruel with the talk of Ireland in one breath and clinginess the next.
Good job Wilson and Stephens have chemistry.
There were the usual made-up bits, Ashton’s talk of the continental twins who’d never known each other was extremely heavy handed with its foreshadowing of Rochester calling out for Jane, which I thought was unnecessary.
Anyway, the big scene where Jane demands her equal-sized heart and soul be acknowledged landed, which pushed Rochester over the precipice he’d been so close to. Cue the lightning-seared tree - that’s in the book, right? And Mrs Fairfax bemoaning the news of the engagement because she thought Jane was level headed: Mrs F, she’s a Charlotte Brontë heroine! Get real.
They played the most famous wedding scene in literature straight, and then Jane found out the awful truth. The locked door worked well as a physical representation of the barrier between Jane and Rochester in the final scene.
And for all that Jane hugs Adele and comforts her and sincerely promises that her school will be waaaay better than Lowood, I was reasonably sure there’d be no Adele in the next episode. But I found myself worrying what was going to happen to faithful Bessie, the Reed’s servant.
Episode 4 of 4
I quite liked the choice to give Jane gradually dissipating amnesia and flash back to what had happened between the final scene of the previous episode and her moor wandering. It brought Rochester into the start of the episode in a way that wouldn’t have been possible if they’d stayed strictly linear, which doesn’t work fr a TV miniseries, but doesn’t matter so much in a feature film or novel.
Pushing the sensuality so much didn’t work quite so well - you then had Rochester sounding ridiculous after suggesting he and Jane lived platonically after probably going further that night than they had during the engagement.
I still think the twins were overkill, but when we met Diana and Mary as loving sisters who accepted Jane, even if they weren’t always helpful in shipping her with their brother, I thought ‘Oh, well, contrast,’ but they were mainly a contrast to the Reid sisters. I’m now wondering if all these pairs of women were an attempt t comment on the two Mrs Rochesters, except the invented twins mainly worked as a equivalents for Jane/Rochester. It’s just a good example of my general feeling that the inventions didn’t always add as much as they were intended to in this adaptation. (And this may be a bit about my reaction to ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, which I’ve been watching, but not really feeling.)
I had, as ever, no time for St. John. NO TIME.
We saw some more of Jane the teacher, transforming village girls with love child!Jane never received. But, as predicted, we didn’t see or hear of Adele all through the episode - well, she might have been there at the end, but I mainly took in Grace as nanny, which we’ll take as Jane’s apology and not think too much about. Of course, the ending tied into Jane finally getting all the love that she wanted in this adaptation. It’s not what Brontë wrote (only some very famous closing lines), and I thought their house wasn’t very Charlotte Brontëish, and getting someone to paint a family portrait seemed like a lot of faff, and prefiguring family photographs, which hadn’t been invented yet. But Jane seemed happy, her hair looser, bossing everyone in her found/gained family.
Something that occurred to me for the first time: Jane was pretty cruel at times to Rochester now that he couldn’t see her. Be more considerate of the person with the sight loss, Jane (although he’d come off as cruel to her over Blanche)! After Jane first returned and was leaving for the night, it very much echoed her on the night before she ran away, although he kind of knew she was going to go then. Again, I can see why they expanded the Jane-Rochester reunion towards the end, paying off the making out we’d seen at the end of episode 3 and start of episode 4, and it was nice to see more of a well-dressed, happy Jane, but it’s typical of this whole adaptation: there were bits of it that I enjoyed but I can totally see why I didn’t want to own it on DVD.
I then went back to read my original posts from September-October 2006, and I disliked many of the same changes both times (especially the twins), although I picked up on more visual details then. I probably need to reread the novel, although I now remember that I wanted to reread ‘The Professor’ too.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/483174.html.
Ignore what I said in the last post, they did bring in the Gypsy, only Rochester didn’t dress up as her, which worked perfectly well. (As a result, I decided to hold out on posting until I rewatched all the episodes.) Still, even though that proves how unreliable my memory is, I do believe that a third of this adaptation was made up, and I didn’t always approve of those choices. I get that there’ll be changes when you dramatise a novel, but there are plenty of threads to be followed in the novel instead of bringing in things that don’t seem all that Charlotte Brontëish (e.g. the twin guests.)
The high drama came from the book, anyway, starting with Jane rescuing Rochester from a burning bed, Jane having to tend to Mason while Rochester fetched the doctor and making what she would of Grace Poole, who Jane thought was responsible. (Because of this, Jane comes off as rather rude to Grace Poole.) And then there was Jane asking for leave to visit a dying Mrs Reed, and the very real emotional response from Rochester as Jane was about to leave him. (He, who could leave at will, and had in the past. )
The adaptation implied rather heavily that Rochester invited the house party to make Jane jealous - she’s very contradictory in trying to get Adele not to be so looks obsessed, but succumbing to it around Blanche. (That is there in the novel, but played differently.)
Anyway, we ended with an actual Bertha’s POV shot, making me idly wonder what modern medicine would diagnose her condition as, other than Convenient For The Plotitis.
Ooh, I wouldn’t mind reading a fic about Blanche’s reaction AFTER, to learning that Jane Eyre finally became Mrs Rochester, but that there’d been another Mrs Rochester previously, and Rochester wasn’t poor but he was disabled and the house had burned down. Admittedly, they’ve developed Blanche a bit more in this adaptation, and certainly her mother so that Francesca Annis would be interested in playing her, presumably (although trying to develop all these supporting female characters bring its own problems.)
Episode 3 of 4
Started off with Jane returning to Gateshead at the request of a dying woman who had done her more wrong than she knew, so we got more of Tara Fitzgerald’s incredible voice, and just the one scene (although it is from the book, I believe) of the two sisters, polar opposites, hating each other, suggesting that, despite the abuse, Jane had dodged a bullet by nt being treated like Mrs Reed’s own daughter.
This adaptation continued to emphasise Jane’s need to be loved as she came back to find Blanche leaving, but everyone, except perhaps Blanche and Rochester, assuming she’d soon be back. Jane pretty much gave herself away before the critical scene, while Rochester came off as cruel with the talk of Ireland in one breath and clinginess the next.
Good job Wilson and Stephens have chemistry.
There were the usual made-up bits, Ashton’s talk of the continental twins who’d never known each other was extremely heavy handed with its foreshadowing of Rochester calling out for Jane, which I thought was unnecessary.
Anyway, the big scene where Jane demands her equal-sized heart and soul be acknowledged landed, which pushed Rochester over the precipice he’d been so close to. Cue the lightning-seared tree - that’s in the book, right? And Mrs Fairfax bemoaning the news of the engagement because she thought Jane was level headed: Mrs F, she’s a Charlotte Brontë heroine! Get real.
They played the most famous wedding scene in literature straight, and then Jane found out the awful truth. The locked door worked well as a physical representation of the barrier between Jane and Rochester in the final scene.
And for all that Jane hugs Adele and comforts her and sincerely promises that her school will be waaaay better than Lowood, I was reasonably sure there’d be no Adele in the next episode. But I found myself worrying what was going to happen to faithful Bessie, the Reed’s servant.
Episode 4 of 4
I quite liked the choice to give Jane gradually dissipating amnesia and flash back to what had happened between the final scene of the previous episode and her moor wandering. It brought Rochester into the start of the episode in a way that wouldn’t have been possible if they’d stayed strictly linear, which doesn’t work fr a TV miniseries, but doesn’t matter so much in a feature film or novel.
Pushing the sensuality so much didn’t work quite so well - you then had Rochester sounding ridiculous after suggesting he and Jane lived platonically after probably going further that night than they had during the engagement.
I still think the twins were overkill, but when we met Diana and Mary as loving sisters who accepted Jane, even if they weren’t always helpful in shipping her with their brother, I thought ‘Oh, well, contrast,’ but they were mainly a contrast to the Reid sisters. I’m now wondering if all these pairs of women were an attempt t comment on the two Mrs Rochesters, except the invented twins mainly worked as a equivalents for Jane/Rochester. It’s just a good example of my general feeling that the inventions didn’t always add as much as they were intended to in this adaptation. (And this may be a bit about my reaction to ‘Around the World in 80 Days’, which I’ve been watching, but not really feeling.)
I had, as ever, no time for St. John. NO TIME.
We saw some more of Jane the teacher, transforming village girls with love child!Jane never received. But, as predicted, we didn’t see or hear of Adele all through the episode - well, she might have been there at the end, but I mainly took in Grace as nanny, which we’ll take as Jane’s apology and not think too much about. Of course, the ending tied into Jane finally getting all the love that she wanted in this adaptation. It’s not what Brontë wrote (only some very famous closing lines), and I thought their house wasn’t very Charlotte Brontëish, and getting someone to paint a family portrait seemed like a lot of faff, and prefiguring family photographs, which hadn’t been invented yet. But Jane seemed happy, her hair looser, bossing everyone in her found/gained family.
Something that occurred to me for the first time: Jane was pretty cruel at times to Rochester now that he couldn’t see her. Be more considerate of the person with the sight loss, Jane (although he’d come off as cruel to her over Blanche)! After Jane first returned and was leaving for the night, it very much echoed her on the night before she ran away, although he kind of knew she was going to go then. Again, I can see why they expanded the Jane-Rochester reunion towards the end, paying off the making out we’d seen at the end of episode 3 and start of episode 4, and it was nice to see more of a well-dressed, happy Jane, but it’s typical of this whole adaptation: there were bits of it that I enjoyed but I can totally see why I didn’t want to own it on DVD.
I then went back to read my original posts from September-October 2006, and I disliked many of the same changes both times (especially the twins), although I picked up on more visual details then. I probably need to reread the novel, although I now remember that I wanted to reread ‘The Professor’ too.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/483174.html.