Post by janetcatbird on Feb 23, 2007 17:36:59 GMT -5
Last week I watched the 1996 adaptation of Tenant of Wildfell Hall. It's been forever and I don't remember the book very well, so I can't be too obnoxious about accuracy! Great scenery and cinematography, the dizzy spin effects, though overused, helped convey the emotional experience. I liked the effect of the wedding wine scriptre at church or the Punch and Judy play. The sex scenes with Huntingdon were certainly explicit for the Brontes, but I think they helped make sense of the tangles and manipulations once Helen and Huntingdon got married. He had a hold on her she couldn't fully escape, and the scenes showed his possessiveness and her sense of I've gone this far, I can't get out now that he has me in such a way, and nobody else can do it either.
I will say that the actor who played Huntingdon was terrific, could have used a bit more menace in key parts but mostly got it right. Toby Stephens (the most recent Mr. Rochester) was fine as the sweet sensitive Gilbert who is good with kids and cuddles cute puppies and kittens. (That's not just modern cliche: for Anne Bronte animals were the litmus test. If he kicks a kitten he's a worthless scuzz, but if he rescues trapped animals he is a good solid man who deserves your love. I'm exaggerating, but only slightly.)
I'm not a big fan of Tara Fitzgerald--in this or anything, really--she did well with the later marriage/runaway to Wildfell scenes, but I just couldn't believe her as the young naive girl swept off her feet. Maybe it's the husky voice, I don't know, she just didn't feel right in some parts.
Where was the door slam? I must confess I don't remember the scene in the novel itself, but all the critics talk about Helen slamming the door in Huntingdon's face, the wife shutting out her husband and deliberately going against him. In the 1840s that was powerful stuff, later analysts would point to this as one of the first feminist novels and that scene of particular importance, but they didn't have it!
I'm rambling. I am excited that our library at school had the Dalton/Clarke version of Jane Eyre, which I adored when I saw it 7 years ago, hopefully that still holds up! We'll find out tonight, since my roommate is gone for the weekend.
--Catbird
I will say that the actor who played Huntingdon was terrific, could have used a bit more menace in key parts but mostly got it right. Toby Stephens (the most recent Mr. Rochester) was fine as the sweet sensitive Gilbert who is good with kids and cuddles cute puppies and kittens. (That's not just modern cliche: for Anne Bronte animals were the litmus test. If he kicks a kitten he's a worthless scuzz, but if he rescues trapped animals he is a good solid man who deserves your love. I'm exaggerating, but only slightly.)
I'm not a big fan of Tara Fitzgerald--in this or anything, really--she did well with the later marriage/runaway to Wildfell scenes, but I just couldn't believe her as the young naive girl swept off her feet. Maybe it's the husky voice, I don't know, she just didn't feel right in some parts.
Where was the door slam? I must confess I don't remember the scene in the novel itself, but all the critics talk about Helen slamming the door in Huntingdon's face, the wife shutting out her husband and deliberately going against him. In the 1840s that was powerful stuff, later analysts would point to this as one of the first feminist novels and that scene of particular importance, but they didn't have it!
I'm rambling. I am excited that our library at school had the Dalton/Clarke version of Jane Eyre, which I adored when I saw it 7 years ago, hopefully that still holds up! We'll find out tonight, since my roommate is gone for the weekend.
--Catbird