Product Description
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Bronte Collection, The (DVD)
The daughters of an Irish clergyman, the Bronte sisters comprise
one of the world's most famous literary families. Charlotte, the
eldest, published Jane Eyre, the quintessential gothic romance in
1847. Later that year Emily brought forth Wuthering Heights,
which has haunted generations of readers for more than two
centuries. Less known, but no less compelling is Anne Bronte's
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, published in 1848, a frank telling
of a widow's options in Victorian England.
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Jane Eyre--the mother of all gothic romances--gets abundant
passion in this 11-episode BBC miniseries from 1983. Young Sian
Pattenden is wonderfully willful and impetuous; viewers will
immediately identify with the child Jane as she fights against
ill- at the home of her aunt and at boarding school.
It's a shame to see her grow up into Zelah Clarke--until Clarke
asserts her own quiet yet fierce spirit. The plot really starts
rolling when Jane takes a position as governess at Thornfield, a
handsome estate owned by the imperious and tortured Mr. Rochester
(Timothy Dalton, a few years before he became James Bond). From
there, this adaptation rips through the perilous highs and
devastating lows of Charlotte Bronte's powerful novel, in which
the courtship of these two prickly personalities gets twists and
turns galore. Though the visual style is a bit pedestrian, the
well-crafted script and skillful performances grow more gripping
with every episode. The necessary feverishness springs from
simple yet effective means, like macabre laughter floating down
the halls of Thornfield. The scenes between Clarke and Dalton
crackle with chemistry; Bronte fans will not be disappointed.
--Bret Fetzer
The 1996 BBC adaptation of Anne Bronte's moral tale The Tenant
of Wildfell Hall will be a delight to those who revel in classics
brought to the screen. Tara Fitzgerald stars as Helen Graham, a
secretive woman who seeks independence for herself and her son
from her cruel husband, Arthur Huntingdon. Huntingdon, a rake
taken with women and drink, is played to perfection by Rupert
Graves, believable as both the young lover who seduces Helen and
as the depraved and brutish man he becomes. Toby Stephens is
Gilbert Markham, the suspicious yet adoring yeoman farmer smitten
with the supposed widow. The scenery and costumes of this period
piece are lush, although the use of flashback as a narrative
device is at times jarring. This tale is darker than the Jane
Austen adaptations that BBC audiences are used to, yet the
two-part film has an ending satisfying enough for even the most
cynical of romantics. --Jenny Brown
Fans of British teledramas, and of talented actor Ian McShane
(Lovejoy, Deadwood), will not want to miss this impressive BBC
version of Wuthering Heights, from 1967. McShane apparently
cultivated his dark, brooding persona early in his career, as he
makes for a sultry, deep Heathcliff and is absolutely mesmerizing
in this production. Wuthering Heights opens when the papa of the
wild Earnshaw estate, Wuthering Heights, returns from Liverpool
with a street urchin so wild, the wee lad can't speak. The young
foundling is dubbed Heathcliff, but is referred to as "it" by the
rest of the household, including young Cathy and her resentful
brother, Hindley. Over the years, Cathy and Heathcliff develop a
bond, but Hindley never outgrows his resentment--so that when Mr.
Earnshaw dies, and Hindley inherits the estate, he expels
Heathcliff from the home and forces him to be a stablehand. The
eternal and very English collisions of class and propriety are
through the story of Wuthering Heights, and are shown in
their extreme in this admirable production. The acting is
uniformly splendid, though it's McShane who steals the show,
giving a far wilder, darker, more threatening performance than
Laurence Olivier's more famous, but far more polished, one.
Angela Scoular, a veteran British TV actress, is appropriately
dewy and heartfelt in her love for Heathcliff, as well as in her
conflict of loyalty to him and to her brother and the class
system. William Marlowe is a true scoundrel as Cathy's brother
Hindley, though he lets just enough vulnerability show through to
indicate how threatened he is by Heathcliff's mastery of the
wilds of Yorkshire. And here is another highlight: For a TV
production, the utter desolation of the Yorkshire moors is
portrayed unflinchingly--and very hauntingly. The winds never
seem to quiet down, and the trees are barren, the horizon
foreboding. All of which gives this Wuthering Heights its
affecting torment a stunning claustrophobic feeling--despite, or
perhaps in spite of, the enormous open, desolate spaces. --A.T.
Hurley