The Brontës Yearly Challenge

[Laurie B]

Zuzana wrote: "I agree, Laurie. Better than the 70s movie but there's still room for improvement.

The casting
I agree that the casting was better than in the 70s movie. What bothered me a little was that Orson ..."

Yes to everything you said! :D

Have you noticed how they changed everything that could have been perceived as sexual or intimate between Jane and Rochester...
Yes - I wondered about that too, if it had something to do with the sense of what was tasteful to show at the time. I still laugh when I think about him jumping to check on Adele, lol. Very funny, but only because it's so off-base.

Jane returning to Gateshead. Makes more sense to return to the one place she knows than spending all the money on a ticket to nowhere and wandering for days hungry and penniless on the moors ;-)
I agree that this makes more sense, and I didn't really mind the change, knowing that big changes were coming. However, as nonsensical as Jane's actions are at that moment, I rather like the idea of her wandering aimlessly on the moors and almost dying because it shows just how much the whole Rochester situation affected her and how desperate she is to get as far away as possible. So I kind of missed that. But I also just thought it was funny that the narration in this movie indicates that she's been sleeping outside and not eating, and Bessie says something about how bedraggled she looks...but Joan Fontaine doesn't look bedraggled at all, lol!

Why is the treatment of children at Lowood depicted as pure sadism? It's not like that in the book.
I know, right? When Helen and Jane were out walking in the rain, I was like, "Here we go again!" It's like directors feel they really need to amp up how bad Jane's experiences were to build her character. But Lowood was bad enough without people exaggerating it.

Jane not having any prior teaching experience. Why? Makes her confrontation with Brocklehurst seem childish and impractical.
Agreed. They could have just shown her being a teacher and then leaving like most of the other films have done, instead of having that weird board meeting scene where Brocklehurst is talking about how much Jane has improved, only to instantly retract his praise. I agree that it did make her seem kind of petty and it made no sense that she would mouth off to him like that without already having secured a job and another lodging.

Why with so little time put in something as pointless as the drunk flirting guy at the inn?
Oh my gosh, I forgot about that part! What was even up with that? Especially since, as you said, they go out of their way to tame down the sexuality in the rest of the movie...

I didn't like that they left out Jane's inheritance.
I 100% agree. If I hadn't been so tired, I might have thought more about that last night. You are absolutely right. I think the letter in the film that Dr. Rivers burned was supposed to be a letter from Rochester, trying to locate Jane. But at first, I thought it was going to be about her inheritance as well. It would have been a simple enough thing to do, so why change it? Did they deliberately not want to send the message that she was an independent woman? That's a major point of the book - that Jane only chooses to come back to Rochester once she's independent. Good call.

Even so, it was still way more enjoyable than the 70's version for me - that one was so painful, lol!

[Zuzana]

Laurie wrote: "I think the letter in the film that Dr. Rivers burned was supposed to be a letter from Rochester, trying to locate Jane. But at first, I thought it was going to be about her inheritance as well. It would have been a simple enough thing to do, so why change it? Did they deliberately not want to send the message that she was an independent woman? That's a major point of the book - that Jane only chooses to come back to Rochester once she's independent. "
Yes, I believe that the letter was from Rochester's solicitor. In the book Rochester tries to find Jane if only to make sure that she's alright. Lowood would be the logical place to start.
I think that the omission of inheritance was an odd choice especially when it could have been so easily explained (Dr Rivers delivering the news). I don't think that they deliberately supressed this aspect of the story (Jane's independence) but I find it frustrating nevertheless.
My theory is that Aldous Huxley tried to eliminate any illogical -deus ex machina- instances from the book (and there are a few) and in order to make the story a bit more realistic made the changes that he did.

[Laurie B]

Zuzana wrote: "My theory is that Aldous Huxley tried to eliminate any illogical -deus ex machina- instances from the book (and there are a few) and in order to make the story a bit more realistic made the changes that he did."

That makes sense. The whole Rivers’ plot line is like that. I always thought it was such an unlikely coincidence that they ended up being cousins. Of course, it fits with the underlying supernatural thread running through the story. But I can see a screenwriter wanting to make things more straightforward for a film, where they must get the story across much more quickly.

[Zuzana]

Laurie, it was great reading your observations. I enjoy our mini-reviews very much. Any suggestions for another movie? In a month or so? Might be for either Brontë or Austen challenge.

[Laurie B]

Zuzana wrote: "Laurie, it was great reading your observations. I enjoy our mini-reviews very much. Any suggestions for another movie? In a month or so? Might be for either Brontë or Austen challenge."

Me too - it's fun! :D I wouldn't mind revisiting the Timothy Dalton version of Jane Eyre, as it has been a long time. Or we could swoon together over Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, lol! I might be convinced to re-watch the Keira Knightly version of P&P, but only if I can rant about all the reasons I find fault with it, ha ha! Perhaps I judged it too hastily the one and only time I watched it...but I don't think so. :P

[Zuzana]

Let's try the P&P movie. And don't worry I gave it three stars the last time I watched it. If anything I'm in danger of bitching too much about it. One of those "it's a decent movie but a bad adaptation" cases IMO.

I would love to re-watch the Dalton JE series, too, but don't know about the schedule. It has more than ten episodes. Could potentially be a mess. Or we might divide the series into 4 parts (every part consisting of 4 or 3 episodes) and every week discuss 1 of these chunks?

[Laurie B]

I didn’t realize it was that many episodes! But they must be short - my copy says 311 minutes, so around five hours total? We could certainly do it in chunks. But we could do P&P first and then have a rant-fest, lol! I’ll have to find a copy or see if I can stream it because I do not own that one. I only own the one true P&P, and I actually own it twice, ha ha! :P

[Zuzana]

O.K. I'm looking forward to the P&P rant. :D Let me know when you're ready. I have almost every version of P&P on DVD, this one included. So it's easy for me. If I remember correctly it was on Netflix, too.

P.S. I own the 1995 P&P twice, too. :D I have a version with Czech dubbing and subtitles and one that was part of the UK Jane Austen BBC bundle. Last year I almost bought a third copy - because none of those I own is the special (restored) edition. But I refrained.

[Zuzana]

Laurie, I have several suggestions for a buddywatch.

Jane Eyre 1996 (Charlotte Gainsbourg)
Jane Eyre 2011 (Mia Wasikowska)
Wuthering Heights 1970 (Timothy Dalton)
Wuthering Heights 1939 (Laurence Olivier)

Interested in any of them?

[Laurie B]

Zuzana, I’m so sorry for not responding right away. My Goodreads notifications keep getting messed up and I didn’t get notified that you had commented here. Then I checked in and saw your posts, but I got really sick and have not been able to do anything. I’m finally starting to feel a bit better, so I’ll try to get back to you about another buddy watch soon. :)

[Zuzana]

That's all right. Glad to hear you're feeling better, Laurie. There is really no rush. I am quite busy at the moment with the Jane Austen challenge. I have listened to some really great audiobooks lately:

Sense and Sensibility narrated by Rosamund Pike
Northanger Abbey narrated by Juliet Stevenson (Mrs Elton in 1996 Emma, the one with G. Paltrow)
and a fabulous all cast dramatisation of Emma

and I listened to all of them for free. I signed up for the Audible Escape for one month free trial period and was able to borrow all of these wonderful audiobooks. YAY!

[Laurie B]

Awesome! I love audiobooks, so I’ll have to look into those. :)

[Laurie B]

Well, I definitely bit off more than I could chew with this challenge this year. I knew it would be awfully ambitious to go for Jane Eyre level, but it was worth a try! I probably would have had a good chance, but I had severe pandemic anxiety in the spring that kept me from reading for a few months. :( Glad to say I'm doing much better now and reading again, so yay! :D And I managed to reach Mrs. Fairfax level (15 points) this year, so I'm happy with that. I need to focus on some other challenges for the rest of 2020, but I will probably try this one again in January.