A Little Lit Rant on a Cloudy Evening

I’ve come to realize that my blog has become a “hub” of sorts on the internet. I see that people often come to me for the first time after referrals from the much-visited “Bronte Blog” as well as the blogs of my (few) followers. As my blog continues to grow in popularity a little more each day, I find it incumbent upon me to thank all of my regular visitors and fellow Lit lovers who find time in their day to stop by this little site of mine. I cannot even begin to tell you how it brightens my day to see new comments and words of encouragement when I log into “Blogger.com.”

Blogging has been a truly incredible experience for me. Before I started, I felt like a useless teenager in a small town living a rather tedious life. Now I have the privilege of sharing all my thoughts on what I love best with viewers from different parts of the world. The fact that I’m communicating with people that live across the Atlantic is especially exciting to me. I have an unhealthy obsession with English Lit, as you all know. But I also have a great passion for the culture surrounding it. It is for this reason that I love all things European.

I love my country, don’t get me wrong. America is certainly a great place to live. Still, European culture has a rich appeal to me that I can’t seem to describe. I live in a country where Hollywood is highly publicized and commercialized movies are constantly hitting the big screen, but some of my favorite actors and actresses are actually European. Michael Fassbender is german/irish. James McAvoy is Scottish. Keira Knightley is from the UK. Another immense favorite of mine is the very underrated Richard Armitage.

It is in fact, RA himself that compelled me to write this post. I know that I’ve casted him as my perfect Rochester, but I also mentioned that I enjoyed him in the North and South miniseries based on Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel. I reviewed the book a while ago, for all of you who haven’t read it. However, today on a rainy day in the U.S, I found myself watching the miniseries and after turning the TV off and wiping the tears from my eyes, I felt the urgent need to review it.

The BBC is great when it comes to adapting novels to the screen, but it was at its best when it chose to adapt North and South. The book was splendid and ended up being my second favorite novel, but the miniseries blew me away. With a screenplay written by Sandy Welch (who also wrote the controversial script of the ’06 Jane Eyre and the most recent adaption of Jane Austen’s Emma) and a great setting in northern England, the miniseries was already destined to be good.

Casting Daniella Denby-Ashe as the main character Margaret Hale was a rather questionable move to some, but in my opinion worked in the adaption’s favor. The stroke of genius was bringing in Richard Armitage to play the glowering and multilayered Mr. Thornton.

There are some adaptations where departures from the book are deemed controversial, questionable, or just downright disgraceful. Sandy Welch took many a liberty in adapting the screenplay for North and South, and ALL the departures from the book paid off in a very positive way. Sandy even added new batches of symbolism to the film that weren’t existent in the novel. An example of this would be the motif of “looking through windows” that constantly reoccurs throughout the miniseries, but isn’t really touched on in the book. In some instances, Sandy departed from the book altogether in scenes such as the end the of adaption, or the meeting of the main characters. All these were very heavy risks that could’ve exposed the adaption to a lot of criticism, but ended up making the miniseries a masterpiece.

What I particularly loved about this adaption was that balanced its rather large departures from the novel in the plot by sticking faithfully true to the essence and appearance of the characters and settings. Daniella Denby-Ashe solidly played the stubborn and rather prejudiced Margaret Hale and Richard Armitage completely inhabited his role as John Thornton. The chemistry between the two leads was beautiful. The viewer witnesses before their eyes Margaret’s gradual transformation. Daniella changes her character one step at a time so that the audience becomes more in touch with the realism of Miss Hale’s journey. Richard Armitage BECOMES John Thornton. The emotions shown through his eyes are stronger than any words could express. This is essential to the role of Thornton because he is a man who represses his emotions until they burst their way out of him.

If any of you hasn’t read the original novel, I suggest that you run out to the book store nearest you and purchase it. If you are a true lover of Lit, there’s almost absolutely no way you won’t enjoy it. You could just watch the miniseries and be content, because the miniseries is capable of being watched alone. Still, the best effect comes from reading the source material before or after or DURING the miniseries (whichever way works best for you). I don’t care what order you choose to do it in, just do it! You don’t want to miss this.

That’s it for now. It’s still cloudy outside and I have nothing to do, so I think that I’m going to re-watch the 2007 adaptation of Persuasion. I’m sure there will be a review of that novel coming soon, so watch out for it. As always, comments are encouraged!

                                                                        --Bonnie

A Dangerous Method: the All-Star Triple Threat

I absolutely HAD to write a post about my excitement for the upcoming movie, A Dangerous Method. It really has nothing to do with literature, but I am a girl of many interests and psychology just so happens to be one of them. This past year I took AP Psych and was absolutely blown away by all the wonders of the mind and human emotion. The class ended up being one of my favorites and almost drove me to want to change my minor in college.

However, let’s get back to the point at hand and let me give you the backstory to why I’m so very excited about this movie. It’s rather funny how different interests can sometimes interconnect. My intense love for Jane Eyre drove me to rush to see Cary Fukunaga’s adaption, which I ended up (of course) loving. I especially seemed to love the man playing Rochester, Michael Fassbender. As a result I watched a few of his other movies and became an avid fan of his, which thus led me to follow him closely.

Lo and behold, Michael Fassbender is now going to star in the upcoming movie, A Dangerous Method, alongside Keira Knightley (another favorite of mine) AND Viggo Mortenson (Yet ANOTHER favorite).  And he’s playing none other than the famous psychologist, Carl Jung. Isn’t it funny how life works?

A Dangerous Method apparently draws to light the love triangle between Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Sabina Spielrein during the early 1900s. Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortenson) is the pioneering psychoanalyst who takes aspiring psychologist Carl Jung (Fassbender) under his wing. Carl delves into studying the world of the subconscious and thus takes a troubled Russian patient by the name of Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley). While successfully treating her, the married Jung begins an affair with Spielrein. This causes tension between the student and the teacher, who also seems to have feelings for her. The film follows the deterioration of the relationship between Freud and Jung while also exploring the dangers of innate human desires.

This movie is bound to be in talks for a few Academy Awards. It’s supposedly being released during the awards season and this is one cast that is sure to turn heads. Knightley sports a new Russian accent for yet another period film to add to her portfolio. Perhaps this may be the one to win her an Oscar? Viggo Mortenson is probably sure to turn in a solid (and as usual, an underrated) performance as the Austrian pioneer of psychology. As for Michael Fassbender, his fame continues to grow in the U.S as a result of the well-received X-men: First Class. He was a brilliant actor before then (I would suggest that you all see him in Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank and he was a knockout in Steve McQueen’s Hunger) and I’m sure that his performance will not disappoint.

*sigh*…How much better can life get? Jane Eyre is arriving on DVD in less than two months, Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights is just around the corner, Joe Wright is developing an all-star cast for the new Anna Karenina, and NOW my favorite actors are all joining forces to star in a new psychological drama/romance. A girl could die of happiness!

                                                                                    --Bonnie

Richard Armitage is my Rochester!

There seems to be a BBC miniseries of almost every good piece of literature ever written. Or at least, that's what I thought as I went searching for a screen adaption of Charlotte Bronte's Shirley, the newest book I've found an interest in. Imagine my surprise then, when it turns out that there's no adaptation to be found! I was quite shocked, but at the same time I understand because Shirley isn't the most popular of novels.

However, the absence of a screen adaption of Shirley got me thinking. As we all know, I love to discuss the casting of characters in screen versions of Jane Eyre, and I always run into the dilemna that none of the cast seems perfectly right for ME. Therefore, for the next week I'm going to choose some of my favorite pieces of Lit and pick a cast that I would personally imagine. I mentally cast movies in my head all the time, and I think it would be pretty fun to share the ideas that have been running through my brain to see what you guys think. I plan to do this for (of course) Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Shirley, and maybe even others.

I planned on starting this new adventure out with Shirley, but I'm actually having a really hard time finding someone I think would be right as the titular character. Therefore, I'm going to start with Jane Eyre because I've had a mental cast in my head for this novel ever since I read it for the first time 3 years ago.

Jane Eyre 2011 Directed by Bonnie C.

Jane Eyre
Of course, we start with the titular character, Miss Jane Eyre herself. This role is probably the hardest to cast because you have to find a young girl who can pull off the plainess as well as the intensity of Jane. I always tried to stay in the range of eighteen to twenty two years old when thinking of who I would cast. It was extremely hard to find an actress to live up to my mental picture of Jane. I ended up realizing that for some reason, there were two different ways that I could possibly imagine her. So here are the two actresses I found that best suited those two ways.

The first actress that came to my mind was Anna Popplewell (aka Susan from Chronicles of Narnia)

Grant it, Anna may be too old. She's 22 and a little mature. However, she's only 5'3 which works in her favor as a Jane because it may be able to give her a younger look and who knows what hair and makeup can do to her? Anna sings to me as Jane because she isn't naturally pretty and she's also used to playing strong characters. For some reason I can see her playing a naturally independent, yet rather subtle Jane. However, I like my second choice better. And that choice is:

Rachel Hurd-Wood:

I had to give two pictures of Rachel for a particular reason. The first was to show her with Brown hair, just so the Janian quality might come out a bit more. The second was the picture that drew me to her as Jane. That picture has a straight-forward quality which made it easy for me to picture her with Jane's knot, AND to me it just wreaks of Jane's "pixie-like" quality. This girl has these large, searching eyes and her face has this youthful understated beauty that can be made to look appropriately plain. Rachel is also only twenty years old and has a pretty good load of acting experience. I rather liked her in Dorian Gray. The downside is that she has blue eyes and she's around 5'6, so she isn't necessarily "small." However, the Rochester I chose is 6'2, so she would probably look appropriately small next to him. Speaking of the man himself, let's move on to Rochester.

Rochester

There's only one man I've ever pictured as my perfect Rochester, and that is Richard Armitage.

I'm sorry, but how has this man NOT been casted as Rochester yet? Sure, he's really good looking, but so were numerous other Rochesters that filmakers successfully uglied up enough. Richard Armitage is 39 years old, 6'2, broad chested, athletically built, and naturally dark haired. Not only that but he has the "grim" thin-lipped mouth, as well as the piercing eyes and bad-boy ruggedness. Add a dark and menacing voice with a natural Northern English accent, and you have all the physical qualities of a great Rochester. However, he also has the internal qualities in abundance. Richard played an equally gloomy and rather sardonic Lit hero in BBC's adaptation of "North and South" and he played it AMAZINGLY. He knows how to emote anger, frustration, and all throughout the miniseries I kept thinking "why is this man NOT Rochester?". Of course, I've focused on Rochester's bad sides, but Richard is also equally capable of carrying out Rochester's passion the same way he did in North and South. Does it help any that he completely owned his role in that miniseries based on the book by Elizabeth Gaskell who was one of the BEST friends of Charlotte Bronte and wrote similar stories? It's almost as if he was fated to play Rochester for me! Match him with Rachel who I imagined playing Jane, and together it's the perfect age gap.

St. John
It's such a shame that Jude Law is too old, because for some reason I always thought he was a great fit to St. John. St. John is by far the hardest character in the novel to cast. You'd think it'd be easy, but to me St. John isn't just your regular pretty boy. Sure, he's supposed to be handsome, but there's rigid and unattractiveness within him that Jane can't stand. You have to find an actor that can successfully portray that coldness.

I came up with Aaron Johnson.

He's a little young for the part, but he can pull it off. He's about to play Vronsky in Anna Karenina, so he's used to big shoes that need to be filled. This guy has a lot of talent and he molds characters very well. He's like a cameleon. Whatever type of character you want, he can be. So why can't he be St. John? He can deliver the coldness and the sexyness. And for once, we may find that St. John is suitable competition like he was in the novel.

Mrs. Fairfax
She's not all that hard of a person to cast. I liked a good deal of the previous Fairfaxes and I can't really find one that I didn't like. Dame Judi Dench nailed her performance and thus defined the role for me, but just for the sake of doing something different, why don't we try Brenda Blethyn?

To me, Brenda is right up there in the caliber of actresses that include Dame Judi. I haven't seen a movie where she hasn't played her role solidly and so why not give her a try as Fairfax? I don't think it's really possible for you to go wrong with Brenda any more than it is with Judi Dench.

Mrs. Reed
She's not TOO much of an important player, so I would cast her with a solid actress who can pull of the sweet and cruel. And no actress does that better than Tilda Swinton.

As she so aptly displayed in the Chronicles of Narnia, Tilda is rather good and playing evil characters with the outward appearance of a sweet woman. It seems like she would fit the role of Mrs. Reed rather well.

What do you guys think so far?

More Classic Lit coming to DVD and Cinemas

There is a lot of news circulating around screen adaptations finding there way onto the big screen and DVD. I thought I might share my excitement with you, seeing that there seems to be a lot to be excited about. This year is definitely THE year for Classic Lit in the cinemas because some of the most acclaimed directors are now taking on well known pieces of Lit and translating them to the big screen. It started out with Cary Fukunaga's beautiful adaptation of "Jane Eyre" and now we begin to move on to Andrea Arnold's "Wuthering Heights", which will hopefully be released later this year. But it doesn't just stop in 2011. In 2012, well known director Joe Wright is set to release his adaptation of the much loved "Anna Karenina." I love it! It seems like a proclaimed "Lit lover" will have a lot to look forward to in the year to come. Buckle up and hold on. It should be an exciting ride.

Jane Eyre 2011 DVD Release:
First off, let me give a large thanks to the Bronte Blog who always gets the news before I do. For those of you who haven't seen it already, I'm pleased to announce the release date for the DVD of Cary Fukunaga's "Jane Eyre" as well as give you what news I have on it.  I'm pretty sure that the release is obviously for America only, since the movie doesn't even make it to screens in Europe until early September. For all those who might be accessing this blog from another country, I'm horribly sorry.

The DVD is being released August 16th. The most important to report is that the DVD will have special features that include some of the pieces already released such as "To Score Jane Eyre" and "The Mysterious Lighting of Jane Eyre." If you haven't seen those things then you can access them on the movie's official website by Focus Features. The DVD will also include deleted scenes (thank you Jesus!) and a commentary by Cary Fukunaga.

All this happiness could not come without a bit of sadness, however. That sadness stems from the fact that as far as we know, there most likely will not be a director's cut of the movie that so many people (including me) longed for. A director's cut is, of course, when we see the deleted scenes mixed in with the movie in its entirety and get to enjoy Cary Fukunaga's original 2 hour 30 minute vision for the movie. Obviously the filmakers don't understand the gravity of what a director's cut could do. For me, this Jane Eyre was almost 95% perfect in every way, but it wasn't my definitive version because of the lack of time. If there was a director's cut available, then perhaps that 5% could have been filled and I might have found what I was looking for.  *sigh*....Oh well.

Andrea Arnold's "Wuthering Heights" News:
There's not much going on with "Wuthering Heights" so far. As I've said before, they're keeping this movie on a very low profile for some reason. There's only one poster, no screencaps or trailers and absolutely nothing to go by. The only thing I've been able to dig up so far is that the soundtrack will feature a song or two recorded by Mumford & Sons, a highly praised grammy award nominated band. The film released a teaser at the pre-Cannes Festival party that received a positive reaction and is reportedly premiering at the Venice Film Festival. These are very generalized facts that give us no insight whatsoever into how the movie will actually turn out, but in case you're curious, here is the casting:

Kaya Scodelario: Catherine Earnshaw

James Howson: Heathcliff

Oliver Milburn: Mr. Linton

Nichola Burley: Isabella Linton

James Northcote: Edgar Linton

Amy Wren: Frances Earnshaw

Steve Evets: Joseph

Paul Hilton: Mr. Earnshaw

Simone Jackson: Catherine Linton

Anna Karenina 2012
I have to admit that I saved the best news for last. I for one am EXTREMELY excited for Joe Wright's version of Anna Karenina to start blooming. I was never a big fan of Anna Karenina because it just never really struck a resounding chord with me. Still, I enjoyed the book enough to know a decent bit about it and to be excited about the fact that it's taking a turn on the big screen. Not only that, but it's being handled by one of the best directors in the game right now.

Joe Wright is an artist, and he particularly has a great talent for filming beautiful adaptations of well known Literature. I loved his modern but rather faithful take on Pride and Prejudice, and Atonement was an absolute masterpiece. He also directed The Soloist, which was vastly underrated.

Joe Wright has only taken a few turns around the block, but he's proven that he can handle some pretty big jobs. He's also made it clear that he sticks to what he knows. All three of his movies have soundtracks provided by Dario Marianelli, who won the academy award for his work on Atonement and who also provided the sounds for Cary Fukunaga's beloved Jane Eyre soundtrack.

Yes, Joe Wright definitely doesn't take a lot of chances. What he's done has worked for him in the past and it doesn't seem like he wants to change it up, especially when it comes to his lead roles. He has casted Kiera Knightley in the titular role of Anna Karenina, marking the third time that he's made her his leading lady. Kiera has also been around the block a few times when it comes to period films, so I'm sure she can pull this one off just as well. Matthew McFadyen (aka Mr. Darcy 2005) is also coming back to work with Joe Wright and is set to play Stiva Oblonsky, Anna's brother.

Anna Karenina is definitely using a lot of star power. Jude Law (swoon) has been casted as Anna's infamous husband, Karenin, and Aaron Johnson steps up to play Anna's young lover, Vronsky. The cast also includes Kelly Macdonald, Olivia Williams, Andrea Riseborough, Saoirse Ronan, and Domhnall Gleeson.

As a whole, this movie (unlike Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights) is coming out fast and furious and turning a lot of heads. I'm ready to see how this novel (which is considerably longer than Jane Eyre) will translate to the big screen. If I were you, I would read or brush up on the novel. It truly is a great piece of Literature and I'm sure that this movie will do it justice. I guess we'll see.

I'm floating on a cloud of joy right now. There's so much to read, watch, and anticipate. I will definitely be keeping myself busy. As usual, comments are always welcome! Give me your insights!
                                                                            --Bonnie