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| imdb.com |
A few afternoons ago I decided to watch Franco Zeffirelli's
adaptation of Jane Eyre. I have read the novel many times, I've done a
little bit of academic scholarship on it, and I've even taught the novel a few
times, so I feel like I can say that I know the novel pretty well. I thought I would feel a communion with this
adaptation because it was released in 1996, the same year I read the novel for
the first time. And Roger Ebert has
high praise for this version, giving it 3.5 out of 4 stars. These were all
good signs, so I pressed play and was soon knee deep in Gothic intrigue and
romance.
Jane
Eyre is quite a long novel, but this film is not. It's a little less than two
hours long. The film begins with her aunt Mrs. Reed locking Jane into the
ominous Red Room, where, in true Gothic fashion, her Uncle Reed died. After a short but absolutely beautiful opening
score, Jane is visited by Mr. Brocklehurst and sent off to Lowood where she
befriends the consumptive Helen Burns, experiences loss when Helen dies, grows
up and makes her way to Thornfield, all in about 25 minutes. And the pacing
issues continue throughout the entire film; the whole thing feels very rushed.
It is, in my opinion, the film's biggest fault.
However,
the rushing gets us to the juicy parts with Jane and Rochester, which are
always my favorite bits, so it's not all bad. And whoever did the casting for
this movie really nailed it. I can be a
purist when it comes to film adaptations of novels, so I always appreciate when
an adaption of Jane Eyre sticks to
the spirit of the book. Charlotte Gainsbourg's Jane is styled as appropriately
young and plain (in the novel Jane is only eighteen years old and she describes
herself as plain and decidedly not pretty). And I can appreciate a young, handsome,
and sexy Rochester as much as the next person (Michael Fassbender's Rochester: rawr!)
but Rochester is supposed to be twenty years older than Jane, and William
Hurt's Rochester delivers. Gainsbourg's Jane and Hurt's Rochester meet and have
delightfully pithy conversations with one another. But then, Jane saves
Rochester's life and the smoldering, brooding glances at one another and passionate
hand holding begins, and I turn into an eighteen year old girl again and sail
off into a cloud of romance. |
| The first of several passionate hand holding incidents |
So temporarily eighteen year old Barbi ignores the fact the
Rochester is actually really manipulative and revels in their passionate,
torrid romance until secret mad wife Bertha's inevitable appearance ruins
everything. And temporarily eighteen year old Barbi kind of wants Jane to stay
with Rochester and continue their passionate love affair, but adult Barbi
realizes that Jane is really awesome for leaving because she is staying true to
herself, her ethics, and her desire for independence and equality even though
she's desperately in love with Rochester and it kills her to leave him. And
then there's Jane pining away for Rochester and the bit with the Rivers, which
is never my favorite part because there's no romance. And just like Rochester, Sinjun Rivers tries
to impose his will on Jane, which is no good because clearly Jane belongs with
Rochester. But my girl Jane is made of stronger stuff and after she
miraculously inherits a fortune from her dead uncle, she leaves the Rivers and goes
back to Rochester who has, luckily for Jane, been widowed during their time
apart after Bertha burns down Thornfield and commits suicide by jumping from
the roof. Rochester has also been injured, but he's still sexy looking because
he's movie injured. Movie injured Rochester is blind (movie Rochesters, like
the Rochester of the novel, are always blind by the end of the novel) but he
only has some slight scarring on his face. Book injured Mr. Rochester has lost
his sight in the fire and is pretty seriously maimed. But both movie Rochester
and book Rochester are grumpy and bitter because they're waiting for Jane to
come so that they can continue with all of the romance.
But
even though the casting is excellent, and there's passionate, smoldering
romance, the rushed pacing of the film drove me nuts. Maybe people who haven't
read Jane Eyre like this version. It
is very beautifully made. I'm sure I
didn't like this film because I've read the book so many times. This adaptation
pales in comparison to its source material. After I finished watching the film,
I went to rate it and saw that I had already given it two stars. So at some
point I must have seen this film, disliked it enough to rate it poorly, and blotted
the experience out the memory.
However, I won't forget it
this time because
a. I felt the need to
watch other versions of Jane Eyre to negate the effect of this one.
b. I wrote this blog.
c. I decided that I watch as many versions of Jane Eyre as
possible, and upon watching other versions realized that some of them are actually
straight up terrible.
