The Bronte Collection (Jane Eyre / The Tenant of Wildfell Hall / Wuthering Heights) [DVD]

Story:

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.]]> Amazon.com 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-treatment 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 shot 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