Intelligent, controversial, challenging and edgy new version that is the correlative opposite of the famous 1939 classic version of Bronte's novel. Instead of Hollywood gloss and Shakespearian poetry, we get a dark, largely wordless, angry version of the story. One that uses images in the place of words to create it's rough-hewn poetry.
This is a very sensual film, not in the sexual sense (although it has its smoldering moments) but in the way some films can make you feel a place as well as see it. The smell of the stables, the cold of the rain and wind, these seem to come palpably through the screen in Arnold's vision.
Her boldest move is casting Heathcliff with a black actor (arguably much closer to Bronte's intent than the very white actors who have always seemed to play the role - in the book he's described as dark, possibly a gypsy, clearly a racial outsider). It brings new depths and meanings to Heathcliff's role as an outcast, new poignancy to his anger and hurt.
It took me a while to lock into the film, perhaps because it so upended my conventional expectations. And I could see some just never feeling in sync with its odd, disturbed rhythms. But before long I was riveted. No longer was I watching "a classic', but a living, breathing story of love, passion, class, race, and loss. Also, by casting young actors – as with Romeo and Juliet – the romantic intensity feels more understandable -- and probably more true to Bronte's time, when people married as teens, and rarely lived past 40.
Ms. Arnold is one of the most exciting (if under known) young directors around, and she continues to fulfill her promise with this brave new version of a timeless tale.
This is a very sensual film, not in the sexual sense (although it has its smoldering moments) but in the way some films can make you feel a place as well as see it. The smell of the stables, the cold of the rain and wind, these seem to come palpably through the screen in Arnold's vision.
Her boldest move is casting Heathcliff with a black actor (arguably much closer to Bronte's intent than the very white actors who have always seemed to play the role - in the book he's described as dark, possibly a gypsy, clearly a racial outsider). It brings new depths and meanings to Heathcliff's role as an outcast, new poignancy to his anger and hurt.
It took me a while to lock into the film, perhaps because it so upended my conventional expectations. And I could see some just never feeling in sync with its odd, disturbed rhythms. But before long I was riveted. No longer was I watching "a classic', but a living, breathing story of love, passion, class, race, and loss. Also, by casting young actors – as with Romeo and Juliet – the romantic intensity feels more understandable -- and probably more true to Bronte's time, when people married as teens, and rarely lived past 40.
Ms. Arnold is one of the most exciting (if under known) young directors around, and she continues to fulfill her promise with this brave new version of a timeless tale.