This Emily Brontë seems smug and, at times, even feral. I mean, I’ll be frank: I didn’t love this film (Slate’s Laura Miller delightfully and perfectly enumerates all the reasons why). I did love Dickinson – a television series, not a movie, about Emily Dickinson, not Brontë. But, I digress.
What I did love about Emily was the grounded feel of it all. O’Connor cultivates a palpability where things are touched and places experienced. If we see the same churchyard at different moments in the film, we can remember what has happened there before – say, who once leaned against the stone while channeling deep emotions – and share a sense of memory, of the past never being lost, but rather shaping whatever might come next.
Anyway, hello, welcome, and thank you for stopping by. For new visitors, here’s what this situation is all about:
With Savor the View, we’ll watch, think, and talk about movies and the things that matter. A special welcome and thanks to our regular crew!
Each Monday, I share brief, spoiler-free remarks and questions to frame viewing a movie on our own.
Each Thursday, I share post-viewing questions to poke at the issues, ideas, quandaries, inspirations...whatever...that movie might have summoned (spoilers, ahoy!).
Paid subscribers can talk it all out in a weekly Discussion Thread.
General thoughts?
The universal/general
Keeping in mind broad generalizations about gender and life’s purpose in 19th-century England, as well as what we think about such things today, what is going on with Branwell (Fionn Whitehead)?
The specific/unique
What is happening early on, when Emily (Emma Mackey) seems to channel her deceased mother’s spirit? Why might she do this? How does it affect others?
Emily and Mr. Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) are, like, really into each other. Apparently, though, marriage is never on the table. Why not (particularly considering contemporary conventional norms about appropriate sexual behavior)?
So many creative characters in this film! How are so many creative people in the same family? Also, incidentally, where are these characters getting all this leisure time from?
Also, when were umbrellas invented?
The viewer is always present
Did you find yourself assessing characters’ choices and behaviors according to their contemporary norms or according to our own current norms? What difference might this assessment make?
Worthwhile Reads
https://slate.com/culture/2023/02/emily-bronte-movie-true-story-wuthering-heights.html
Next Week’s Movie?
For April – the month of “History and Its Alternatives” – Lincoln (2012)
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