Something to watch tonight: Friday 5 December
Wuthering Heights (Arnold, 2012)
Firstly, a shoutout to the readers and listeners who I caught up with at the Sportsfreak NZ end-of-year function last night. It was very gratifying — among all the sport talk — to chat about movies, radio and this newsletter.
Happy holidays to you all.
On this day in December 2012, I reviewed Andrea Arnold’s haunting version of Wuthering Heights starring Kaya Scodelario as Cathy and James Howson as Heathcliff:
Arnold is one of the great new voices in British cinema and Red Road and Fish Tank have shown her to be a kind of Ken Loach with added visual poetry. Wuthering Heights is a brave attempt to get under the skin of a well-known story and – even though I found it maddening at times – there are some wonderful moments.
Arnold’s version of Heathcliff is a runaway slave, a stowaway child found on the streets of Liverpool and brought up in rural Yorkshire by the Earnshaws where he is brutalised by jealous oldest son Hindley and befriended by spirited daughter Cathy. Despite their relative poverty, his colour and his background mean that he will never be good enough to marry Cathy and his resentment grows into a tragic obsession. Dialogue isn’t really Arnold’s strong suit, so it’s good that there isn’t much apart from occasional clunky exposition. What Arnold does get – to a beautiful extent – is the Moors. Misty, rain-sodden, gorse-covered, moors – the interior made exterior.
With today’s revelation that Emerald Fennell wants her forthcoming version of the story to be “this generation’s Titanic”, it might be worthwhile to watch a version that’s less interested in its own blockbusteryness.
Also in that Capital Times review from December 2012: Brett Morgen’s Rolling Stones documentary Crossfire Hurricane, Frank Langella in Robot & Frank, Charlotte Rampling directed by her son Barnaby Southcomb in I, Anna and the superb Russian drama Elena which, if it ever turns up here again, I’ll be wholeheartedly recommending.
Where to watch Wuthering Heights
Aotearoa: Digital rental from AroVision
Australia: Digital rental
Canada: Streaming on AMC+
Ireland: Streaming on Disney+
India: Not currently available online
USA: Streaming on AMC+ or Philo (paid subscription) or Kanopy (free from participating public libraries)
UK: Streaming on Disney+ or Curzon
Why is the romance between Heathcliff & Cathy thwarted in the book. Is it H’s moodiness, or C’s dad, or can they just not light the fuse?
Thanks for the reminder about ‘crossfire hurricane’ - which can be found on YouTube with French subtitles. What’s your favourite of Brett Morgen, Dan?