I have never read 'Wuthering Heights'. Last night I watched the DVD of the ITV version starring Robert Cavanagh and Orla Brady. It is highly praised by reviewers.
If the performances are good then the story must be tosh. Normally I am a sucker for period dramas. I watch 'Lark Rise to Candleford' every Sunday and have enjoyed every Charles Dickens dramatization. Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Jane Austen - bring 'em on. Bur 'Wuthering Heights' left me cold and looking at my watch. Neither Heathcliff nor Cathy interested me as characters. Both are thoroughly unpleasant and what is supposed to be a great love story came across as petulant selfishness.
I have not seen this particular version, but most likely the fault as usual is in the interpretation of the novel.All film versions isolate Cathy and Heathcliff's love story - pure Mills and Boon potboiler when looked at so simplistically. I don't think it's really possible to do the book justice on film. Every word and every character is essential to the meaning of this most complex work of luminous genius.
ReplyDelete"Tosh" ? - no, more like a work of Vermeer or Beethoven.
MaryC