LITERARY ADAPTATIONS
Wuthering Heights 15
UK | 2011 | 129 minutes
DIRECTED BY
Andrea Arnold
STARRING
Shannon Beer & Kaya Scodelario (as Cathy)
Solomon Glave & James Howson (as Heathcliff)
As a
companion-piece to The Playhouse Company’s stage production of Brontë (by Polly Teale), we are screening Wuthering
Heights. There are many film adaptations to choose from, but this is the
one directed by Andrea Arnold and it’s interesting for several reasons. First,
it captures the atmosphere of the Yorkshire setting extremely well – rain,
mists and mud, as well as exceptional beauty. Second, Arnold eschewed big stars
in the cast and chose her Cathy and Heathcliff to be younger than usually
portrayed, but more in keeping with Emily Brontë’s book. And third, she was the first to cast Black
actors in the Heathcliff role.
The
director was nominated for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2011,
at which Robbie Ryan won an award for Best Cinematography. It is he who must be
thanked for the stupendous presentation of the Yorkshire landscape as well as
the dark and claustrophobic interior scenes. Interestingly, Ryan was also
responsible for the cinematography of Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite,
screened by The Eclectic Cinema last year.
The
narrative you probably know, but essentially it is a tale of love and passion
between Cathy (daughter of Farmer Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights) and Heathcliff
(a homeless boy taken in by the Earnshaw family). It spans a long time period,
so, as Cathy, Shannon Beer grows up into Kaya Scodelario, while, as Heathcliff,
Solomon Glave grows into James Howson.
Please note
that the stage production of Brontë is
on at the Playhouse before this film screening: it runs in the main auditorium
18-21 September 2024.
7 October 2024 MONDAY 19:30
GREEN ROOM BAR
Tickets £7.00|£5.00 (up to age 25)