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Films for Bookworms
The only thing better than browsing books is browsing books...
and then watching a film about books!
Now Showing for May:
The Brilliant Bronte Sisters
Running time: 47 minutes
Long-time visitors to this blog know that I have a soft spot for the Bronte sisters! Their passionate, headstrong female characters fueled my adolescence, and their tenacious dedication to the craft of writing is still inspiring. (Come on... Jane Eyre was furiously written in a few weeks shortly after Charlotte's first book was rejected. How's that for a little dedicated writer's revenge?)
While I love Jane Eyre -- the scrappy heroine and the long-brooding bad boy Rochester just never go out of style --as I've mentioned before, Wuthering Heights has been a favorite novel since I was very young. I read it in Junior High, when I had a mad crush on Niles, the new boy in my school who had recently moved to Austin from the UK. He was every bit a Heathcliff prototype hunching over his desk in a worn leather motorcycle jacket, a shock of dark hair falling over his eyes as he furiously wrote poetry in a spiral notebook...
The poor woman died of TB at only 29, which is probably why we don't think of her as often as we think of Emily and Charlotte. Her poetry and two novels were originally published under the pen name of Acton Bell. Her second novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is considered to be one of the first feminist novels. (It's great!)
Apparently, actress and writer Sheila Hancock has also long been fascinated with the life and works of these three sisters. In this wonderful documentary, Sheila journeys through the land, manuscripts and artifacts of these remarkable women. She speaks to leading authorities as well as modern artists influenced by the sisters and their works.
Make a cuppa, and settle in for this lovely documentary.
Check back every month for a new film pick!
(I have other great bookish videos here.)
Psst: I couldn't resist.
