Adaptation of 1998, produced by ITV (1998)
Screenplay by Neil McKay, from the novel by Emily Bronte
With Robert Cavanah (Heathcliff), Orla Brady (Cathy Earnshaw) Ian Shaw (Hindley), Polly Hemingway (Nelly Dean), Crispin Bonham-Carter (Edgar Linton), Flora Montgomery (Isabella Linton), Matthew MacFadyen (Hareton Earnshaw), Catherine Linton (Sarah Smart).
***
Wuthering Heights, this eternal classic of English literature, only novel ever written by Emily Bronte, is without doubt one of the most outstanding works I have ever read, and that I also difficult to reopen. Not because he did not receive my approval reader, but a strange atmosphere because it comes and pernicious, and that it may haunt you for long.
It is one of those novels that is hard to read, and then forget.
Wuthering Heights contains in itself the main tenets of romantic intrigue and characters, while mingling subtly inspiring Gothic disheveled.
disease, madness, misery, frustration, passion devastating to encounter ghosts haunting the desolate moors ...
Given the particular context and plot, it is understandable that the adaptation of this work proves to be particularly difficult ... During the last sixty years, many filmmakers have tried with varying degrees of success (a small retrospective will also be the subject of another post), but never did any adaptative knew perfectly recreate the extreme feelings, and uniqueness of the novel.
few years ago, however Arte broadcasts a version of ITV in a short format, in 1996.
First skeptical after the first viewing, discarded by this version of Heathcliff without really understanding the reasons, this version of a great aesthetic simplicity, eventually tame me forever.
Yet it has its share of unavoidable defects, especially in the first half. We may first blame the players for being too old to embody the novel's playful adolescent, and it is difficult to understand the childish reactions to Cathy. Most knee-jerk reactions that occur naturally as the mistakes of youth, lost in the moment all their simplicity ...
Robert Cavanah is probably the element that makes this adaptation a great success: both victim and executioner, Heathcliff is the ultimate incarnation of blind violence, hatred and revenge. Rarely has splendid interpretation of the character, which remains throughout the telefilm as terrifying in its coldness in his fits of passion. A character too, which we nevertheless managed to understand the extremes: an orphan raised and loved, and then be rejected and hated Heathcliff has, dare I say a few circumstances that led him to be what he became an adult ... Belittled and beaten like an animal, rejected by Cathy who prefers to marry another, this character who had probably his temperament is already troubled soul and a very unstable and gradually sinks into a slow destructive madness which pervades all souls around him like a deadly poison.
In most secondary roles, Crispin Bonham Carter found (Charles Bingley in Pride & Prejudice 1995), which responds beautifully to the image of Edgar Linton original: a good man, but obviously lacking in courage.
Noteworthy is the remarkable presence, but not very talkative Matthew MacFadyen in Hareton, who runs a nice job on the character, and also maintain a filial relationship with Heathcliff that can surprise, but nonetheless very successful.
Sarah Smart, Catherine Linton, a character who has always seemed clear, here takes a great importance, and the actress is both a sweet character, but an admirable resolution.
Briefly, version terribly dark and violent, but infinitely respectful, who to this day remains the best adaptation of Wuthering Heights that I have ever seen!
