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Wuthering Heights (1998 adaptation), David Skynner

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 ...

Orla Brady portrays a convincing Cathy, for which it is impossible to feel any pity. As such, it closely resembles the original character, versatile and capricious, that can never find the sympathy of the reader. The actress has a memorable scene of madness, which will live long in the memory.

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!

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Sherlock Holmes and the Phantom of the Opera Nicholas Meyer

Sherlock Holmes, living happily in retirement in Sussex, is pressed with questions by his friend Watson ... What happened during those two years when the detective is supposed to have disappeared into the Reichenbach Falls? And where did he go?

***

To those who have already read Solution to 7% from the same author, this novel is a coherent sequence of "leakage" of Holmes, and his sudden death, even death, a complete fabrication.

Holmes has indeed moved to Paris during this period, experiencing a newfound freedom, trying to earn a living by providing violin lessons, then ended up being involved in the orchestra's gleaming Opera Garnier.

This book is a pretty pastiche. Not only because it brings together symbolically two heroes of literature I worship, but also because it is always interesting to mix the experiences of two distinct fiction without the writer gets tangled brushes! Obviously, Nicholas Meyer takes shortcuts, including some household arrangements to make his story consistent. I think the game is very fun to drive, although I admit I preferred the solution to 7% in the end. But I'll come back later.

The large gap (the famous two-year period in which Holmes is believed to be dead) has arrested thousands of Holmesian, especially because Conan Doyle did not say much throughout her stories, and that necessarily, imagination broth to the idea that this character eminently popular, this detective essential to justice in his time (in his fictional world do we hear), could one day disappear, to reappear with explanations remain almost in the improbable ...

In the 7% Solution, by Nicholas Meyer's idea is to make us believe that Holmes had disappeared some time to heal his little "quirks."

Having conquered his demons, Holmes simply takes a little vacation, and what would look like a resort quickly takes on the appearance of a new life.

Obviously, the plot follows the main chapters of the novel by Gaston Leroux, taking some liberties without much innovation.

The beautiful and pure Christine remains true to Leroux's image and is candid, but I felt much more naive and childlike than what the character really is.

Raoul, the lovers, is not roughed up by the author. It remains as it is, ie, young, rather impetuous, and very clumsy (inseparable from his youth).

Now we come to the ghost ... That one, I was waiting at a halt, and with an acid spirit ... If the author had abused me, I'd have him violently wanted! (Not but) But contrary to what I believed in opening this book, the appearances of the ghost are rare, they remain, strictly speaking, in the spectrum. In reading this novel (without knowing that of Leroux), one is almost inclined to believe that the Phantom is indeed one, because it is invisible, elusive, and Holmes actual sentence to see clearly ...

What I regret is that there is not a confrontation worthy of the name between the two characters, an atmosphere tenser, darker .... Now it is about more than a very brief final scene, which left me on my hunger.

I had imagined a more intellectual opposition, a feline subtlety, reportedly agreed to these two wonderful men that are each in their way, two minds pure, extraordinary intelligence standards.

In my opinion, Nicholas Meyer was limited to the plot without deepening the characters who fully deserved, what I find a shame. But it was perhaps not intended, you will say ...

The tone remains light, and the novel is a pastiche pleasant and charming in many ways, but which lacks definitely a little "something" ...

For this reason, I probably prefer to 7% Solution, because it seemed more original about the concept, and also much more fun (see the scene that happens opera Vienna, where I was crying with laughter while reading the summary of Watson a Wagner opera ... ) ... There are of course in the SH and the Phantom of the Opera a few winks pleasant, probably due to the presence of the character of Irene Adler, causing strangely, once it occurs, migraines brutal and strange palpitations that poor Holmes decidedly ... ^ _ ^

Howlong Doespulpitis Last

Clues - Volume 2: In the shadow of the enemy, by Mara (out soon!)


few months ago, I presented on this blog the Volume 1 of the excellent comics CLUES ( Article from June 20, 2008 ), Mara. For

years, the author shares on his blog previews, sketches the evolution of his characters and his work.

few weeks ago, Mara announced the release of Volume 2 of CLUES, scheduled for March 4, 2010.
can guess, the allure of beautiful previews she was kind enough to lend me part of this article, the plot just like his hero, will be provided with a darker atmosphere than in the first game.



The diligent reader and a fan that I am happy to find the inspector Nathaniel Hawkins and his assistant Emily Arderen whose temperaments diametrically opposed, even though reserve situations exhilarating!



Not much info yet, so the contents of Volume 2 ... We look forward to a few clarifications undisguised (peut-être!) on points cruelly left in abeyance in the first volume!

Visit Mara's blog here: www.sargas.net / mara

EDIT from 10/03

A small change in the release date of volume 2, since it will be available to from March 18!

It can be found already in pre-order on Amazon, among others: CLUES Volume 2
Hurry up!