THE BRONTE SISTERS
France, 1979, 115 minutes, Colour.
Isabelle Huppert, Isabelle Adjani, Marie- France Pisier, Pascal Greggory, Patrick Magee.
Directed by Andre Techine.
The Bronte Sisters clearly states its theme in the title, However, this is a French perspective on Yorkshire in the 19th century, Victorian England, the isolated world of the Bronte Family and its effect on the three sisters and their contribution to English literature. The sisters are played with style by entrance, Pisier as Charlotte, Isabel Adjani as Emily and Isabelle Huppert as Anne. There is an effective performance by as their brother Branwell. Jean Sorel appears as Leyland.
The film was made in French as well as in English (as can be beard in the characteristic voice of Patrick Magee as the elder Bronte). The film is highly-stylised. The picture of Yorkshire is often of interiors, lit like works of art counterbalanced by long shot views of the green and isolated Yorkshire moors. There are storms, wild winds to highlight the isolation. The telling of the story is of this melodramatic kind, echoes of Jane Eyre but especially, of Wuthering Heights.
The film focuses on the older Bronte and his marriage, his aging and blindness. Initially the film also focuses on Branwell, the younger brother, not knowing whether he is artist or painter who has to go to be a tutor and is humiliated in a household run by Mr Robinson. He becomes infatuated with Robinson's wife, an older woman. When finally Robinson dies, because he has not been able to take Lydia Robinson away from her household, she rejects him. He begins to pine away and dies. With him in the household is his sister Anne, who gets experience for her own novels. Secondly there is a focus on Charlotte, living in Brussels, working for an older man who is obviously designed as a Rochester figure and indicating the background for Jane Eyre. Finally, there is a focus on Emily, her wildness, her melancholic attitudes, her infatuation with brother Branwell and the background to Wuthering Heights. While the Brontes predated Freud, the film uses psychological interpretations of interactions and their novel writing. Ultimately there is some kind of recognition, the Brontes had disguised themselves as three brothers, the Bells, for the publication of their novels. The film ends on a melancholy note.
Warner Bros film of the 40s, Devotion, portrayed the Bronte Sisters with Olivia de Havilland, Ida Lupino, and Nancy Coleman as the sisters, Arthur Kennedy as Branwell and Sydney Greenstreet as Thackeray. Their have been many versions of Jane Eyre, the classic being that with Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine in 1944. Wuthering Heights has also been filmed a number of times, the Hollywood version with Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier, a remake with Timothy Dalton as Heathcliffe and Luis Bunuel's Mexican interpretation of the early 50s
1. An interesting and entertain portrait of the Bronte Sisters? Their period? The possibilities of understanding the literature in the context of the writers?
2. The use of colour, light and darkness? The interiors of the Bronte's house? Exteriors of the Yorkshire moors? The seasons? The weather? The atmosphere of Victorian England? The contrast with the scenes in the Robinson household, in Belgium, in London at the book publishers at the opera? The colour photography and the mood? The musical score?
3. The title and the focus on the three sisters? Their place in English literature?
4. The portrait of the family: the father, his religious background, his relationship with his wife? His relationship with his family, care and concern, care for Branwell? His blindness? His interactions with each of his children? especially the shooting scene with Emily? The tragedies in his life, the death of his children? friends, local support?
5. The portrait of the four children? painting, photography? The significance of Branwell and his art? His disappointment in himself? and his eliminating himself from the portrait?
6. The focus on Branwell, his youthfulness, his relationships? Emily and her infatuation? His discussions with Leyland about his future? being humiliated? his having to go to be a tutor, with the Robinson boy, Mr Robinson treating him as a servant? Teaching lessons? The embarrassment of the deal tables? His infatuation with Lydia? Her going to him and the non-consummation of their love? Apprehensiveness? The return home? Her coming to see him, her plea for him to take her away? What was done in novels? His refusal? His emotional collapse, physical collapse, family and their concern? Leyland and his return, the possibility of his coming to life again? Lydia Robinson's news about her husband's death and her complete rejection? His eliminating his picture from the portrait? His death?
7. Anne, quiet, her place in the household? Her going to the Robinson household, knowing her place, her delicate health, retiring from the dinner table? What she had learnt observing the Robinsons? The return home? Her relationship with Charlotte? Tentative relationship with Emily? With her father? Her contribution to the household, self-effacing? Her novel? Going to London and her being identified? Her physical health and collapse?
8. Charlotte, the oldest, her being in control? her going overseas, the experience in Brussels? her return and regretting it? Her longing for the Continent? Her return, the discussion with her employer? her waiting for his letters, her letter and his tearing it up? The background for Jane Eyre? The publication of the novels, her going to London, revealing the identity of the sisters? Her place in the household, with her sisters, their health, collapse? Hoping to run the school? Local support? her finally going to London, to the opera and the rueful comments about the holly?
9. Emily, her weak health, on the moors? Devotion to Branwell? Shooting with her father? Her wild spirit, wilful? The antagonism towards the servants? The deaths, her grief, physical collapse, the family supporting her? Her not going to London?
10. Thackeray and Dickens and their support of the authors, the publishers and the mystery of the identity of the novelists? The discussions about whether they were men or women? The publication and the harsh review of Wuthering Heights? London society and Charlotte going to London?
11. A glimpse of the patriarchal Victorian household with Mr Robinson, his cutting language, treatment of his children, of his wife; sending the food back? Enjoying humiliation? Class distinctions? Mrs Robinson, her frustration, her not liking her children? Her infatuation with Branwell? The meeting, his not sweeping her off her feet and taking her away? Her ultimate rejection of him and her inheriting her husband’s money?
12. The people of Yorkshire, in the inns and taverns, the school, the clergy and the concern for the Bronte family?
