Brian Wilks has written to the Telegraph about the planned wind farm on the moors:

Patrick Bronte

 

SIR – Patrick Brontë, the father of the Brontë sisters, would not agree that Brontë country is no longer worth visiting (Letters, May 1) because of wind turbines.

Throughout his 40 years as chairman of the parish council in the first half of the 19th century he encouraged innovation, the piping of drinking water and the cleaning up of open sewers – all “modern” improvements opposed by interested local mill owners.

Haworth Moor is a large open space. There is much in Haworth to attract the tourist – not least the chance to reflect on the improvements encouraged by its parson that turned the stinking slum township into a more habitable space.

Wind turbines would have intrigued Patrick Brontë as examples of what he termed “our scientific age”. Telegraph.co.uk

The garden which was nearly all grass and posessing only a few stunted thorns and shrubs and a few currant bushes which Emily and Anne treasured as their bit of fruit garden, is now a perfect arcadia of floral culture and beauty.

The garden's designer Tracy Foster notes the absence of any detailed references to gardening in Charlotte's letters to friends – the most informative part of the Bronte Society's archive. Andrew Denton of Welcome to Yorkshire says:

She did not discuss gardening or the garden with her lifelong friend Ellen Nussey – and she would have done if it was a part of her life which had strong meaning. It is fascinating, given the sisters' love of the landscape that surrounded them and which provided so much escape and inspiration. Charlotte was a very adept painter of flowers too, but it seems she took little interest in trying to grow her own.

One passage in Nussey's Reminiscences of 1871, reprinted in Early Visitors to Haworth also goes further than the negative evidence of gardening failing to feature in the sisters' papers.

The Parsonage is quite another habitation now from the Parsonage of earlier days. The garden which was nearly all grass and posessing only a few stunted thorns and shrubs and a few currant bushes which Emily and Anne treasured as their bit of fruit garden, is now a perfect arcadia of floral culture and beauty.

Read on: guardian/brontes-sisters-haworth-yorkshire-chelsea-flower-show 

Interesting ideas of the rain in 1848 in combination with the TB in the Bronte Family

The handwriting at the bottom of the text is Patrick Bronte's and he comments:
"Mr S..... surgeon, Leeds, said that change of place or climate, could prove beneficial, only in the early stage of consumption - that afterwards, the excitment caused by change of scene, and beds, and strange company, did harm."
Read more on:
Bronte weather

Ages ago while i was beginning to research the Bronte's lives and the connections to the weather i noticed (from the Shacklton weather records kept from 1801 until 1857) that the year that Branwell Bronte and Emily Bronte died of TB, 1848, had very high rainfall: 40.38 inches when the average rainfall was 32 inches. And of course Anne died of TB in May 1849. So i started to wonder if there is a connection between wet weather having a bad affect on TB. I've tried to get hold of historical writings on TB and also to look at contemporary reports too. However it's not been that easy to find any research that links the two. Read on Bronte weather

The moors shaped their work. But, dear reader, their gardening skills were prosaic at best

flickr.com/photos

 

Their books and poems – even their paintings – evoke the wild beauty that surrounded them at their remote parsonage home. Yet although the Brontë sisters could conjure the elemental splendour of the Yorkshire moors with their pens and brushes, it seems they were sadly lacking when it came to cultivating nature on the small plot outside their home. Research carried out while creating a special Brontë-themed garden for this summer's Chelsea Flower Show has unearthed evidence of the sisters' surprising lack of green-fingered talent. Researchers at the Brontë Parsonage Museum at Haworth, West Yorkshire, discovered repeated references to the women's horticultural failings. 

Flickr.com/photos
 

Among them was one from Charlotte's close friend Emily Nussey who described Haworth in 1871. "The garden, which was nearly all grass, and possessed only a few stunted thorns and shrubs, and a few currant bushes which Emily and Anne treasured as their own bit of fruit garden," she wrote. 

 

 

Two decades earlier James M Hoppin, an early visitor after the cult of the Brontës began to spread after the publication of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, observed "a small flower garden (though rather run to waste now)".

Meanwhile, Charlotte's celebrated chronicler Elizabeth Gaskell, describes the "great change" endured by the author when she moved to Haworth – "a place where neither flowers nor vege- tables would flourish and where a tree of even moderate dimensions might be hunted far and wide".

Tracy Foster, who is designing The Brontës' Yorkshire Garden on behalf of the regional tourism agency Welcome to Yorkshire, conceded that the windswept Pennine conditions were very challenging for both people and plants although the garden flourishes today in the hands of a skilled horticulturalist.

 "They were obviously very observant and made many comments about individual plants and flowers in their poems and novels and also painted them in exquisite detail so they were obviously very aware," she said. "But the conditions they had were very difficult and exposed. Maybe they were just too busy producing great literary works to be great gardeners."

The mid-19th century was a thriving time for gardening. The activity had become fashionable among some of the Brontës' better-heeled acquaintances with the arrival of different plant species from far-flung colonies.

Charlotte painted a number of studies of flowers and plants, including wild roses, primulas and even exotic tiger lilies. Her correspondence reveals that Emily, who wrote while sitting on a small stool in the garden, gratefully received seed from Ellen Nussey. Poems such as The Bluebell (The Bluebell is the sweetest flower) and Love and Friendship (Love is like the wild rose-briar) also reveal the women's interest.

The Chelsea garden will have as its centrepiece The Meeting of the Waters – a favourite moorland spot which the sisters would visit as children. Andrew McCarthy, director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, said: "They were highly attached to the wilderness landscape of the moors rather than the much more cultivated idea of the domesticated garden." Independent

Bronte painting withdrawn from sale in Northamptonshire

 

The sale of a painting believed to show the Bronte sisters has been halted following information that could prove it depicts the literary trio.

The portrait of three women was due to be auctioned in Northamptonshire this week.

But it was withdrawn from sale after a collector came forward about a similar Bronte portrait by the same artist.

The auctioneer said this could prove there was a link between the sisters and the artist, Sir Edwin Landseer.

Auctioneer Jonathan Humbert said: "In light of the new information and its potential significance, we have postponed the sale and will evaluate the strength and implications of what has now come to light.

"This could help prove beyond doubt, the important link between Landseer, one of the 19th century's greatest artists, and the Bronte sisters, English literature's most perennial siblings."

He added: "We can only do our best to prove beyond doubt, and obviously the more information we have the better our conclusion can be." bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england

Jane Eyre costumes return to Haddon Hall

Through PeriodDramas.com, we learn that Haddon Hall (outside Bakewell in Derbyshire), the Thornfield of no less than three different Jane Eyre adaptations (Gainsbourg/Hurt 1996, Wilson/Stephens 2006, Wasikowska/Fassbender 2011), is to have an exhibition of the costumes of said productions. Last year, they displayed costumes from the 2011 production, but now they're getting ones from the previous two as well. Yay!!

If it was just the 2011 costumes, I wouldn't be that tempted to go - been there, seen those - but with the other two adaptations as well ... awwww, I'll totally have to. Just imagine, seeing Rochester's deep green coat ... wow. Also, the 2011 costumes are incredible:  the squeee

Zenobia

Zenobia Ellrington was a significant figure in the Brontës' early writing and as a strong, intellectual woman, she was a forerunner of the great Brontë heroines to come. The drawing is also interesting for its connection with the Countess of Blessington, whose portrait is believed to have provided the model. Certainly Lady Blessington's literary career and private life accord well with Zenobia's role in the early writings, and Charlotte would also have been aware of her friendship with Lord Byron, whose influence on the writings of all four Brontë siblings cannot be overestimated. Although Charlotte is famous for her writing rather than her drawing, she did consider a career as a visual artist at one time.

• Medium: pencil on paper
• Dimensions: 9 x 7.9cm
• Art Fund Grant: £2750 ( Total: £11,550)
• ArtFunded in: 2009
• Vendor: Private collection

Provenance

Margaret Illingworth; purchased at Dawson's of Pall Mall, late 1960s; private collection; by descent; through Bloomsbury auctions. zenobia-marchioness-ellrington

Rare artefacts from the lives of some of the world’s most celebrated writers and gathered from across the world will feature in a new exhibition as the Bronte Parsonage Museum, in Haworth, explores the story of its own collection.

Bronte Relics: A Collection History gives visitors an insight into how the collection was brought together and how it continues to grow as curators make new discoveries about the lives and works of famous novelist sisters.

It reveals how some treasures were traced through previous owners and collectors, then brought back to their home by the Bronte Society. The exhibition also looks at the major sources of Bronteana, such as items concerning Charlotte’s husband Arthur Bell Nicholls, her lifelong friend Ellen Nussey, the family of servant Martha Brown, and the American collector Henry Houston Bonnell.

Ann Dinsdale, collections manager at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, said: “On the Bronte’s deaths, everything was disposed of, with Charlotte’s widower taking a lot of manuscripts and personal items back to Ireland. Her close friend had a collection of letters and things such as clothing and books were given to the servants. Gradually, as each of the people with personal attachments to these items died off, it opened the floodgates for these things to fall into the hands private collectors.”

The exhibition runs until next March. There will be two special evening tours of the museum and its library on Wednesday, May 23 and 30, focusing on the history of the museum collection.

For further details, call            (01535) 642323      .the Telegraph and Argus
 

Another 'Brontë' auction

After selling two doubtful portraits of Emily Brontë (one and two), auctioneers JP Humbert are now selling this portrait of the 'Brontë sisters' (for a full discussion of the pros and cons of it actually showing the Brontës we suggest you grab something to eat/drink and read the comments of this post). The upcoming auction is reported by several news outlets, such as the Telegraph:

An auctioneer is hoping to score a hat-trick, selling a third item believed to be linked to the literary Bronte sisters.
The painting, thought to be a hitherto unknown watercolour of all three sisters, is the latest in the series of unrelated items concerning the trio to go under the hammer.
Believed to be painted by 19th century English artist Sir Edwin Landseer, it will be included in a two-day fine art and antiques sale later this month at J.P.Humbert Auctioneers in Northamptonshire. [...]
Auctioneer Jonathan Humbert said there was no estimate on the latest discovery as it was impossible to say how much it would fetch, but he was hoping for a third sale of a Bronte-related artefact.
Mr Humbert said the painting, which appears to show all three sisters, has been attributed by a team from the National Portrait Gallery as well as four years of research by the vendor.
He said there were 10 evidential reasons supporting the suggestion it is of the Bronte sisters, and said its quality suggested it could only be attributed to an artist of Landseer's distinction.
The piece of art is believed to be signed by Landseer, and matches known features of the sisters.
"This is an exciting and important painting of museum quality and has a story to tell," he said. "I hope the art world will embrace it accordingly.
"There really is every possibility this is by Landseer and of the three Bronte sisters." [...]
The latest painting relating to the sisters is set to go under the hammer on April 26 as part of a two-day fine art and antiques sale at J.P.Humbert's saleroom in Towcester, Northants. Bronte blog

GASKELL AND THE BRONTËS Literary Manuscripts of Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865) and the Brontës from the Brotherton Library, University of Leeds

Writing to an autograph collector, Elizabeth  Gaskell’s widowed husband William regretted that no reliable likeness of her survived. ‘I’m  sorry  to  say  there  is  no  good  photograph  of  my  dear  wife’, Mr Gaskell wrote in August 1879, fourteen years after her death: ‘The only one, indeed, which exists … does not at all do her justice’. But if a photographic record of  Elizabeth Gaskell’s physical appearance has only inadequately been preserved, she left behind a substantial corpus of letters, many held in the Brotherton Library, and other personal writings, that provide a different, more convincing picture.
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The collection of Elizabeth Gaskell’s correspondence is the largest in the world.  There are many letters to her daughters, Marianne (Polly), Margaret (Meta), Florence (Flossy) and Julia, and to her sisters-in-law, Eliza Holland and Nancy Robson.  These tell us much about her concerns, her views of literature, and her life at home with the Rev William Gaskell.
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Particularly rich in nineteenth-century material, Lord Brotherton’s extraordinary collection included a major set of poetic manuscripts by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) and associated correspondence. A substantial amount of material relating to Edmund Gosse (1849-1928) was given to the Library together with a considerable collection of manuscripts by the Brontë family, concentrating on those of the unhappy and ill-starred brother of the novelists, Branwell Brontë. The Brontë and Gaskell material – its purchase guided by W. J. Wise and Clement Shorter – formed already a significant collection when Lord Brotherton died and successive librarians at Leeds have added to it.
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“a little lady in black silk gown, whom I could not see at first for the dazzle in the room; she came up & shook hands with me at once. I went up to unbonnet &c. came down to tea, the little lady worked away and hardly spoke; but I had time for a good look at her. She is (as she calls herself) undeveloped; thin and more than ½ a head shorter than I, soft brown hair not so dark as mine; eyes (very good and expressive looking straight & open at you) of the same colour, a reddish face; large mouth and many teeth gone; altogether plain; the forehead square, broad, and rather over-hanging. She has a very sweet voice, rather hesitates in choosing her expressions, but when chosen they seem without an effort, admirable and just befitting the occasion. There is nothing overstrained but perfectly simple.” Thus Elizabeth Gaskell’s first impression of Charlotte Brontë, whose controversial Life of Charlotte Brontë she would publish in  1857. Brontë appears under this scrutiny in poor condition – ‘tiny’, ‘reddish face’, missing teeth, undeveloped. Much of the rest of Gaskell’s account in the Winkworth correspondence dwells on the hardships of living at Haworth and with the ogre ..... Gaskell perceives as the half-mad Patrick Brontë. The seeds of her later sturdy criticism of the sisters’ home and father are obvious. Patrick, she told Catherine Winkworth, was subject to fits of rage which he visited in violence not on people but on household objects; he sawed up dining room chairs despite the pleas of his sobbing wife, he filled a room with choking smoke as he angrily burnt a hearthrug to exorcise some personal demon. He was, in Gaskell’s reckoning, a man utterly careless of  his children. He ‘never taught the girls anything’, she claimed, he barely expressed a word at the publication of Jane Eyre, and was indifferent to their comfort. ‘“At 19”’, Gaskell says Charlotte told her, ‘“I should have been thankful for an allowance of 1d [one penny] a week. I asked my father, but he said What did women want with money[?]”’
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“… Have you heard that Harriet Martineau has sworn an eternal friendship with the author of Shirley, if not I’ll tell you. She sent Shirley to Harriet Martineau. H.M. acknowledged it in a note directed to Currer Bell Esq. - but inside written to a lady.Then came an answer requesting a personal interview. This was towards or about last Saturday week, and the time appointedwas 6 o’clock on Sunday Even[in]g and the place appointed was at Richard Martineau’s (married a Miss Needham) in HydePark Square, so Mr & Mrs R. Martineau and Harriet M. sat with early tea before them, awaiting six o’clock, & their mysterious
visitor, when lo! and behold, as the clock struck in walked a little, very little, bright haired sprite, looking not above 15, very unsophisticated, neat & tidy. She sat down & had tea with them, her name being still unknown; she said to H.M. ‘What do you really think of Jane Eyre’? H.M. I thought it a first rate book. Whereupon the little sprite went red all over with pleasure. After tea, Mr & Mrs R. M. withdrew, and left sprite to a 2 hours tête a tête with H.M. to whom she revealed her name & the history of her life. Her father a Yorkshire clergyman who has never slept out of his house for 26 years; she has lived a most retired life; - her first visit to London, never been in society and many other particulars which H.M is not at liberty to divulge any more than her name, which she keeps a profound secret; but Thackeray does not. H.M. is charmed with her; she is full of life and power &c. &c. & H.M. hopes to be of great use to her. There! that’s all I know, but I think it’s a pretty good deal, it’s something to have seen somebody who has seen nominis umbra. …”
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A letter from CB to Mrs Smith, mother of her publisher (Smith, Elder & Co)  dated 1 July 1851
Extract: “She is a woman of many fine qualities and deserves the epithet which I find is generally applied to her - charming. Her family consists of four little girls - all more or less pretty and intelligent - these scattered throughout the rooms of a somewhat spacious house - seem to fill it with liveliness and gaiety.”
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Elizabeth Gaskell. AMs describing her visit to Haworth, Sep 1853
Extracts: “We turned up a narrow bye lane near the church - past the curate’s, the schools & skirting the pestiferous churchyard we arrived at the door into the Parsonage yard. In I went, - half blown back by the wild vehemence of the wind which swept along the narrow gravel walk - round the corner of the house into a small plot of grass, enclosed within a low stone wall, over which the more ambitious grave-stones towered all round.”  “Miss Brontë gave me the kindest welcome, & the room looked the perfection of warmth, snugness & comfort, crimson predominating in the furniture….” “Before tea we had a long delicious walk right against the wind on Penistone Moor which stretches directly behind the Parsonage going over the hill in brown and purple sweeps and falling softly down into a little upland valley through which a ‘beck’ ran, & beyond again was another great waving hill, - and in the dip of that might be seen another yet more distant, & beyond that the said Lancashire came; but the sinuous hills seemed to girdle the world like the great Norse serpent, & for my part I don’t know if they don’t stretch up to the North Pole. On the moors we met no one. Here and there in the gloom of the distant hollows – with Scotch firs growing near them often, - & told me such wild tales of the ungovernable families who lived or had lived therein that Wuthering Heights seemed tame comparatively. Such dare-devil people, - men especially, - & women so stony and cruel in some of their feelings & so passionately fond in others. They are queer people up there.” GASKELL_and_THE_BRONTES

What a beautiful film:LINES

.Lines is a short film written by Vivian Kerr and directed by Alexa Hann which has just finished post-production. The film will now enter the festival circuit and will probably be world premiered during the summer or early fall.

Dirty Robber and DK Productions
Lines
Directed by Alexa Hann
Screenplay by Vivian Kerr

Vivian Kerr ... Charlotte
Marion Kerr ... Emily
Kevin Stidham ... Arthur
Kevin Ashworth ... Man
Heleya de Barros ... Woman

Music by Sean Ganser and Steven Schroeder
Cinematography by Eric Hann
Film Editing by Aaron M. Noble
Production Design by Violeta Reina
Costume Design by Kimberly Gryder

 A short film about the complex relationship between Charlotte and Emily Brontë.

You can check Vivian Kerr's Kickstarter fundraising video (or read this article on Film Courage which basically says the same) where the actress, writer and producer explains her reasons to become so involved with the Brontë story. The film's website doesn't include too much information yet but you can check the film's Facebook wall(and the production photos). On YouTube several production videos can be found: On the set, Location scout and a sneak peek. And, of course, the first teaser trailer on the right. Bronte blog/lines

I received a reaction with this question: Why is it there is no mention of the movie circa 1949 entitled "Devotion"...about the Brontes?

My answer: I never heard of this movie before. So I was looking for information. It is nice to learn something new. Thank you for the question.

OnWikipedia/Devotion I read:

Devotion is a 1946 highly-fictionalized biographical film account of the lives
 of the Brontësisters starring Ida Lupino as Emily Brontë, Paul Henreid, 
Olivia de Havilland as Charlotte Brontë, and Sydney Greenstreet as 
William Makepeace Thackeray. The movie featuresMontagu Love's last role;
 he died almost three years before the film's delayed release.

Devotion was filmed between November 11, 1942 and mid-February 1943, 
but was delayed to be screened until April 5, 1946 at the Strand Theater 
in Manhattan, due to a law suit by Olivia de Havilland against Warner Brothers. 
De Havilland successfully sued her studio to terminate her contract without 
providing the studio an extra six months to make up for her time on
 suspension. It proved a landmark case for the industry.^[1]

In the review of ‘’Devotion’’ in the ‘’New York Times’’, Brosley Crowther 
wrote: “The Warners have simplified matters to an almost irreducible
 extreme and have found an explanation for the Brontës in 
Louisa May Alcott terms. They have visioned 
Reviews you can read here.

youtube.com you can see an original Trailer for the film DEVOTION [1943]

What did Charlotte really write in her letter to Ellen?

While surving over internet I  found on rictornorton  ‘You tantalise me to death with talking of conversations by the fireside and between the blankets.  Elizabeth Gaskell does not talk about "between the blankets"  in "the life of Charlotte Bronte" and I don't read it in  on Gutenberg "Charlotte and her circle" 
I wonder: What did Charlotte really write in her letter to Ellen? Maybe a reader has the book of Margaret Smith with all Charlotte' s letters and can give me the answer? 

It is a commonplace for historians eager to dismiss the taint of homosexuality to point out that the sharing of beds was a very common practice until quite recent times ‘and no one ever thought anything of it’. Itis true that it was a very common practice, but it is also the case that people did think about it. Ellen Nussey and Charlotte Brontë always shared a bed at the vicarage at Haworth. Ellen tried to persuade Charlotte not to leave for Brussels to open a school, but to remain at home, and Charlotte replied on 20 January 1842: ‘You tantalise me to death with talking of conversations by the fireside and between the blankets.’ The words ‘and between the blankets’ were omitted from the official biography, by Elizabeth Gaskell who had become Charlotte’s friend only at the very end of her life. Since Mrs Gaskell (and Brontë’s husband) were sensitive to this issue in 1857, two years after Brontë’s death, it is clear that a queer view about sharing a bed was a contemporary possibility – not an anachronism of modern queer historians. rictornorton
 

January 20th, 1842. ‘Dear Ellen,—I cannot quite enter into your friends’ reasons for not permitting you to come to Haworth; but as it is at present, and in all human probability will be for an indefinite time to come, impossible for me to get to Brookroyd, the balance of accounts is not so unequal as it might otherwise be.  We expect to leave England in less than three weeks, but we are not yet certain of the day, as it will depend upon the convenience of a French lady now in London, Madame Marzials, under whose escort we are to sail.  Our place of destination is changed.  Papa received an unfavourable account from Mr. or rather Mrs. Jenkins of the French schools in Brussels, and on further inquiry, an Institution in Lille, in the North of France, was recommended by Baptist Noel and other clergymen, and to that place it is decided that we are to go.  The terms are fifty pounds for each pupil for board and French alone.

‘I considered it kind in aunt to consent to an extra sum for a separate room.  We shall find it a great privilege in many ways.  I regret the change from Brussels to Lille on many accounts, chiefly that I shall not see Martha Taylor.  Mary has been indefatigably kind in providing me with information.  She has grudged no labour, and scarcely any expense, to that end.  Mary’s price is above rubies.  I have, in fact, two friends—you and her—staunch and true, in whose faith and sincerity I have as strong a belief as I have in the Bible.  I have bothered you both, you especially; but you always get the tongs and heap coals of fire upon my head.  I have had letters to write lately to Brussels, to Lille, and to London.  I have lots of chemises, night-gowns, pocket-handkerchiefs, and pockets to make, besides clothes to repair.  I have been, every week since I came home, expecting to see Branwell, and he has never been able to get over yet.  We fully expect him, however, next Saturday.  Under these circumstances how can I go visiting?  You tantalise me to death with talking of conversations by the fireside.  Depend upon it, we are not to have  any such for many a long month to come.  I get an interesting impression of old age upon my face, and when you see me next I shall certainly wear caps and spectacles.—Yours affectionately,
‘C. B.’ Gutenberg Charlotte and her circle
 

£2m price tag for hall with a link to Jane Eyre

A MEDIEVAL Peak District mansion, thought to have inspired the setting for Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, is on the market with a price tag of more than £2m.
Hathersage Hall – a ten-bedroom, grade II* listed home set in four acres of walled gardens – was once owned by William Eyre, of the local family whose name was given to Brontë’s best-known heroine.
The village is widely accepted to be the model for fictional Morton and the hall, along with nearby North Lees and Moorseats, would have influenced the young author’s descriptions following her three-week stay at Hathersage vicarage in 1845.



Read more:
Sheffield telegraph
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In 1845, Charlotte Brontë stayed at the Hathersage vicarage, visiting her friend Ellen Nussey, whose brother was the vicar, while she was writing Jane Eyre. Many of the locations mentioned in her novel match locations in Hathersage, the name Eyre being that of a local gentry family. Her "Thornfield Hall" for example is widely accepted to be North Lees Hall situated on the outskirts of Hathersage. wiki/Hathersage

Wuthering Heights

 

In Andrea Arnold’s ruwe en eerlijke interpretatie van Brontë’s meesterwerk Wuthering Heights krijgt het liefdesverhaal tussen Heatcliff en Cathy een hele andere lading. Vanaf 12 april is de film bij ons in de zalen.
(Dutch)  romeo-oh-romeo-wherefore-art-thou-romeo