Jane Eyre

[ivy03]

I watched the 2011 Jane Eyre with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender. Aside from the fact that it has the perennial problem of Jane Eyre adaptations--Michael Fassbender is waaaaay too pretty to be Rochester--it's a really good adaptation. I read Jane Eyre some years ago, and it kept me up half the night (once she ran out onto the moor, I wasn't

Comments

[mylodon]

I really liked the BBC TV adaptation with Timothy Dalton (*sighs*) as Rochester.

[momerath4]

I've probably read Jane Eyre about four times, including for two different classes, one of which was a class on film adaptations so we also watched a couple different film versions, but the thing that really rammed home for me how problematic the relationship between Jane and Rochester is was listening to it on audiobook a few months ago. Hearing his lines to her read aloud exactly as written? Holy crap, it is creepy as shit, especially remembering that he's in his forties and she is nineteen.

[ivy03]

He so, so is. He keeps saying things about the pleasure he seeks being young and fresh and sweet, or about how his love will regenerate him. This is why I see this as a direct line to Twilight--Rochester's a freaking vampire. As I say in the comment below, though, what kind of makes this adaptation of it work for me is how rapey it is. Like, there's the threat of rape and murder in every single one of their interactions. Fassbender's Rochester never stops being a threat. Which gives the whole thing a frisson lacking in other adaptations that try to make Rochester more tame.

[ivy03]

That's the tree he proposed to her under. See? SYMMETRY