"Wuther Heights": I hated you. I loved you, too.
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights shocked readers in 1847. Some critics lambasted it for being strange, violent and amoral. Even Emily's sister Charlotte took issue with the book. While she defended her sister’s imaginative genius, Charlotte scarecely thought it ‘right’ to create ‘beings like Heathcliff’ and considered the story rustic and unrefined. But every reader seems to find something different in those wily, windy moors.
The new film from director Emerald Fennell is certainly different, and once again, Wuthering Heights is proving subversive (for very different reasons!). Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi star as Cathy and Heathcliff, two complicated people who share an earth-shattering love. When social propriety comes between them, the consequences are legendary.
Thanks to its ambiguous narrative, Wuthering Heights is often considered unadaptable. Cathy and Heathcliff’s connection is elemental and mysterious; there might be ghosts (or there might not); and the social commentary is packed with nuance. While Brontë describes Heathcliff as a ‘dark-skinned gypsy’, many adaptations – including this one – cast a white actor, removing the crucial racial context. No adaptation has ever fully captured the novel, and the complex story might be too complex for such a thing to even be possible. With this task in mind, it tracks that Fennell decided to throw the book out the window and make a fabulous fever dream instead – hence the title’s quotation marks.
Judging it as a standalone, then, this film is loads of fun. The costumes are mesmerising; Charlie xcx’s soundtrack is an atmospheric vibe; and of course, it’s a raunchy romance for the ages. It’s a twisted love story on the opposite side of the spectrum from Brontë’s. But like how Kate Bush’s famous song somehow captures the novel’s essence, Fennell’s vision too captures something of its sense of passion.
It’s sparking debate from lovers and haters alike – but perhaps Wuthering Heights is just destined to cause commotion.
Experience the wild ride for yourself at the Dukes from 15-24 March.
