Before The English Patient there was Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
One of my favourite movies of all time is The English Patient. It was this film that introduced me to the immense talents of Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.
But The English Patient was not the first pairing of the two actors. Nor was it the first story to feature a tragic hero fallen from grace by an all-consuming passion.
For that we have to go back to the literary classic of Emily Brontë's Wurthering Heights. That is actually the title of the Paramount Pictures film adaptation to Wurthering Heights the novel (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer owned the rights to the original title due to their 1939 version).
In a sense, it is an apt title for the film, for it acknowledges the genius of Emily Brontë, the lesser known sister of Charlotte Brontë, whose own novel Jane Eyre stands as one of the most famous in English literature.
Likewise, this 1992 film adaptation was also not quite as well known as the blockbusters of its day, and yet there are several reasons to try and catch it, not least because it was Ralph Fiennes' film debut, and his role as the tragic villain Heathcliff led to later reknown in his portrayal of Amon Goeth in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List.
The film begins with a young unnamed woman (Emily Brontë played by Sinéad O'Connor), who visits an abandoned and rundown manor in the moors, and imagines a tale of what might have been....
Without going into detail on the story, Wikipedia probably describes both the film and novel best, as a narrative that "tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them."
Unlike earlier versions, the story in Emily Brontë's Wurthering Heights spans the full novel, telling the tale of not only Heathcliff (Ralph Fiennes) and Catherine (Juliette Binoche) but also of their descendants. Earlier versions had only focused on Heathcliff and Catherine (the senior).
What makes this film a must watch is also what makes the novel a must read. It is the story itself, so unusual in its dark, almost Gothic setting - and the terrible, terrible destructive love shared between the two lead characters.
The novel, as is the film, is everything that is negative; it stands against the goodness of man. Again and again the word 'destroy', for it destroys - the lives of those who have the misfortune of being related to Heathcliff and Catherine. And yet despite the inherent selfishness of the two lovers, how can one not realise the deep love and pain suffered by them? How can one not empathise?
"I am Heathcliff," Catherine Earnshaw proclaims, while Heathcliff himself thinks likewise.
"How can I live without my love; how can I live without my soul?" is his lament.
And of course, the performance of Ralph Fiennes - Ralph Fiennes IS Heathcliff. It is almost impossible after watching this version, to imagine any other actor portraying the dark, vengeful anti-hero.
Binoche too, is excellent in her dual roles of Catherine Earnshaw and her daughter, also called Catherine, or Cathy. The chemistry is also exemplary. My only grouse perhaps is that both Fiennes and Binoche looked a tad too old for their characters during younger days.
Set against the backdrop of a dark, lonely moor; and accompanied by a haunting Scottish soundtrack, Emily Brontë's Wurthering Heights is the definitive version of Brontë's novel, a classic hailed by some critics as superior even to Jane Eyre.
You may not have the patience for the novel, but watch it, for it is indeed, Emily Brontë's Wurthering Heights.
MooMeter Reading:
Moo-oo...?!!
Exclaimations for:
! Outstanding Storytelling: The story was all Brontë's - but kudos too to the film for managing to squeeze in the entire novel. The 1939 version only focused on the first generation story.
! Outstanding Actor: Ralph Fiennes IS Heathcliff. Period.
! Outstanding Soundtrack: The Soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto is sad, haunting, and seems to whistle over the empty, desolate moors - a perfect blend with the Gothic elements in the cinematography.
Query for:
? Missing Scene: In one famous scene, Heathcliff's reaction to overhearing Catherine's declaration that she was too good for him, seems to be conspicuously missing. Is it also not in the novel? But even then, visually it should still have been in the film.
