If you're unfamiliar with Emily Bronte’s immortal classic Wuthering Heights, the trailer for the brand new film incarnation… is not going to help you fill in the blanks. The new film version is directed by Andrea Arnold, who won an Academy Award for her 2003 short film Wasp, and made a big splash at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Watch the trailer right here:
My knowledge of Victorian era literature is pretty abysmal. But this trailer kind of makes this version of Wuthering Heights seem like a horror film. It’s mostly dimly lit hand-held shots with no dialogue, underscored by an ominous wind. Then, when we finally hear a line spoken, we get, “you broke my heart… you killed me.” I vaguely remember something about the main character in Wuthering Heights talking to or trying to talk to ghosts, but I don’t remember that being a driving force behind the plot.
[[ br. ]] Jane Eyre using the theme from Suspiria in the trailer despite the absence of anything even remotely supernatural from the story.
Apparently much of the film is shot in this hand-held style, which is what sets it apart from other film adaptations of Wuthering Heights. It will be interesting to see how some of the seemingly non sequitor imagery will be incorporated into the narrative. Wuthering Heights opens in the UK in November, but no word yet on when it might be released stateside.
