Jane Eyre (1943) BQ doesn't care that this is probably the least faithful version of "Jane Eyre" ever produced...........
You want faithful? Read the book.
Want the best (in my humble opinion) film version?
Got it for you right here.
As it flows through its swift 96 minutes, it's a damn near perfect Grand Gothic Romantic Noir....... featuring stunningly composed, stylized black-and-white camerwork and production design........a gorgeous symphonic score by.....who else.....the young Bernard Herrmann........and the all-time best of all tortured, brooding, castle-dwelling aristocrats in Orson Welles' Rochester.
I don't know if I've ever seen a more achingly romantic screen pairing than Joan Fontaine as the painfully shy governess Jane Eyre, capturing the abrasive guarded heart of Welles.......an embittered soul keeping his worst kept secret locked up in a tower like a dark fairy tale.....(which, come to think of it, is exactly what the movie is......)_
It wouldn't hurt some of today's filmmakers to sit down and study the brilliance of the sheer brevity of this movie..........and what is accomplishes in the power of its imagery and performances.
And what performances....... such as.the ever-vile Henry Daniell as Jane's cruel orphan-school tormentor throughout her childhood, a religiously righteous hypocrite so evil, he causes the death of Jane's only friend (played by.....yes, your eyes don't deceive you, 11 year old Elzabeth Taylor!)
Sadly, the stunning directorial work here by the quiet, unobtrusive jouneyman Robert Stevenson didn't earn him the top projects he deserved.........until after a decade of TV series work, he signed up with Walt Disney.......becoming Uncle Walt's primary go-to director for every major Disney film through the mid-1970's.....("Mary Poppins", "Bedknobs and Broomticks, ", "Old Yeller", "Darby O Gill", etc, etc.....)
I could go on and on about "Jane Eyre", but let's leave it at this.........as a prime example of Hollywood studio filmmaking at its 1940's peak of craft and creativity.......it has few equals. A gold-plated, genuine BQ 5 stars (*****), a FIND OF FINDS.
No comments:
Post a Comment