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Soundtrack praised, film faces criticism

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Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights opened in cinemas on Feb. 13, drawing praise for Charli XCX’s soundtrack but criticism for anachronistic costumes, sexualized scenes and casting.

The Guardian
‘It’s not a documentary’: costume designers on ditching accuracy for spectacle

Wuthering Heights is the latest film to turn heads over anachronistic costumes, but it’s not by any means the first Emerald Fennell’s retelling of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights finally hits cinema screens this weekend. Ever since the first set of photos were released, the anachronisms of the costumes have been central to the conversation. As fashion industry watchdog Diet Prada put it: “The costume design for Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights scandalised audiences with its freaky mix of Oktoberfest corseting meets 1950’s ballgowns meets futuristic liquid organza meets. . . Barbie? ” Continue reading. . .

‘It’s not a documentary’: costume designers on ditching accuracy for spectacle
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The Guardian
Charli xcx: Wuthering Heights review – atonal, amorous anthems that more than stand apart from the film

(Atlantic) Casting off her Bratty cigarettes and sunglasses, the pop visionary channels the torments of Heathcliff and Cathy and the tumult of the Velvet Underground on her latest captivating pivot In the catalogues of rock and pop artists, film soundtracks usually seem like interstitial releases. For every career highlight Shaft or Superfly, there’s a plethora of soundtrack albums that carry the tang of the side-hustle. It was doubtless flattering to be asked in the first place - who doesn’t want to feel like a polymath? - but the results are doomed to languish in the footnotes, alongside the compilations of B-sides and outtakes, where only diehard fans spend extended amounts of time. But the release of House, the first single taken from Charli xcx’s soundtrack to Wuthering Heights, strongly suggested that its author saw Emerald Fennell’s take on Emily Brontë as a chance for a reset. In 2024’s Brat, she made an album you could genuinely call era-defining without fear of embarrassment: if an album makes an impact on the US presidential campaign and its title ends up refashioned as an adjective in the Collins English Dictionary, then it’s definitely era-defining. Continue reading. . .

Charli xcx: Wuthering Heights review – atonal, amorous anthems that more than stand apart from the film
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The Guardian
Is Jacob Elordi really what Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights should look like? | Dave Schilling

Bad boy Heathcliff is described as ethnically ambiguous and ‘dark’ in the novel, yet is played by a pretty straightforward white Australian Elordi Tired of movies for kids? Superhero capes and flatulent animated squirrels? Me too. Fortunately, you and I are in luck. This weekend brings the wide release of Saltburn director Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. As is befitting Fennell’s established style, the movie offers over-the-top sexual titillation (though, crucially, zero nudity) and elaborate production design. Plus, a contemporary pop soundtrack from Charli xcx. A horny film version of a 19th-century novel is as adult-skewing as it gets at the box office these days. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi suck face and stand around in the rain in expensive costumes for over two hours in a movie that Fennell proudly declares a loose translation from the page. It excises a large portion of the book’s story and focuses its eye primarily on the illicit romance between Cathy Earnshaw and swarthy Heathcliff. Crucially, it should be pointed out that Heathcliff is technically Cathy’s foster brother, which allows Wuthering Heights to fit comfortably into one of the most popular genres of online video in the world. Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist Continue reading. . .

Is Jacob Elordi really what Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights should look like? | Dave Schilling
Reposts 13 11h
The Guardian
Digested week: Finally, it’s Wuthering Heights discourse time!

If the British reviews are anything to go by, my rainy London tour bus ride was more stirring It’s here, at last, the moment we’ve been waiting for: Wuthering Heights discourse! Officially released in the UK this Friday, Emerald Fennell’s movie adaptation of Emily Brontë’s novel features the biggest female star in the world (Margot Robbie), the second-biggest male star (I’m putting Timothée Chalamet ahead of Jacob Elordi, don’t fight me), and Fennell’s unique writing and directing style that gave us so many memorable moments in Saltburn . On Monday the flag goes up and we’re off! Continue reading. . .

Digested week: Finally, it’s Wuthering Heights discourse time!
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The Guardian
Meet the unlikely star of the bodice-ripping Wuthering Heights: Martin Clunes

In Emerald Fennell’s BDSM-tinged film, critics have praised Clunes’s turn as the ‘devout misogynist’ Mr Earnshaw It has been billed as the sexiest adaptation of Wuthering Heights, with bodices ripped to shreds and a flirtation with BDSM. And yet the standout star of Emerald Fennell’s new film isn’t one of its smouldering young lovers, played by Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, but British television’s most affable grump - Martin Clunes. Clunes plays Mr Earnshaw, the patriarch of the Earnshaw household whose decision to bring home a destitute young Heathcliff from Liverpool to the Yorkshire Moors sets in motion the destructive love story at the centre of Wuthering Heights. In Fennell’s reworking, Cathy’s elder brother, Hindley, is abolished entirely, with his cruelty, boozing and gambling folded into the father instead. Continue reading. . .

Meet the unlikely star of the bodice-ripping Wuthering Heights: Martin Clunes
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Le Monde
Wuthering Heights, or How to Transform a Political Book into a Lifeless Romance

'Total Screen'. From a political polemic to a harmless froth, cinema has corrupted Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights, or How to Transform a Political Book into a Lifeless Romance
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Público
Wuthering Heights heard better than seen, thanks to Charli XCX

The soundtrack does not redeem Emerald Fennell's mediocre film, but it is, in itself, a post-Brat gothic triumph.

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The Guardian
Tell us: has the new Wuthering Heights film adaptation inspired you to read Emily Brontë’s novel?

We want to hear people’s thoughts on reading the novel ahead of the new adaptation - and if you’ve watched the film how does it compare? Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights came to theatres worldwide on 13 February, with the director Emerald Fennell saying she hopes it will “provoke a sort of primal response. ” But Brontë’s tempestuous 1847 novel itself has been described as too extreme for the screen and on its release it was certainly not interpreted as a love story. “I can’t adapt the book as it is but I can approximate the way it made me feel, ” Fennell has said. Continue reading. . .

Tell us: has the new Wuthering Heights film adaptation inspired you to read Emily Brontë’s novel?
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NRC
Charli XCX Breaks Into 'Wuthering Heights' With the Brat Era – Joyce DiDonato Brings the Love Drama of Dido & Aeneas Fully to Life

Pop star Charli XCX reinforces her move into the film world with a soundtrack for 'Wuthering Heights'. Joyce DiDonato has everything it takes to not only sing the tragic queen Dido, but to embody her. Also: Jill Scott is back, the new talent Tyler Ballgame, and Joyce Manor.

Charli XCX Breaks Into 'Wuthering Heights' With the Brat Era – Joyce DiDonato Brings the Love Drama of Dido & Aeneas Fully to Life
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New York Times
Jacob Elordi, Heathcliff and the Controversy Over ‘Wuthering Heights’

The character’s racial identity is at the heart of accusations that the film’s casting is “whitewashing. ” But what does the original novel really say?

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The Guardian
‘I loved it!’: Brontë museum staff praise racy Wuthering Heights film

Staff at Brontë Parsonage Museum in Howarth embrace Emerald Fennell’s sex-laced take, while Emily Brontë’s most recent biographer calls BDSM version ‘a lot of fun’ Emerald Fennell’s film of Wuthering Heights opens with an aroused nun observing a hanged man with an erection. Other additions to Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel include BDSM, masturbation on the moors, beds filled with eggs for erotic effect, and endless sex in the rain. Meanwhile, characters have been omitted or conflated, key plot details altered and the entire second half of the book left out. As well as ensuring a bumpy ride for English literature students tempted to watch the movie rather than read the novel, such changes have caused consternation among a number of academics and fans of Brontë’s work. Continue reading. . .

‘I loved it!’: Brontë museum staff praise racy Wuthering Heights film
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Dagens Nyheter
Charli XCX Proves Again That She Drives Creative Development

With strings and buzzing hyperpop, Charli XCX's sound on Wuthering Heights is both a continuation of Brat and something entirely new, writes DN's Johanna Paulsson about the pop star's film soundtrack.

Charli XCX Proves Again That She Drives Creative Development
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ABC
Margot Robbie's Wardrobe in 'Wuthering Heights', an Ode to Historic Haute Couture

Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi have spent weeks traveling the world to promote Emerald Fennell's new film 'Wuthering Heights', an on-screen adaptation of Emily Brontë's classic novel that has become one of the season's most anticipated releases, and whose aesthetics and costumes are undoubtedly another major focus. The Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran is behind the dream wardrobes of Catherine Earnshaw (played by Robbie) and Heathcliff (Elordi).

Margot Robbie's Wardrobe in 'Wuthering Heights', an Ode to Historic Haute Couture
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Dagens Næringsliv
Charli XCX climbs to stormy heights

Charli XCX takes the cult around 'Wuthering Heights' into yet another new era.

Charli XCX climbs to stormy heights
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Financial Times
Charli XCX’s Wuthering Heights has shuddering strings and pounding beats but proves unsatisfying

Soundtrack to the schlocky erotic new film falters after a stirring start

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New York Times
Watch: Emerald Fennell Narrates a Clip of Margot Robbie in ‘Wuthering Heights’

The screenwriter and director Emerald Fennell narrates a sequence from her film.

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New York Times
‘Wuthering Heights’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The director and screenwriter Emerald Fennell narrates a sequence from her film featuring Margot Robbie, Shazad Latif, Alison Oliver and Hong Chau.

Reposts 0 13h
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