EMILY Brontë Re-imagined

Frances O’Connor takes on Wuthering Heights in her writing and directing debut!

WriterKat
3 min readFeb 26

EMILY — Written and Directed by Frances O’Connor. Photo credit: Bleecker Street Media

I predict interest in Wuthering Heights will increase due to the EMILY movie! I hope so, anyway. I am a big fan of the creative Brontë family, especially Emily. I have been obsessed with Wuthering Heights since I discovered it in 1992. I watched the movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche a dozen times. Then I watched every remake I could find. There are many remakes, but I still think Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff and Juliette Binoche as Cathy is the best remake of the classic gothic novel.

After falling in love with the story, I started collecting Wuthering Heights books. Unfortunately, my collection burned up in 2014. I started my collection over again a few years ago. I recently found an illustrated version! My dream is to find one with Emily’s pen name, Ellis Bell.

As I watched the movie, I knew I had to find out who was behind this re-imagined tale. During my research, I discovered that EMILY was written and directed by Frances O’Connor. I was surprised to learn this movie is her writing and directing debut. Wow! What a way to start your career as a writer and director. Frances hit a home run her first time up to bat. Impressive! EMILY is a masterpiece that I’m sure I will watch repeatedly.

I have always seen Wuthering Heights as a star-crossed romance story, but many will argue my point of view. I have seen the impassioned comments where people yell, “IT IS NOT A ROMANCE.” Frances highlighted the darker side of relationships that makes sense of the gothic and horror label that are attached to Wuthering Heights. I hate horror, but the mask scene is superb! Emma Mackey shined in that scene and throughout the movie.

I loved Frances’s perspective of the mashup that created Heathcliff. That is exactly how I write! It is not one person but a piece of this one and that one who makes up my characters and poetry.

WriterKat

Poet, indie author, and creative entrepreneur who writes about holistic health, personal development, life, books, movies, music... writerkat.com