When I say I have been yearning for Emerald Fennell’s book to screen adaptation of Wuthering Heights, that’s putting it lightly. Especially now we’ve heard from the Saltburn director herself on what we can expect from her version of Emily Brontë’s famous classic.
Arriving at Cineworld on 13th February, you can book tickets now to see it in IMAX and Superscreen.
While the purists are in uproar over casting, historical accuracy, and the like of Wuthering Heights, I couldn’t be more excited to see something that is sure to be so visually eye-catching and entirely Emerald Fennell. Who doesn’t love a good passionate yet soul-destroying love story?
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Emerald wanted to create an adaptation that encompassed how it felt to read it for the first time
Everyone experiences art differently, whether it’s a book or a film. This is Emerald Fennell’s version of Wuthering Heights, both the way she experienced it as a teenager, as well as everything she hoped for but didn’t get. It’s an amalgamation of Brontë’s work with Fennell’s own whimsical, lovesick imagination. And we can all relate to that, right?
That’s what Margot Robbie had to say about it in an interview with Fandango, and the idea has me absolutely enchanted. “There’s been so many movies and TV series and stuff made, but I think the point of difference here is this is Emerald making you feel the way the book made her feel when she read it.”
When talking about taking on an adaptation of a book as pivotal as this, Fennell said, “Look, there’s a version that I remembered reading that isn’t quite real. And there’s a version where I wanted stuff to happen that never did. And so it is Wuthering Heights, and it isn’t.”
If you’ve watched any of Emerald Fennell’s other movies, you’ll be very happy to be back inside her head for Wuthering Heights, that’s for sure. It’s all provocative fun and a little bit of weirdness.
Emerald wants us to cry so hard we vomit while watching Wuthering Heights
In the same all-cast interview, Robbie also pulled back the curtain on something else Fennell had disclosed with the star about her hopes for the adaptation: “I want people to cry so hard they vomit.”
Sobbing? Crying? It’s all the same thing at this point. And we all know Emerald loves bodily fluids if that bathtub scene in Saltburn is anything to go by.
Whether you find that visual disgusting or not, I think this is a pretty great indicator of how tumultuous this adaptation is going to be. And I’m ready to be ruined – if that wasn’t already completely obvious.
The way Emerald Fennells talks about the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff is just everything
If you’re not here for stories that find love in unlikely places or it being so wrong it’s right, then fine, maybe this isn’t for you. Like I said, I love a story that emotionally ruins me, and that’s exactly how Fennell describes it.
“When I first read it, it destroyed me. But it didn’t just destroy me, because it’s beautiful and it’s sad. It’s a very destabilising work of art. It’s a very complicated thing, because what Emily Brontë asks us to do is to love two– In fact, not two, a whole realm of incredibly difficult and unlovable characters.”
There’s nothing more interesting to me than, you know, making everyone fall in love with people who maybe aren’t traditionally lovable.”
Hell yes, sign me up!
Emerald Fennell’s explanation of the quotation marks around Wuthering Heights and her commitment to the classic that she loves
Some may disagree on this, but I actually think Emerald Fennell really respects Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights in its original form, and that she shows that appreciation by completely cutting it up and sticking it back together in a way that is entirely different.
The fact of the matter is you’ll never be able to adapt something completely faithfully. Still, Fennell put the work in – speaking to the Brontë parsonage and to other fans of the book in order to create something they feel a part of.
However, when talking about the choice of quote marks around the title on the film poster, Fennell said, The thing for me is that you can’t adapt a book as dense and complicated and difficult as this book. I can’t say I’m making Wuthering Heights. It’s not possible. What I can say is I’m making a version of it.”
Also, as previously pointed out by the queen Margot Robbie, there’s been a lot of adaptations. What’s the point in producing the same thing again? Here for female directors putting their own stamp on things and creating something completely left field and fun.
The costume design is just incredible
Sure, fine, they’re not exactly accurate to the period, but what Jacqueline Durran has achieved is simply enchanting. Described as “a fantasy of a fantasy”, tailored to the character rather than the time period of the book.
Margot Robbie’s Cathy is a blonde bombshell sporting German milkmaid-esque corsets and Elton John sunglasses that would put the musician to shame.
In an interview with Vogue Australia, Duran shared that between 45 and 50 costumes were made for Cathy, with inspiration taken anywhere from Elizabethan to Victorian times, to the 1950s, and more modern styles.
It’s all beautifully meshed together, incredibly bold, and, yes, provocative.
The skin wall is insane – as are all the other visuals
The costumes are amazing – but, holy moly, can we take a moment to talk about the visuals? All we have to go on is the trailer, but I am simply obsessed with the skin wall and a frustrated Cathy that we see thrown against it, digging her fingers into the flesh.
Then there’s Thrushcross Grange, baby blue and there in miniature too as the dollhouse, with shots of Cathy mirrored as both a doll and Margot Robbie in all her beauty. Of course, there’s the dramatic Yorkshire moors, too, and the pooling red vinyl floor that seems to continue off of Cathy’s dramatic bloodred skirt.
This movie is about to be my entire personality.
Charli xcx has written the soundtrack
She gave us BRAT summer, and now she’s giving us whimsical winter with her tracks for the Wuthering Heights soundtrack. A few tracks have already been released ahead of the film, including “Chains of Love” which I’m simply obsessed with.
I think it’s a choice to have one artist signed on for the whole soundtrack. It’s giving seamless. It’s giving capsule. It’s giving chic. And I think Charli xcx’s sound is perfect – electric and experimental while still being sultry and maybe a little bit dirty.
Wuthering Heights arrives at Cineworld on 13th February, and you can book to watch in IMAX and Superscreen now.
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