Jane Eyre is about...love

Jane Eyre Paperback Cover by Vintage Classics

I said in an earlier post that one of the best compliments I could give the new film adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's classic novel Jane Eyre is that it made me want to read it again. So of course, I have been rereading the novel in the past few weeks.
Now, first of all I have to remind my readers that I am not an English major, nor do I profess to be an expert in English lit. I do however have a passion for 19th century English literature.  I also have a passion for seeing said novels well adapted for the screen. And by well adapted, I suppose I mean that I love it when the film transports me to the 19th century and makes me feel what the characters are feeling.

Can you feel the love between Jane and Mr. Rochester?

So, I'll tell you what I've been pondering this week. One of the things I loved about this new Jane Eyre film (other than the glorious scenery and cinematography) is the fact that it really made me think about love.

Jane and the hateful Mr. Brocklehurst

When it shows Jane as a little girl in Mrs. Reed's house in Gateshead, you really feel the lack of love in this little girl's life. When she goes to Lowood School, she feels the first real love she has ever felt from her wonderful friend and school mate, Helen. Heart achingly beautiful...

Thornfield Hall aka Haddon Hall

Of course, by the time she arrives at Thornfield Hall to be a governess to Mr. Rochester's ward Adele, she is looking for a home, a purpose and above all, the love which she now knows is out there somewhere for her. Of course, as we all know, she encounters a few obstacles to that love. After having her true love snatched from her, she is later offered something which was distinctly NOT love by St. John (Sinjun) Rivers. I just love the way she pushes the handsome and persuasive St. John away. She will work her fingers to the bone for him, but she will not marry without love.

Enough of love will follow????!!!!!

"I scorn your idea of love," I could not help saying, as I rose up and stood before him, leaning my back against the rock.  "I scorn the counterfeit sentiment you offer:  yes, St. John, and I scorn you when you offer it."

Rock on Jane!!!!!

Do you see where I am going here? I have to come back to the book to find the words that match up with those amazing images from the film. For me, I cannot have just the book. I cannot have just the film. I need both to be happy and satisfied.

This is what it is to be loved for one's self-
imperfections and all!

So what I have been doing over the past week or so is to reread my favourite parts of the book. This is a bad habit of mine, on a subsequent read, to skip over the parts that I did not enjoy even if they are critical to the plot. I love to read the juicy bits again and again. They meld in my mind with the visuals and music from the film and become one happy thought indeed.

Reader, she married him. And if you would like to read just the juicy bits, I have posted the 3 best chapters as pages on my blog.

First, we have the famous Chapter 27. This is where Jane has found out Mr. Rochester's secret and he is endeavouring to tell her how much she means to him and how he plans to keep her with him always. Sigh...

And then we have the lovely last two chapters. Chapter 37 & 38 describe her return to him and what happened afterward.  If you felt a bit ripped off at the ending of Jane Eyre 2011 and found yourself yearning for Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson from the 2006 miniseries like I did, you may want to read those last two chapters again. Charlotte Bronte will give you what Cary Fukunaga would not. Sigh...


P.S. The entire novel Jane Eyre is online if you need a little love today! Jane Eyre at online-literature.com

Upstairs Downstairs on PBS starting April 10 2011

Upstairs Downstairs, on the stairs!

On Sunday April 10, 2011, the long awaited Upstairs Downstairs finally begins. It is just 3 episodes long over the next three Sunday nights, so don't get too attached to this one folks.  It is a lovely revival of the classic 1970s television series. Updated to the 1930s, just before the Second World War began, this is undoubtedly a fascinating time period in which to set this classic period soap opera.

Upstairs Downstairs-Sir Hallam and Lady Agnes in their evening dress

In this episode, Sir Hallam (Ed Stoppard) and Lady Agnes Holland (Keeley Hawes) move into 165 Eaton Place and hire former parlor maid Rose (Jean Marsh) to assemble a staff. The servants are soon put to the test during a party that threatens to destroy Sir Hallam’s career. Dame Eileen Atkins also stars as Sir Hallam's rather "take-charge" mother.  Her monkey is hilarious as is she. Clare Foy plays Lady Agnes' naughty little sister Lady Persie.

Lady Agnes and the servants of Upstairs Downstairs

I quite enjoyed this one, although I freely admit to preferring Downton Abbey. BBC has finally been outdone by ITV (commercial television in Britain) but only just. Since we are not going to get any more Downton Abbey until 2012, savour this delightful miniseries for the little gem that it is.

The two miniseries were so similar in style that Comic Relief did a parody of both of them on Red Nose Day called Uptown Downstairs Abbey.  I am feeling cheeky today, so here is another parody of Upstairs Downstairs by our friends on Sesame Street:

Julian Fellowes-His novels are as good as his films

Snobs by Julian Fellowes, author of Downton Abbey

Julian Fellowes, (Baron Fellowes of West Stafford) is best known these days as not only an actor and the screenwriter of Downton Abbey, Gosford Park and Young Victoria but he is also an author of several novels. I decided to order these as I enjoyed his screenwriting so much, and he seems to have an inside knowledge of the upper classes of England. Being rather nosy about how this class system works (living in the New World as I do), especially with the royal wedding of William and Catherine later this month, I ordered his two novels Snobs and Past Imperfect.

Snobs is basically a novel about the upper classes, how they spend their time, the rules of their society and a story of how a young social climber manages her way into their society and almost manages her way back out again. Julian Fellowes' novels seem always to have a version of himself as the narrator, which works quite well as he grew up as a peripheral member of the upper classes. Having attended Cambridge and apparently spent many weekends at large estates in the English countryside, this gave him many characters and properties on which to base his first novel Snobs.

"The English, of all classes as it happens, are addicted to exclusivity. Leave three Englishmen in a room and they will invent a rule that prevents a fourth joining them."  This gives one an idea of what the heroine of Snobs is up against in trying to marry into the upper classes in the 1990s. So if you loved Gosford Park and Downton Abbey, this is the modern day story which will give you a much more insightful look into the country homes and lives of the English aristocracy.


Past Imperfect is another novel narrated by a Lord Fellowes type character which delves into the world of the London debutante of the 1960s.  It is told in flashback, with the nameless narrator taking a trip back through memory lane, and reliving his youth, attending balls and parties given by the debs of the day. Because it is told in flashback, we also get to peek into the modern day lives of these same individuals and see how their lives and their loves turned out.

Because Julian Fellowes actually has been a part of both the "Country House Weekend" group and the "Debutante World", he speaks with an authority that makes you believe you are really there and not just seeing what it might have been like to be there. Apparently, some of his acquaintance truly believed that they were being described in Snobs with only their name and their nickname (Googie being one) being changed, but he denies this except in one particular instance. (See the fascinating interview with Lord Fellowes in Bookreporter.com which includes some wonderful photos of his world in the 1960s).

So if you need a light escape and want a peek into the world of Lady Diana, Sarah Ferguson and all the Sloane Rangers of the 1980s and 1990s (as well as a look at how their mothers would have "come out" a generation before), these books will rivet you while you await the next royal wedding.

Mildred Pierce (2011) - Tearjerking Melodrama or just Bad Parenting? Guest Blog Entry by Big Sister

Mildred Pierce 2011 HBO series starring Kate Winslet

5 part HBO Miniseries starring Kate Winslet, Guy Pearce, Evan Rachel Wood;  written and directed by Todd Haynes

Hey, everyone, this is Jenny's Big Sister writing - I was asked by Jenny to cover this "period drama" not because of any special expertise or fondness for this material, but because she doesn't have HBO at her house and I do.  Not that I mind being asked my opinion (I can usually be counted on to give my opinion quite freely) - so I set up the DVR for last Sunday night.  However, family schedules being what they are (my kids and I have a standing Sunday night date to watch "The Amazing Race"), I didn't get to watch it until Tuesday evening.  And even then, I ended up watching it immediately following an episode of "Supernanny" ... which was more pertinent than I could have imagined!  So here goes ...

Kate Winslet as Mildred Pierce

“Mildred Pierce” is based on the Depression-era novel by James M. Cain (written in 1941).  It was made into a classic film melodrama  in 1945 starring Joan Crawford, but has not been presented since then.  When Todd Haynes, the director of the HBO production, read the original James M. Cain novel, he realized that the themes of economic hard times and class would be of relevance in today’s economic reality.  The original film version was made in the time of the Production Code (Hay’s Code) which governed morality in film from 1934 – the early 1960’s;  thus, the 1945 version was structured more like a traditional murder mystery/film noir with less of an emphasis on the sexuality.  In the current version it’s very “HBO” – so send the kids to bed and hunker down for the no-holds-barred version of Mildred Pierce!  

Poster for the original 1945 version of Mildred Pierce starring Joan Crawford

(Before I go any farther, I have a confession:  I haven't read the novel, and I haven't seen the classic Joan Crawford film.  Which, considering that I was an English Literature major with a minor in Cinema Studies is fairly shameful ... however, I did watch these episodes, so that's what I'll talk about.  And living in Toronto, Canada we even had a restaurant here called Mildred Pierce - haven't been there either!  Clearly I have some catching up to do ... )

Kate Winslet as Mildred waitressing

1931.  Glendale, California.  Kate Winslet plays the title character, Mildred Pierce, whose unemployed husband Bert (Bryan F. O'Byrne) is cheating on her.  In the first scene, we see the end of their marriage when she reveals that she’s well aware of his mistress and throws him out of the house.  This leaves her with two daughters to provide for in the early years of the Great Depression.  Mildred is determined that her two daughters don’t suffer the economic effects of the Depression, and sets to work – first, baking pies and cakes; then, working as a waitress, and finally opening her own restaurant.  I found myself admiring Mildred’s drive and business acumen, but at the same time I wanted to shake her for not keeping a tighter rein on her daughter, Veda (played as a young girl by Morgan Turner).  As Mildred begins to find her way as a single mother (or “grass widow” as her neighbour Helen (Melissa Leo) puts it – and I had to look up a definition of that term ... basically, a loose woman who receives the company of different men), and breadwinner.  This challenge of providing for herself and her daughters really puts Mildred’s idea of herself and her middle class existence to the test.  At first, she sees herself as being “above” certain types of work, but eventually she has to swallow her pride in order to make a living during tough economic times.  However, she apparently has instilled in her daughters (especially Veda) a real sense of class hierarchy which, in Veda, comes off as nasty brattiness - hence, the Supernanny reference from earlier on.  I kept wishing that Mildred (or Supernanny!) would just put Veda on the "naughty chair" and regain control of the situation.  Since this is the driver of the (melo)drama, however, we are forced to watch the results of poor parenting on a "bad seed" child!  Yikes!

Guy Pearce as Monty Beregon

This notion of class is one that is often explored in British historical dramas (even not-so-historical dramas), but is seldom addressed as vividly in American dramas as it is portrayed in Mildred Pierce.  Because I don’t want to give too much away with spoilers, I’ll just say that – in typical melodramatic fashion – the sensuality that Mildred explores through her actions in Episode 2 when she takes up with the playboy Monty Beregon (Guy Pearce), is punished through tragedy before the end of the episode.

Evan Rachael Wood as the adult Veda

In the later episodes, the adult Veda will be portrayed by Evan Rachel Wood - I can't wait to see the fireworks between her and Kate Winslet as Veda and Mildred work out their very dysfunctional mother/daughter relationship.  Happy viewing, everyone.

Barney's Version -A really great flick

Barney's Version Poster

Barney's Version is a truly wonderful film. I'll go light on details so as not to spoil it, but basically, Barney is a Jewish guy living in Montreal and a book has been written about part of his life which Barney disputes, so he wants to tell "his version" of his life story. This film is based on the Giller Prize winning book of the same name by Mordecai Richler.

Barney marrying heavily pregnant wife #1 (Rachelle Lefevre) with best friend Boogie (Scott Speedman)

The main plot is about how 3 gorgeous women fall for this hard drinking, cigar chomping, schlub of a guy, played to a tee by Paul Giamatti. This film is funny, it's heartbreaking and most of all very entertaining. Minnie Driver gives an absolutely hilarious performance as his second wife (with a MASTERS degree) and Rosamund Pike is luminous as Barney's long suffering third wife.

Barney (Paul Giamatti) and his dad (Dustin Hoffman)

An interesting piece of casting has Barney's father played by Dustin Hoffman, thankfully back from the land of the Fockers for this wonderful performance and Hoffman's real life son, actor Jake Hoffman, playing Barney's son.

Barney wooing wife #3 (Rosamund Pike)

I always find that the best films are the ones which mix humour with tragedy and give you a script where you cannot predict where the film is going. This one gives all of that and more. Toss in some gorgeous Canadian scenery both of Montreal and of cottage country (or the "Bush" as Shania Twain likes to call it) and you have a thoroughly satisfying flick.

Barney's second wife (Minnie Driver at her all time best)

Kick back and have a good laugh and a good cry over this one my friends.

P.S. If you don't understand the twist at the end, post a comment and I'll help you out.