Jane Eyre (1944, USA) – A series of unfortunate events. It’s all quite ridiculous, but I love the style: Almost a horror movie, set in an alternate England of fog, shadows and sadists. I haven’t read the novel, is it the same or meant to be taken seriously? Watched it all.
The Suspect (1944, USA) – Kind middle-aged Charles Laughton gets a lover and murders his wife. I can understand why. Watched: 16 minutes. In one scene, (this is set in 1902), his girlfriend walks into a London tobacco store. The shopkeeper says, “we don’t sell cigarettes to women”, and she says, “no, of course not.” What?!
Jungle Woman (1944, USA) – Animals turned into people. People turned into animals. Watched: 13 minutes.
The Canterville Ghost (1944, USA) – American soldiers ain’t afraid of no ghosts, but one of them is afraid of battle, and freezes when he’s supposed to shoot at Germans. It takes the help of a six year old girl and the Canterville ghost to teach him bravery. Watched it all. (Btw, the “well-known fact” that most WWII soldiers never fired at the enemy is probably untrue.)
It Happened Tomorrow (1944, USA) – A journalist gets hold of tomorrow’s newspaper. Nobody believes him, and no wonder, when he’s so annoying about it. Watched: 24 minutes.
Frenchman’s Creek (1944, USA) – Joan Fontaine, a 17th century lady, leaves her fool of a husband to seek quiet at the coast, where she is kidnapped by Romantic Pirates. Bosom-heaving and sword-fights follow. Watched: 24 minutes.
Of course ‘Jane Eyre’ is meant to be taken seriously ! The novel is at least in part based on the experiences of the author Charlotte Brontë. It is also considered to be a critique of the social conditions in England at the time, early 19th century, and of the gender relations as well.
The novel has been made into a movie numerous times, a good indication it’s well worth a read.
Well, if the movie is a fair adaptation of the novel, is it possible she exaggerated just a little bit?
Jane Eyre also inspired a movie called I Walked With a Zombie.
Charlotte Brontë was in fact sent to a boarding school as a child, together with her sisters, an event which I think has been described as ‘disastrous’ for them.
As a grown woman she enrolled in another boarding school, and became infatuated with a teacher there. Although I believe she married a friend of the family, events of her own life formed a basis for the novel.
But as an aspiring novelist, I suppose she made use of ‘poetic license’ as she saw fit. The moral worth and the purity of heart of her characters was what she used as a vehicle for her ‘analysis’ of the social conditions, so some of the finer points of characterization may have been lost for the purpose of clarity.
With your marathon project, you will be sure to encounter other versions of Jane Eyre in the future.
I would not hold her to account for the zombie movie though..
Well, the style of the movie has a fantastic, unreal element to it. It’s not that the events themselves seem unrealistic, it’s that the movie is shot as if it was some kind of horror movie. Which I thought was great.
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