Gothic Romance: Jane Eyre (Dir Cary Joji Fukunaga, 2h, 2011)

 There is a certain inevitability, when one considers Gothic romance as a genre, that you will inevitably arrive at the Brontës. There are no shortage of cinematic (and small-screen) adaptions of the sisters' work. These are inevitably dominated by Emily's Wuthering Heights, its incarnations ranging from the aforementioned 1939 adaption that brought Lawrence Olivier to America, to the 1988 Japanese adaption, directed by Yoshishige Yoshida that retells it in medieval Japan, to Bunuel's 19th Century Mexican edition, Abismos de pasión, not to mention the upcoming adaption, directed by Emerald Fennell and starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, that seems to be only heightening the Gothic sensibilities of the tale. Anne's cinematic outings amount to two TV adaptions, whilst Charlotte's adaptions are largely focused on Jane Eyre. 

Jane Eyre's adaptions may not quite have the range or prestige of Wuthering Heights, but they themselves are worthy of attention, from Franco Zeffirelli's compact if miscast version to 1943's incarnation, directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Orson Welles against Joan Fontaine, to, also in 1943, the eerie I Walked With A Zombie, to say little of the number of small-screen television adaptions. The most recent of these adaptions, directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, later to make the most recent Bond instalment, No Time to Die), matches a faithfulness to the novel, despite its bold narrative structure, with a Gothic sensibility sorely missing from many adaption of the Brontë sisters' works.

For those of you who have either never studied the novel in GCSE English or English Literature, or have managed to forget since; Jane Eyre (Mia Wasikowska as an adult, Amelia Clarkson as a child), an unwanted orphan cared for by her distant aunt, is packed off to a repressive boarding school where corporal punishment is rife and where Jane's close friend Helen soon dies. Leaving school, she soon becomes the governess of Adèle Varens, the ward of Lord Rochester, a tempestuous and often chaotic figure (Michael Fassbender), the lord of the manor of Thornfield Hall. Here Brontë, influenced by the Byronic heroes of the romantic movement, something that also birthed the intensity of Heathcliff, creates arguably the great figure of Gothic romance

All is not well at Thornfield, though; in true Gothic fashion, something is hinted at behind its walls, a mysterious locked door exists in Rochester's room, and soon, even as the chemistry between the two of them grows, albeit with stumbles as Jane believes he has fallen for Blanche Ingram, so the mystery deepens. Jane rescues Rochester from a blaze in his own bedroom, mysterious screams are heard in the house, and a visitor to the house is found badly wounded, Jane becoming Rochester's confidant, as these incidents become stranger and more violent, all of this tinged with the Gothic, Moira Buffini's script, and the way that DoP Adriano Goldman's camera lingers only adding to this tangible feeling of threat, and the uncanny.

The love story between Jane and Rochester remains - but the presence of the first Mrs Rochester is felt all the more keenly until the flight from Thornfield, which opens the film, and bookends a great deal of the novel's substance being told in flashback. This lends itself to some impressive, and emotive sequences where Jane struggles across the moors, Goldman using the landscape of Yorkshire for maximum drama and spectacle, but aside from this, it's a curiously inessential choice that, aside from this, allows the film's narrative to play out in order. The chemistry between Wasikowska, who seems to have become something of a poster girl for cinematic Gothicism-she after all, is the thread through these next three reviews-and Fassbender, who presents a decent Byronic hero, is believable, and at points quite charming, but all of it does occasionally get lost in the Gothic murk

It is this that really sets this apart from the other adaptions of Jane Eyre, and from other Brontë sisters' cinematic adaptions; this is a very Gothic Jane, surrounded by death and the trappings of the house, introduced in a Gothic environment, coming close to death herself within minutes of the film opening, and via Wasikowska's performance, at once ethereal and fragile, and yet a spirited match for Rochester, her artwork attracting his attention, a decidedly Gothic heroine for this tale. Against her, few versions of Rochester have felt as Byronic, appearing from fog astride a black charger, and though the film does later add nuance to his character, Fassbender presents a version of the character at once haunted and profoundly romantic.

It is this Gothic sensibility that ultimately drives the film, and elevates it above other adaptions; it is a Jane Eyre where the house, the landscape of Yorkshire, is a presence, and like the figure that haunts the attic of Thornfield, one that remains unsettling throughout. Whilst it may not reinvent the Gothic romance, it is still a solid take on a classic novel, steeped in the Romantic Gothic tradition.

Rating: Highly Recommended

Jane Eyre is available to buy on BluRay from Universal Pictures UK and is available to stream in the UK from AppleTV

Next week, to the modern era as Jim Jarmusch's nocturnal vampire romance, Only Lovers Left Alive considers immortality and love.