I have just finished watching "To Walk Invisible"
I read "Wuthering Heights" as a teenager, and fell in love with Heathcliff. Over time and the advent of feminism,my views on the character have changed considerably, but not my views on the writing of Emily Bronte and her sisters.
This presentation, filmed where the Bronte siblings lived and died as well as the realistic portrayals of the siblings and their father give this film an authenticity that opens a window into their reality.
What is amazing is that given the harshness of their existence and everyday lives complicated by the the alcoholism and debauchery of their brother Branwell, the siblings led such rich interior lives in spite of the drabness of their surroundings and the precariousness of the their small security. Like Austen heroines, the security of their situation depended on either a favorable marriage-unlikely in their situation - or as with Jane Austen herself, an income generated by their literary talents. The roof over their heads was provided by the Church, and would disappear if their father died. Their brother could not be depended upon to support them; indeed it is the sisters who care for Branwell. In this film,it is the austere and domestic Emily, shy, awkward and too attached to home and family to care for fame, who worries about their future, and writes with such passion to express herself and without concern for being published. Nevertheless, the three sisters are successful enough during their short lives to keep the wolf at bay. I do wonder if Charlotte's acceptance of her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nichols after originally turning down his proposal was moved by concern for help with the care of her aging father as well as securing the home in which her siblings and she had lived all their lives. The final scenes of Ann and Emily tending to the body of their deceased brother, are incredibly moving when one learns that Emily was soon to follow, and then Anne: three siblings gone within a year, followed 8 years later by Charlotte. Their father living to the age of 84 under the care of his son-in-law after the death of a wife and all of their children, must have considered his long life anything but a blessing. Unlike other reviewers, I don't agree that too much of the film was devoted to Branwell and his problems. Rather,it points up the wonder that was the brilliance of the works produced by these quiet industrious women in spite of all the obstacles they faced.
I read "Wuthering Heights" as a teenager, and fell in love with Heathcliff. Over time and the advent of feminism,my views on the character have changed considerably, but not my views on the writing of Emily Bronte and her sisters.
This presentation, filmed where the Bronte siblings lived and died as well as the realistic portrayals of the siblings and their father give this film an authenticity that opens a window into their reality.
What is amazing is that given the harshness of their existence and everyday lives complicated by the the alcoholism and debauchery of their brother Branwell, the siblings led such rich interior lives in spite of the drabness of their surroundings and the precariousness of the their small security. Like Austen heroines, the security of their situation depended on either a favorable marriage-unlikely in their situation - or as with Jane Austen herself, an income generated by their literary talents. The roof over their heads was provided by the Church, and would disappear if their father died. Their brother could not be depended upon to support them; indeed it is the sisters who care for Branwell. In this film,it is the austere and domestic Emily, shy, awkward and too attached to home and family to care for fame, who worries about their future, and writes with such passion to express herself and without concern for being published. Nevertheless, the three sisters are successful enough during their short lives to keep the wolf at bay. I do wonder if Charlotte's acceptance of her father's curate, Arthur Bell Nichols after originally turning down his proposal was moved by concern for help with the care of her aging father as well as securing the home in which her siblings and she had lived all their lives. The final scenes of Ann and Emily tending to the body of their deceased brother, are incredibly moving when one learns that Emily was soon to follow, and then Anne: three siblings gone within a year, followed 8 years later by Charlotte. Their father living to the age of 84 under the care of his son-in-law after the death of a wife and all of their children, must have considered his long life anything but a blessing. Unlike other reviewers, I don't agree that too much of the film was devoted to Branwell and his problems. Rather,it points up the wonder that was the brilliance of the works produced by these quiet industrious women in spite of all the obstacles they faced.