EMILY
****
Director: Frances O’Connor
Screenplay: Frances O’Connor
Principal cast:
Emma Mackey
Oliver Jackson-Cohen
Fionn Whitehead
Alexandra Dowling
Amelia Gething
Adrian Dunbar
Country: UK/USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 130 mins.
Australian release date: 12 January 2023.
Actor Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut stems from her own screenplay, a riff on the circumstances leading up to the writing of Wuthering Heights, that classic of 19th century English literature. Part factual, part speculation, Emily imagines the inner life of one of the most revered English authors, Emily Brontë, who died shortly after penning her enduring, and only, novel. Referred to as ‘the strange one’ by the residents of Haworth, her village in West Yorkshire, Emily was subjected to the mores of the period by her strict father (Adrian Dunbar) and was encouraged to pursue a teaching career, deemed much more appropriate for a young woman than becoming a writer. However, when she experienced one of the greatest of human emotions, first love, her views on life changed forever. “Emily Brontë is fierce, rebellious, sensitive, creative and magical,” says O’Connor. “I think she’s the most neglected sister [of the three Brontë women]. There’s a core group of hardcore fans who just love Emily because she’s a bit of a rebel and a misfit and she’d probably be a goth or something these days, I think.” She adds, “There were certain things in Emily’s life that I identified with in mine. Certain things that I think thematically are part of Wuthering Heights and her life that I also relate to, and I think a lot of women would relate to, so the idea came from that.”
Emma Mackey plays Emily Brontë in a role that is a tour de force, where she reveals not only the insecurities the protagonist faced but also the expectations which placed her in a situation wherein she was forced to submit to protocol, with no consideration given to her talents as a writer; women were simply not encouraged to exhibit such talent and expect to be rewarded for it. Her sister Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling) is her confidante but is rather strait-laced and competitive and her younger sister, Anne (Amelia Gething), adores her, and the pair exchange whispered stories about a made-up land called Gondal. It is her beloved brother, Branwell (Fionn Whitehead), however, who provides the budding author with the raw material for her novel; he is a tortured soul whose lack of success as an actor and writer have turned him to opium and alcohol, and he’s prone to making errors of judgement that bring shame on the family. In Emily, the other source of inspiration for Wuthering Heights occurs when Emily falls in love with new curate, William Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a man of the cloth like her father, but her life starts to unravel as their taboo romantic and sexual relationship threatens to overwhelm her. After reading Emily’s book, an aghast Charlotte asks her sister, “How did you write Wuthering Heights? It’s base and ugly…”
Emily depicts a tragic situation about a withdrawn but head-strong young woman heading for both success and disaster. Ultimately, she inspired her sisters to put quill to parchment and the two surviving Brontë sisters both published their first novels in the same year as Wuthering Heights, 1847; Charlotte with Jane Eyre and Anne with Agnes Grey. The story is portrayed by an excellent cast who accurately provide a picture of what life would have been like for the Brontës in mid-1840’s rural England - and might have been like for someone as gifted and unique as Emily. It is an authentic-looking depiction of the period (the production design and art direction are superb), and the wild West Yorkshire locations are captured beautifully by Nanu Segal’s cinematography, the moors adding to the sense of raw emotion surrounding the story. Accompanied by a stunning score by Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski, Emily is an entertaining and enriching experience that lays down a solid path for Frances O’Connor’s future directing career. We await the next flight of her imagination with bated breath. Hopefully, unlike Emily Brontë, this won’t be her only written work.
Screenplay: Frances O’Connor
Principal cast:
Emma Mackey
Oliver Jackson-Cohen
Fionn Whitehead
Alexandra Dowling
Amelia Gething
Adrian Dunbar
Country: UK/USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 130 mins.
Australian release date: 12 January 2023.
Actor Frances O’Connor’s directorial debut stems from her own screenplay, a riff on the circumstances leading up to the writing of Wuthering Heights, that classic of 19th century English literature. Part factual, part speculation, Emily imagines the inner life of one of the most revered English authors, Emily Brontë, who died shortly after penning her enduring, and only, novel. Referred to as ‘the strange one’ by the residents of Haworth, her village in West Yorkshire, Emily was subjected to the mores of the period by her strict father (Adrian Dunbar) and was encouraged to pursue a teaching career, deemed much more appropriate for a young woman than becoming a writer. However, when she experienced one of the greatest of human emotions, first love, her views on life changed forever. “Emily Brontë is fierce, rebellious, sensitive, creative and magical,” says O’Connor. “I think she’s the most neglected sister [of the three Brontë women]. There’s a core group of hardcore fans who just love Emily because she’s a bit of a rebel and a misfit and she’d probably be a goth or something these days, I think.” She adds, “There were certain things in Emily’s life that I identified with in mine. Certain things that I think thematically are part of Wuthering Heights and her life that I also relate to, and I think a lot of women would relate to, so the idea came from that.”
Emma Mackey plays Emily Brontë in a role that is a tour de force, where she reveals not only the insecurities the protagonist faced but also the expectations which placed her in a situation wherein she was forced to submit to protocol, with no consideration given to her talents as a writer; women were simply not encouraged to exhibit such talent and expect to be rewarded for it. Her sister Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling) is her confidante but is rather strait-laced and competitive and her younger sister, Anne (Amelia Gething), adores her, and the pair exchange whispered stories about a made-up land called Gondal. It is her beloved brother, Branwell (Fionn Whitehead), however, who provides the budding author with the raw material for her novel; he is a tortured soul whose lack of success as an actor and writer have turned him to opium and alcohol, and he’s prone to making errors of judgement that bring shame on the family. In Emily, the other source of inspiration for Wuthering Heights occurs when Emily falls in love with new curate, William Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a man of the cloth like her father, but her life starts to unravel as their taboo romantic and sexual relationship threatens to overwhelm her. After reading Emily’s book, an aghast Charlotte asks her sister, “How did you write Wuthering Heights? It’s base and ugly…”
Emily depicts a tragic situation about a withdrawn but head-strong young woman heading for both success and disaster. Ultimately, she inspired her sisters to put quill to parchment and the two surviving Brontë sisters both published their first novels in the same year as Wuthering Heights, 1847; Charlotte with Jane Eyre and Anne with Agnes Grey. The story is portrayed by an excellent cast who accurately provide a picture of what life would have been like for the Brontës in mid-1840’s rural England - and might have been like for someone as gifted and unique as Emily. It is an authentic-looking depiction of the period (the production design and art direction are superb), and the wild West Yorkshire locations are captured beautifully by Nanu Segal’s cinematography, the moors adding to the sense of raw emotion surrounding the story. Accompanied by a stunning score by Polish composer Abel Korzeniowski, Emily is an entertaining and enriching experience that lays down a solid path for Frances O’Connor’s future directing career. We await the next flight of her imagination with bated breath. Hopefully, unlike Emily Brontë, this won’t be her only written work.