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- Jun 20, 2004
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- Real Name
- Richard W
You can never tell about VCI. Sometimes they negotiate for the elements and strike a new transfer that rescues a rare film, and at other times, they release dim, muddy, filthy prints that are among the worst DVDs public domain labels have to offer. Which will this be:
http://www.vcientertainment.com/HollywoodLandProduct.aspx?id=2666
This austere, condensed Jane Eyre hits all the high notes and strikes all the low beats of Charlotte Bronte's classic novel in 108 minutes and 52 seconds. The film received praise for being the first version to be played realistically and to be shot on on rural Yorkshire locations that match the novel's descriptions. More to the point, the landscape plays a role in the novel and this is the first time it plays the same role in a film adaptation. The level of craftsmanship on this pictorial Jane Eyre is very high. Delbert Mann directs the interaction on the scale of a chamber play, dispensing with background extras as often as possible, emphasizing pregnant silences but with a precise ear for Bronte's dialogue. His blocking and coverage of Jane and Edward's scenes together is a clinic in directing. Susannah York and George C. Scott are commendably stoic. Their performances are deeply felt, exactly right, and I think willfully strange. That strangeness gives their interaction a contemporary edge. The way she sits at his knee before the fireplace, suffering in silence, supplicant yet rebellious, inviting affection but permitting only a pat, has to be seen to be understood. A lot of thought and planning went into their scenes together, and it hasn't dated in forty years. The photography by Paul Beeson is pure Gothic tableaux in rich saturated color. The melancholy score is an early masterwork by John Williams and like some of the performances it too is a little strange.
Although financed by Hallmark Hall of Fame for American television, Jane Eyre was touted as their most expensive production at the time. It is shot like a feature film, albeit a small-budget one, which explains the extra headroom on those cheap public domain DVD's. British Lion released the film theatrically in the U.K. in late December 1970 to considerable acclaim before moving on to other countries. In the USA, school kids were assigned to watch Jane Eyre as homework in English Lit because Hallmark promoted the film as an educational event, supplying public schools with study guides for class discussion. I wish now I had saved mine. Those who saw the original telecast in March 1971 never forgot it, and the film grew quite a cult following over the years.
Fans of the novel no doubt prefer the longer, fuller, talkier versions, but this version says as much in fewer words. What it can't do in exposition and monologues it emotes through visual metaphor and actors expression. Delbert Mann and Paul Beeson had collaborated the previous year on Hallmark's David Copperfield, another worthy title regulated to sorry public domain editions. In 1971 they made the best version yet of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped starring Michael Caine as the dashing Alan Breck. It is available on a Network DVD in region 2.
Let's hope VCI gets closer to the source and strikes a new transfer that will rescue this strangely beautiful Jane Eyre from the purgatory of dim, scratchy public domain editions.
http://www.vcientertainment.com/HollywoodLandProduct.aspx?id=2666
This austere, condensed Jane Eyre hits all the high notes and strikes all the low beats of Charlotte Bronte's classic novel in 108 minutes and 52 seconds. The film received praise for being the first version to be played realistically and to be shot on on rural Yorkshire locations that match the novel's descriptions. More to the point, the landscape plays a role in the novel and this is the first time it plays the same role in a film adaptation. The level of craftsmanship on this pictorial Jane Eyre is very high. Delbert Mann directs the interaction on the scale of a chamber play, dispensing with background extras as often as possible, emphasizing pregnant silences but with a precise ear for Bronte's dialogue. His blocking and coverage of Jane and Edward's scenes together is a clinic in directing. Susannah York and George C. Scott are commendably stoic. Their performances are deeply felt, exactly right, and I think willfully strange. That strangeness gives their interaction a contemporary edge. The way she sits at his knee before the fireplace, suffering in silence, supplicant yet rebellious, inviting affection but permitting only a pat, has to be seen to be understood. A lot of thought and planning went into their scenes together, and it hasn't dated in forty years. The photography by Paul Beeson is pure Gothic tableaux in rich saturated color. The melancholy score is an early masterwork by John Williams and like some of the performances it too is a little strange.
Although financed by Hallmark Hall of Fame for American television, Jane Eyre was touted as their most expensive production at the time. It is shot like a feature film, albeit a small-budget one, which explains the extra headroom on those cheap public domain DVD's. British Lion released the film theatrically in the U.K. in late December 1970 to considerable acclaim before moving on to other countries. In the USA, school kids were assigned to watch Jane Eyre as homework in English Lit because Hallmark promoted the film as an educational event, supplying public schools with study guides for class discussion. I wish now I had saved mine. Those who saw the original telecast in March 1971 never forgot it, and the film grew quite a cult following over the years.
Fans of the novel no doubt prefer the longer, fuller, talkier versions, but this version says as much in fewer words. What it can't do in exposition and monologues it emotes through visual metaphor and actors expression. Delbert Mann and Paul Beeson had collaborated the previous year on Hallmark's David Copperfield, another worthy title regulated to sorry public domain editions. In 1971 they made the best version yet of Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped starring Michael Caine as the dashing Alan Breck. It is available on a Network DVD in region 2.
Let's hope VCI gets closer to the source and strikes a new transfer that will rescue this strangely beautiful Jane Eyre from the purgatory of dim, scratchy public domain editions.
