seeing this short film "WASP" by Andrea Arnold and the previous feature film "Fish Tank", it is like sitting in a car driving drunk in the chaotic suburbs. The strong sense of loss of control brought by hand-held photography clearly emphasizes that youth is dizzying. Also because of this very personal stylistic trait, I firmly believe that this female director should be the best person to reflect the youth riots in major cities in the UK more than a month ago. Therefore, when her name appeared in "Wuthering Heights" in the Venice Film Festival competition unit, people familiar with Arnold were shocked. Although the original author Emily Bronte was not as fresh and fresh as Jane Austen in the Victorian era, she was also It is absolutely impossible to rebuild the classics by the author and director who is full of hormonal turmoil.
Entering this new Wuthering Heights, covered by dark clouds, growing grass, and muddy, with the curiosity just to see the unexpected, I was immediately involved in the atmosphere of the external haze to eliminate the storytelling, and followed the "Fish Tank" very well. The youthful pace in "advanced with grief, the frantic wind of the wild also broke the image to pieces, but it also completely satisfied the intellectual curiosity looking forward to the differentiated interpretation of classic literature.
Just as the turbulent teenagers in the suburbs of London must be thrown into the grass and mustards in the mountains to fight, the director actually brought the black version of Heathcliff (played by James Howson) to this new Wuthering Heights, the original work The male protagonist who has been bullied in every possible way and even has a heart of revenge has brought a modern discussion on the issue of racial discrimination; and the new version of the heroine Casey also accidentally adopted the acclaimed youth Kaya Scodelario in the cruel TV series "Skin" is destined to ignite a youthful spark of fist to the bone frantically blooming.
Don’t expect the director to give you an elegant English in literature. "Emily Bronte’s original works are full of violence, death and cruelty." This is Arnold’s profound reading and overcomes his inner feelings in practice. Contradiction, "In the face of wilderness, birds, moths, dogs, and the sky, I am grateful for these things, but I cannot make this story more beautiful and peaceful because of this. This is actually a painful thing." Therefore, what we see are the muddy pits outside the house, the hills and mountains where the empty camera is freely galloping, the continuous rainstorm, the cattle and sheep that are trembling in the rain, and the lizards and spirits that are dizzying after the rain and have nothing to do with the context of the story. Sparrows, flying eagles, fish and insects. In Arnold’s images, the use of rational montage and association montage is too much and too enjoyable-of course I believe that many viewers will find it to be unrestrained and boring-the cruel rules of survival in the jungle of animals, also He belongs to this Heathcliff who is destined to be an outsider.
In the new version of Heathcliff’s childhood, he would wear new clothes unruly for even one day, either being beaten in the dirt by the owner’s biological son Hendley, or having a childhood sweetheart with Casey in the wasteland. Abandoning the original tense intertwined and narrative film, and using the linear time structure to stretch the painful childhood to nearly 2/3 of the whole film, it enlarges the sweetness that Heathcliff occasionally tastes to the strongest, and it is doomed to the future. His dependence on Casey over time, and the great grief after the loss. The hand-held photography took the audience's attention, and smashed Heathcliff's body against the wall where the two had no guesses again and again, so that the audience who entered the scene deeply tasted the love and hurt while they were dizzy.
In the movie scenes showing the protagonist as an adult, he suddenly stopped the frantic handheld photography, which temporarily contained the agitation of his youth. After the marriage, Casey’s country house was extremely elegant, with colorful flowers and fruits, carved with the dappled light and shadow that penetrated the leaves. Even Heathcliff, who returned with a desire for revenge in the original book, couldn't bear to sabotage. The film drastically cuts the novel from the protagonist's behavior after the return, leaving only the strong emotional conflict between the peaceful villa life and anxious possessiveness. For this reason, Arnold has become a person who really breaks the shackles of novels. This is no longer an adaptation of a masterpiece, but a real author's film that shines with personality everywhere. As the film medium of the seventh art, it has not been for a long time. Let the world see this detached and independent artistic self-discipline.
Casey, who seems to have become frivolous, is not the kind of classical beauty who needs difficult choices, but a modern woman who dares to love and hate. But also because of the affection of his childhood sweethearts and the constraints of the background of the times, he was dying from then on. Seeing her finally dying of illness in Heathcliff's arms, when two people who truly love each other never had each other, I inevitably sang Kate Bush's famous song "Wuthering Heights" from the heart.
"I'm home, my love, ruthless Heathcliff, you make me dream, you are my only master."
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