Wuthering Heights

I watched Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights recently and I rather enjoyed it. Everything about the direction was so different to what I had known to be conventional for classic stories. I felt that Arnold took a different approach to the story and for the first time I got to see a classic as I had never imagined before. Maybe my experience for classics isn’t vast but from the adaptions of ‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘Great Expectations’, ‘Oliver Twist’ and indeed ‘Peter Rosminsky’s’ 1992 version of ‘Wuthering Heights’ with ‘Ralph Fiennes’ I know that what Arnold did with the timeless classic was certainly different to the films listed.

The film concentrated on the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff, leaving out the second half of the original book where Emily Brontë focusses on characters Nelly Dean and Lockwood. When Cathy and Heathcliff are both young, they share scenes of openness and happiness. Both Cathy and Heathcliff expressed a knowing innocence when they were alone. Although it was a romance, they never broke the boundaries of their fabricated sibling relationship. It was also a relationship that didn’t fit the period time love story. It was quite raw and unrehearsed. The unsteadiness of Cathy and Heathcliff’s relationship was reflected in the cinematography, powerfully orchestrated by ‘Robbie Ryan’. The harsh, choppy, rough handling of the camera perfectly replicated the immeasurable emotions of pain, anger and love- Key themes in this story.

Arnold also justifies the use of weather and landscape in her adaption. It was as if the weather was the commander of fortune and most of the time it was merciless. The rain brought Heathcliff to the Earnshaw family which eventually became the root of his pain and suffering in many ways. The entwining branches reflected complication, the open moor allowed Cathy and Heathcliff to be together and happy , the darkness mirrored secrecy and the mist and fog appeared at times of confusion and ambiguousness. Now and again I noticed that the camera would emphasise the attention to an animal or a plant. Perhaps this was to remind the viewer of the original inspiration of the book and the importance of the setting. Or maybe it was to remind the viewer of natural beauty in unlikely things; after all, the focus on the setting was a sharp difference from some of the intensity of the acting. I did feel that the landscape and setting ran parallel alongside some characters; Cathy a bird, Heathcliff a venerable animal taken to slaughter and Hindley a loud dog.

Overall I really appreciated this film. Arnold’s ‘Fish Tank’ and ‘Red Road’ were superb and I felt she lived up to her expectations with this rendition of Wuthering Heights. This film was bleak, depressing and sad but I still loved it.

 

House of Flying Daggers

I watched the film House of Flying Daggers not long ago and to my surprise I rather enjoyed it. I’m not sure if it was the vivid colours and patterns involved in the costumes and setting, the cleverly orchestrated fight scenes which looked like synchronised dance routines or simply the exploration into a different type of film.

This film had an air about it, right from the beginning. I felt immediately transferred to imperial China- Zhang Yimou did a great job in staging all the scenes. I was also transfixed on Mei played by Zhang Ziyi, as many others within the film were too. She took on the role a canny woman who seemed to be able to do just about anything, if she wasn’t singing like a song bird she would be effortlessly walking in mid-air or gracefully slaughtering mere enemies. I loved her character from the start however my affection for her grew thin as I saw her slowly turning into the conventional female protagonist that falls at the hands of a relationship and a happy ending. Luckily not all is what is seems and everything works out in the end, in context maybe not quite the happy ending that was hoped and indeed not the ending a viewer would predict early on in the film but for me and purely on principle it was satisfying. I thought that I could predict the ending of the film quite early on but it proved me wrong. It took a different trajectory and for that I am grateful as it allowed me to be overcome by someone else’s imagination and not just rely on mine.

Whilst watching this film I couldn’t help but to compare it with ‘The Hunger Games’. Both stories have the themes of survival, oppression, dishonesty, and combat. These similarities became more prevalent as ‘The House of Flying Daggers’ progressed and Jin played by Takeshi Kaneshiro said ‘you and me are just pawns on a chest board- no one cares if we die’ ‘part of their games’ as said by Peeta in ‘The Hunger Games’. We all know how two films can be so opposing yet, at heart; hold the same feeling and moral thought. It takes a ground breaking film to offer us something new, to spark inspiration, to tap into an undiscovered emotion and although, as far as concepts go, this film wasn’t a jump into the void of originality, I certainly enjoyed it.