22 thoughts on “All the Bronte Sisters You Could Ever Want

  1. Love this article. As a funny aside, the last screen cap looks like he’s got a manbun!!

  2. I already saw “to walk invisible” and I loved it!
    I can’t wait to see what you gals think of it.
    There is quite a bit of Branwell in it too, but I think it’s very well justified.

    1. All the Branwell stuff just makes me think of Cold Comfort Farm, where the horrible writer (played by Stephen Fry) who keeps hitting on Flora is writing a book arguing that Branwell wrote all of the Bronte novels!

    2. “To Walk Invisible” is definitely the best of the lot (although I rather liked the ’73 version, which stayed pretty true to the characters). Again, though, too much Branwell here–poor man; everybody hates Branwell–but he really was the dreadful, dreaded focus of the family at this point. I find “Les Soeurs” just hilarious: three of the great beauties of modern French cinema, moping around acting inscrutable-yet-intense, and speaking FRENCH. I don’t Charlotte would have approved of their doing this.

  3. I’m going to watch. I have a love-hate relationship with the Bronte sisters. Jane Eyre makes me either want to ‘Gibbs head slap’ or commend her for her unwavering honesty and remaining true to herself. Heathcliff makes me gag while rooting for the next generation.
    Hopefully, in this telling, they stick the patriarchy where it belongs…

  4. In some ways To Walk Invisible feels like a one hour version of “The Brontes of Haworth” without the derpy bonnets. I really enjoyed it however and look forward to your review.
    Saw the French film way back when I was in first or second year Uni and loved it at the time.(Even though I was a few years beyond the “angsty Teen” stage)
    I think the reason the schooling is dropped in most versions is that producers don’t think audiences will be interested in a kid’s perspective and the reason Charlotte’s time in Brussels is dropped is because it doesn’t reflect well on her as the rather desperate woman hitting on a disinterested married man even though that episode strongly influenced her writing. The Bramwell story is ‘safe” whether it is from a patriarchal perspective or feminist perspective. (The girls succeed while the boy flounders)

    1. I can see why, say, one production made those story choices, but it’s irritating whey they all do it. Get creative, folks! (Yeah, right, like any movie/TV will *sigh*)

  5. Yay, the Brontes! I watched half of To Walk Invisible, but it was a bit too slow paced for my mood at the time. It was quite Branwell-centric, too. I agree with janette in that writers probably like the irony in how he was supposed to be the successful one but nothing came of his apirations, while his obscure sisters became so lastingly influential. He is also the odd one out among the four Bronte siblings who survived into adulthood –his sisters form such a perfect trinity– sticking out as a kind of human incongruity which modern writers love to investigate.

  6. Did Bramwell inspire the lush brother in Wuthering Heights? Anyway, here’s to the power of women’s imagination, and that we’re still trying to figure out how the hell they knew all this about love, sex and the soul after almost 200 years. To the Bronte Sisters!

  7. Perhaps I’ll watch just to toss some shade toward the Brontes. As a staunch Janeite, I can’t even with them. I’m probably too sensible, though. (Burney and Radcliffe make me similarly nuts.)
    Heathcliff is just a creep. Both creepy and a creeper. I give him a day-pass when played by Tom Hardy, though.

  8. I’m watching it now. Is there a polite word or phrase for ‘little sh*t’? I’m speaking of Bramwell.

  9. Off topic a tad, I can’t believe someone remembers those horrific K/S fanfics! I worked for a sci-fi dealer that sold them under the table. we tripled the price and sold them like hotcakes. back to topic: I watched the recent PBS offering on the Bontes and yes there was way to much Bramwell. and the story, setting and characters could best be described as GRIM, Glum and Depressing. I pitied the poor father (well acted by the way) but geesh, what a terrible life! I’ll stick with Austen (being a Janeite myself!)

  10. No mention of the school project? For several years both before and after the trip to Brussels the three Bronte sisters seriously considered opening a school. This was the most lucrative career open to an educated lady of the time but there were problems; Charlotte hated teaching and Emily could barely deal with people who weren’t her family or survive away from Haworth. Anne was the only one of the three to successfully hold down a job and live away from home. She wasn’t happy but she made a reasonable success of it. The Reverend Bronte’s blindness and Branwell’s dipsomania were a good excuse to just drop the whole idea which they did with scarcely a sigh.
    The Bronte’s wanted to write, not teach.

  11. I have a fantasy that I travel back in time. Offer the sisters an American delicacy and as they bite into it announce that it is a hot-dog. Charlotte would be furious, drop the thing on the floor. Emily would be on the floor laughing her head off. Ann would be sitting, blank faced, wondering if she should even be there.

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