november-2011

Cathy Come Home
A new adaptation of Wuthering Heights returns the
story to its roots on the rugged Yorkshire moors
BIG SCREEN
Remember the kitsch West End musical starring
Cliff Richard? Or Kate Bush prancing around in
a muslin dress warbling? Emily Brontë’s 1847
novel Wuthering Heights has been subjected to
its fair share of abuse over the years.
Now the gothic tale of the illicit love and
mutual destruction of farmer’s daughter
Catherine “Cathy” Earnshaw and her
brooding foster brother Heathcliff is being
given a new treatment. The adaptation from
up-and-coming British director Andrea
Arnold (Fish Tank, Red Road), while
controversial, returns the story to its
earthy, elemental origins.
“The characters are defined
by nature and by this very
wild, rugged landscape where
they live,” says Arnold.
“That’s why the film feels
animalistic at times.
But when you get right
down to it, we are all
basically animals.”
Accordingly, it’s the
Yorkshire landscape
that’s the real star of
the film. Shot on location with handheld
cameras near Thwaite, on the Yorkshire Dales,
at a farmhouse without electricity or running
water – and liberally salted with sex, violence
and swearing – it’s a different animal to the
chintzier adaptations of times past.
“I really wanted to honour
Brontë,” Arnold continues.
“Wuthering Heights is
a strange, dark and profound
book and I wanted to capture
that spirit.” It wasn’t all
trudging the rain-swept moorland,
though – during the arduous
shoot, the cast holed up at the
£85-per-night King’s Head
Hotel (kingsheadrichmond.
com) in picturesque
nearby Richmond.
The authentic locations
aren’t the film’s only
Yorkshire connection.
Wuthering Heights has been
chosen to open the 25th
Leeds International Film
Festival at Leeds Town Hall.
Meanwhile, local newcomer
FILM
James Howson (left) is the latest actor to play
glowering antihero Heathcliff, after the likes of
Laurence Olivier in William Wyler’s 1939
adaptation, former 007 Timothy Dalton in
a later 1970 version and, more recently, Ralph
Fiennes (in 1992) and Tom Hardy (on TV).
Starring opposite Kaya Scodelario (Effy from
gritty teen drama Skins) as Cathy, Howson was
plucked from the streets of Leeds by the film’s
casting director. Why? “Fresh start,” he says,
“Came across me in the job centre, I suppose.
People said I had the face of an actor. I had
nothing to lose.”
Wuthering Heights is released 11 November.
The 25th Leeds International Film Festival,
3-20 November, leedsfilm.com
Jet2.com 11
WORDS DAN GEARY