Which Wuthering Heights?

[aperolspritzbasicbitch]

I’m just watching Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights, again, as I really bloody enjoy it - which is quite controversial I know!

I like all of her films though (well, the 3 out of 4 that I’ve seen), so I’m wondering if I enjoy it as much as I do because I like her take, or if it’s just because I’ve never seen another adaptation, or read the book!

It’s made me think that I’d quite like to see a more true to the book version, so I’m after recommendations of which version is the best?
I will get round to reading it too one day, but I’m in a bit of a slump right now so need to wait until I’ll be all in.

Andrea Arnold's is a bit closer, though most of them take massive liberties. Which is fine if you want a good film, but if you do want something 'close to the book' you probably do need to read it when you're out of the slump! Not being snotty, just it's one of those novels that rarely gets adapted without a good dollop of the director's own thoughts, and major cuts.

The movie adaptations imo are nothing like the book. Not being snobby i loved the tv one with tom hardy and his wife in... but then i read the book and I was quite confused because the variations are high!! There is an audio book on bbc sounds my sister listened to recently she said that was good to plough through on her commute but she kept asking the group chat who is linton heathcliff again haha

The film adaptations just seem to fail the book. I read the book first as a teenager so maybe that’s why.

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

The black and white version with Lawrence Olivier is the best. But as someone has already said, the films do not reflect the book accurately. There is a lot of stuff left out about the family. Timothy Dalton was a superb Heathcliff. He captured him so well.

Also, “faithful to the book” to an extent depends on how you read the book. Some would argue it’s not faithful to have a black actor playing Heathcliff… some the exact opposite. But almost all films miss out most of the second half of the book

Thanks guys - no comments taken as snotty/snobby! Sometimes the book really is just the only way to go!
I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of the audiobook, will perhaps go down that route first

Maybe depends if you can find any characters you like.

I read the book recently, consolidating the opinions I formed when I was young and read it first time, of the characters. I suspect that no movie represents them like they are in the book.

I’ve read the book, I didn’t like it. Too dark for my liking, I liked Emerald Fennel’s artistic interpretation. It’s not meant to be an adaptation, it misses out pretty much the second half of the book focussing on the next generation down which is probably why I liked it! Generational trauma is a key theme in the book which isn’t really covered in the film, the film is focussing more on their lust which is actually nowhere near as prevalent in the book as you may think given people’s obsession with Heathcliff and Cathy.

I tried to watch the Tom Hardy version, but again too dreary for my liking, I didn’t finish it.

So the film is quite different from the book and all the other adaptations.

If you want a 'true to the book' version that includes the second half of the book watch this one: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p00tj84r/wuthering-heights - grim but authentic!

I've not seen this one and I thought I'd watched them all. Thanks for the recommendation.

None of them are true to the book it’s too complex and long to make into a film and really it wouldn’t be particularly entertaining

I liked an old BBC adaptation and the one Tom Hardy is in

the most recent film was shockingly poor

I would listen to it on audio there are quite a few versions

Autumn is the perfect time to get into Wuthering Heights. The nights drawing in and the wind getting up. Definitely get the audiobook if your concentration isn't up for reading it at the moment. No film/TV adaptation comes close enough for me.

@EppingIsFun “No film/TV adaptation comes close enough for me.”

Same, the book is so much better. I do love a bleak tragic tale!

I really enjoyed the audio book version with Janet McTeer reading as Nellie Dean - also a man reading Mr Lockwood. Great reading, really engaging, worth a try on Spotify etc

I get so fed up of adaptations that stop halfway through the book. The story just doesn’t make sense if you don’t show the whole thing. It’s not a love story, it’s a story about revenge.
I liked the 1992 version because at least it covers the whole book. It’s complimented nicely by the 2011 Andrea Arnold one which misses out huge chunks of the story but does at least understand character and setting.

My favourite adaptation is the 1992 one with Ralph Fiennes & Juliette Binoche, the score is sublime too

(pic didn't post 🙄)

I like Tom Hardy so I might give that a go sometime, I haven't watched the newer one

I’ve never seen a good film adaptation. I love the book.

I think the book (which is highly complex and original) is probably unfilmable.

The Ralph Fiennes-Juliette Binoche version sticks fairly closely to the plot, although rattles through it in about 90 minutes. The Andrea Arnold version is probably closest in mood and tone and gets the childhood section of the book right. I’m afraid I didn’t like the Emerald Fennell version at all.

Apart from the Ralph Fiennes/Juliette Binoche one where JB puts on a different wig and plays the younger Catherine, albeit still with a pronounced French accent!

She was terribly badly cast! He wasn’t much better. I’m a big fan of RF but he’s not Heathcliff.

And I love Juliette Binoche, but yes, it was a deeply odd bit of casting for both!

Mind you, Spielberg cast RF as Amon Goeth after seeing him in WH, so
someone wasn’t going ‘Seriously?’😃

OP, in answer to your question, there aren’t any ‘faithful’ adaptations of WH, for reasons that will become clear once you read the (wonderful but odd and essentially unadaptable) novel.

As a pp said, famously, most adaptations delete fully half of the novel, in which the revenge, relationships etc are carried on by the children of the first generation, as EB breaks every possible rule of writing. ‘You know these characters you got interested in? Well, forget them! Here’s a whole new set!’

I quite like the Andrea Arnold one, but it doesn’t include the second generation.

None of them come close to the book. Just read the book.