To wonder why it seems impossible to make a good screen version of Wuthering Heights?

[middleclassdystopia]

So many adaptations of this brilliant novel and not one of them captures it properly.

Too many try to make it a sentimental love story for starters.

I've seen great adaptations of Jane Eyre and some of Austen's novels but I may well go to my grave having never seen a proper Heathcliff brought to life on the screen.

The Tom Hardy one was good.

It's because it's a crap book with appalling characters and disastrous structural problems. HTH

But the version where Isabella does actually get up the courage to stab the bastard with the carving knife and they ditch the second half completely is quite good. Is that the Timothy Dalton one?

yes Heathcliff and Cathy are both selfish arrogant characters. Still love the book though.

The one with Juliette Binoche was terrible. "Eethcleef"

Aw.. Olivier was a very wretched and damaged Heathcliffe.

It's an awful book. Dire. Can't think of any positive outcome on screen. Other than the fabulous descriptions of the landscape, it sucks. Tenant of Wildfell Hall deserves much more adaptations. Maybe one could get it right.

Andrea Arnold's version was unremittingly grim, but atmospheric.

But I agree it's a flawed book.

It's not a love story, to me anyway.

I think Cathy and Heathcliff represent two sides of the same person.

Yes it's cruel and dark, but it's a gothic story. Heavily influenced by Byron

Hated, hated, hated the book and the revolting characters.

Byron had a sense of humour though. And a social conscience. And some self-awareness. Wuthering Heights, not so much.

It is one of the most brilliant novels ever written in the English language. Her control of language and how she uses it to build up the description of the characters and settings is amazing.

I agree that it is not a love story, it is a novel about domestic violence and dysfunctional relationships, not one character in the novel is likeable and the narrators are unreliable. I think the novel is probably too complex to work on screen, and it would be very tricky to do the 'real' WH as opposed to the romanticised version that most people expect to see.

Andrea Arnold's version was unremittingly grim, but atmospheric.

Was that the very realistic one with young, black Heathcliff and sort-of-muttered dialogue - they showed it on TV last Christmas?

If so .. I thought it was mesmerising, really enjoyed it despite myself. Definitely most memorable.

Trouble with the book is the whole second half after Cathy dies that no-one remembers and gets all confusing with the names ..

I agree with theladyrainy, I thought the Tom Hardy one on ITV was fab. Such a shame he went all musclebound and Hollywood because he would be miscast in anything period now. I thought Charlotte Riley was a brilliant Cathy too. It's absolutely not a love story, they are both nasty buggers.

I hated the most recent one, think it must be the andrea arnold one. I agree that it is just too complicated!

I can't do it now but for a while my version of counting sheep was putting all the births, marriages and deaths in Wuthering Heights in chronological order. It always worked I was always asleep before I got to the end.

The Tom Hardy one wasn't bad, but the real reason it comes out shit is because the novel is pretty awful.

It's like ye olde Jeremy Kyle.

It's a fucking diabolical book.
My DM ruined my lovely name by telling me I was names after Catherine!
Let's face it, the whole lot of them would get VERY short shrift on the Relationships board! They're insane!
I can't see that the story has ANY redeeming features.

Because it's an terrible book.

HTH

(Yes, I'm another one scarred from doing it for A Levels.)

Terrible book, that's why. I am an avid reader. It's the only book I have never finished despite starting it and really trying half a dozen times (maybe more). I finally gave up for good last year. I am much happier now.

Because it's a really weird book and probably some kind of giant allegory or something.

I can only watch the Olivier version. The others are poor.

Lots of terrible books make great movies, and lots of great books make disappointing movies.

I've never read the book, but I've seen the old, old, old movie with Lawrence Olivier. Was that not a good adaptation?

Monty Python did it with semaphore, that worked well.