Never Plain, This Jane (2)

Ok, I am on my third Jane Eyre movie, and have yet to find a Mr. Rochester anywhere near the real one. I don't mean to say that Mr. Rochester was actually real, but he seemed real to me in a way these movie Rochesters do not. I am sure they tried very hard to be, but just couldn't bring it.

The first of my tries fell a bit flat in the 1996 feature length film directed by Franco Zeffirelli. I was surprised to see that Mr. Rochester was played by William Hurt, whom I generally like as an actor - but he was a bit too calm and a bit too blond. You cannot be calm, and blond, and be the commanding dark-headed roguish Rochester we have all come to expect.

So - Wiliam Hurt was not It.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/25228175@N08/5664306284/
Next, I went to a 1983 portrayal that should surely have worked. Timothy Dalton is dark, and could be roguish and blustery if he wanted to. But I kept thinking of James Bond instead of Mr. Rochester, expecting at any moment to see him flying from a cliff or jumping into an Aston Martin. It was all somewhat incongruous, and in the end? Timothy Dalton was not It. 

My third and probably final Rochester was played in 1997 by Ciaran Hinds, a brilliant Brit who knows what he is about. As our favorite male Protagonist, he was indeed dark; he was as craggy as the surrounding moors; he was rough-talking and roguish. Certainly he played his lines well and was good at pretending he did not care when down deep, he did (women always like that, as long as the man finally gets around to the liking and the caring part). I think I will give my hesitant vote to Ciaran Hinds, for now. 

There are many more such portrayals out there, dear Readers, but I don't really think I will view them or report to you on them. There are silent films, feature films, radio, television, and theatre, there are sequels, prequels and spin-offs, and then there are re-tellings from another character's point of view. Mrs. Fairfax, presumably. Or perhaps Adele?

Whatever. There are far too many possibilities and I can't face them. But it does say a lot about the power of a great story. Everyone wants to live in it and tell it their own way. They all have their own 'take', I suppose. But I kept thinking of how much money would have been saved had these film makers just sat down by a fire, sipped tea, and gotten Charlotte Bronte's take on it. You can't make anything better than that. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/arquepoetica/3724322067/

Hmmm...I just saw that there is a 2011 film version starring Judi Dench as Mrs. Fairfax. Maybe that one...but no, we'd be back to James Bond again. 

Sigh...I think I'll just go to the library and get 'Wuthering Heights'. Perhaps Heathcliff will be a less challenging rogue..

See you along the way!

the SconeLady

BTW, I am getting more serious now about the 2011 version, and not just because of Judi Dench. There are...possibilities here. So perhaps we should try it, shall we?

-

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/25228175@N08/5664306284/">zilverbat.</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">cc</a>

-photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/arquepoetica/3724322067/">Arquepoetica</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>