''Wuthering Heights'' is a 2011 British

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

romantic

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super- ...

directed by

Andrea Arnold Andrea Arnold, OBE (born 5 April 1961) is an English filmmaker and former actor. She won an Academy Award for her short film ''Wasp'' in 2005. Her feature films include '' Red Road'' (2006), ''Fish Tank'' (2009), and '' American Honey'' (2016), ...

starring

Kaya Scodelario Kaya Rose Scodelario-Davis (née Humphrey; born 13 March 1992) is an English actress best known for her roles as Effy Stonem on the E4 teen drama '' Skins'' (2007–2010, 2013), and Teresa in the ''Maze Runner'' film series (2014–2018). Oth ...

as Catherine Earnshaw and James Howson as Heathcliff. The screenplay written by Arnold and

Olivia Hetreed Olivia Hetreed is a British screenwriter and editor, and the current president of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain. In 2003, she received a BAFTA nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for adapting Tracy Chevalier's best-selling novel '' Gir ...

, is based on

Emily Brontë Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, '' Wuthering Heights'', now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a book of poe ...

's 1847 novel of the same name.

Plot summary

Cast

as Catherine Earnshaw ** Shannon Beer as Young Catherine * James Howson as Heathcliff ** Solomon Glave as Young Heathcliff * Oliver Milburn as Mr. Linton *

Nichola Burley Nichola Ann Burley (born 26 December 1986) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles in '' Born Equal'', '' Drop Dead Gorgeous'', '' Goldplated'', '' Death Comes to Pemberley'', '' Donkey Punch'' and '' StreetDance 3D''.Conway, Sean ...

Isabella Linton Isabella Linton is a fictional character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel ''Wuthering Heights''. She is the sister of Edgar Linton and the wife of Heathcliff. Story Isabella Linton was raised in the safe, elegant environment of Thrushcross Gran ...

** Eve Coverley as Young Isabella * James Northcote as

Edgar Linton Edgar Linton is a fictional character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel '' Wuthering Heights''. His role in the story is that of Catherine Earnshaw's husband. He resides at Thrushcross Grange and falls prey to Heathcliff's schemes for revenge aga ...

** Jonny Powell as Young Edgar * Lee Shaw as Hindley Earnshaw * Amy Wren as Frances Earnshaw * Steve Evets as Joseph * Paul Hilton as Mr. Earnshaw * Simone Jackson as

Nelly Dean Ellen "Nelly" Dean is a female character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel '' Wuthering Heights.'' She is the main narrator in the book, and she provides eyewitness accounts of many of the story's central events to Mr Lockwood. Ellen Dean is calle ...

* Michael Hughes as Hareton

Production

Announced in April 2008,

Natalie Portman Natalie Portman (born Natalie Hershlag, he, נטע-לי הרשלג, ) is an Israeli-born American actress. She has had a prolific film career since her teenage years and has starred in various blockbusters and independent films, receiving mu ...

was originally set to star as

Cathy ''Cathy'' is an American gag-a-day comic strip, drawn by Cathy Guisewite from 1976 until 2010. The comic follows Cathy, a woman who struggles through the "four basic guilt groups" of life—food, love, family, and work. The strip gently pokes f ...

in a new

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

of the novel, but she withdrew in May. In May 2008, director

John Maybury John Maybury (born 25 March 1958) is an English filmmaker and artist. He first came to prominence as the director of the music video for the Pet Shop Boys 1984 single "West End Girls". In 2005 he was named as one of the 100 most influential gay ...

cast

Michael Fassbender Michael Fassbender (born 2 April 1977) is an Irish actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Award ...

as Heathcliff and Abbie Cornish as Cathy. However, in May 2009, Peter Webber was announced as the new director, with

Ed Westwick Edward Jack Peter Westwick (born 27 June 1987) is an English actor and musician best known for his role as Chuck Bass on The CW's ''Gossip Girl'' as well as Vincent Swan in the TV series ''White Gold''. He made his feature film debut in ''Child ...

and Gemma Arterton attached to play Heathcliff and Cathy respectively. However, the film did not get off the ground and in January 2010, it was announced that

would direct the adaptation. In April, she cast

as Catherine, a more age-appropriate choice than previous adaptations. Due to Brontë's description of Heathcliff as a "dark-skinned gypsy in aspect" and "a little

Lascar A lascar was a sailor or militiaman from the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, the Arab world, British Somaliland, or other land east of the Cape of Good Hope, who was employed on European ships from the 16th century until the middle of the ...

", Arnold searched for an actor from the UK's

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnicities * Romani people, an ethnic group of Northern Indian origin, living dispersed in Europe, the Americas and Asia ** Romani genocide, under Nazi rule * Romani language, any of several Indo-Aryan languages of the Roma ...

community. However, the community had some doubts. The search was then expanded to Yorkshire actors aged 16 to 21 of mixed race, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Middle Eastern descent. In November, it was reported that James Howson had been cast as Heathcliff, the first time a black actor would portray the role. Lucy Pardee was in charge of casting the children in the film (Gail Stevens cast the adults). Pardee auditioned private school children with no history of acting.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as ...

concluded in November 2010. Filming took place in several

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four co ...

locations, including

Thwaite Thwaite may refer to: Placenames *Thwaite (placename element) * Thwaite, North Norfolk, England * Thwaite St Mary, South Norfolk, England *Thwaite, North Yorkshire, England * Thwaite, Suffolk, England Buildings *Thwaite Hall, University of Hu ...

, Cotescue Park in

Coverham Coverham is a village in Coverdale in the Yorkshire Dales in North Yorkshire, England. It lies west of the town of Middleham. History Coverham was mentioned in Domesday Book in 1086, when it was held by Count Alan of Brittany. It became t ...

(as Thrushcross Grange), and Moor Close Farm in

(as

Wuthering Heights ''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent re ...

) and with the production office being temporarily based in Hawes during filming.

Promotion and release

The first footage of the film released was a four-shot teaser at

Film4 Film4 is a British free-to-air television network owned by Channel Four Television Corporation launched on 1 November 1998, devoted to broadcasting films. While its standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesat platforms ...

's pre-

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

party, with ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' noting that the teaser "wowed" the partygoers (including

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

artistic director Marco Mueller who was present to scout films for his festival). The film premiered in competition at the 2011 Venice Film Festival and appeared at the

2011 Toronto International Film Festival The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 8 and September 18, 2011. Buenos Aires, Argentina was selected to be showcased for the 2011 City to City programme. The opening film ...

as a Special Presentation. It was also shown at the

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

Zurich Film Festival Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) is an annual film festival that has been held in Zürich, Switzerland, since 2005. The festival's main focus is to promote emerging filmmakers from all over the world. In three competition categories only first, second ...

Maryland Film Festival The Maryland Film Festival is an annual five-day international film festival taking place each May in Baltimore, Maryland. The festival was launched in 1999, and presents international film and video work of all lengths and genres. The festival ...

, and the Leeds Film Festival. The film was released in the UK on 11 November.

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

-nominated band

Mumford & Sons Mumford & Sons is a British folk rock band formed in London in 2007. The band currently consists of Marcus Mumford (lead vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drums), Ted Dwane (vocals, bass guitar, double bass), and Ben Lovett (vocals, k ...

recorded two songs for the film, one of which (entitled "Enemy") played over the closing credits. Photographer Agatha A. Nitecka shot promotional material for the film including photos for the poster, DVD cover, magazines and a

photo-essay A photographic essay or photo-essay for short is a form of visual storytelling, a way to present a narrative through a series of images. A photo essay delivers a story using a series of photographs and brings the viewer along a narrative journey. E ...

released the first promotional photo of James Howson as Heathcliff to their Twitter account the morning the Venice Film Festival line-up was announced. With the announcement that the film would play at the Toronto Film Festival, four new promotional images were released. An exhibit of film stills and photographs taken on the set by Agatha A. Nitecka was displayed in Curzon Cinema's Renoir location and her photo-essay was available free to every customer who purchased a ticket. A video of the photo-essay was also released online. The film was released on 5 October in the United States.

Critical and commercial reception

The film took £156,931 on its opening weekend at the box office in the United Kingdom, placing at 16th for the weekend of 11–13 November 2011. The film holds a 68% fresh rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, based on 114 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's consensus reads, "Director Andrea Arnold's gritty, naturalistic re-imagining of the Emily Bronte classic stays true to the book's spirit while utilizing an unconventional approach to explore the romantic yearning at the heart of the story." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 24 critics. Andrew O'Hehir of ''

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon ( ...

'' placed the film at number one on his list of the top 10 best films of 2012.

Awards

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control 2011 films 2010s historical romance films 2011 romantic drama films British historical drama films British romantic drama films 2010s English-language films Film4 Productions films Films about interracial romance Films based on Wuthering Heights Films directed by Andrea Arnold Films set in the 19th century Films set in Yorkshire Films shot in Yorkshire British historical romance films 2010s historical drama films 2010s British films