Jane Eyre

Bronte's novel JANE EYRE has been brought to screen several times so far. This adaptation filmed by Franco Zeffirelli seems to me the most individual one. The director does not copy the book but entails his personal feelings and evaluations to the strange fate of Jane Eyre throughout the movie.

The film is made wonderfully: the cast, the music, the entire convention - It supplies the viewer with the right picture of the Victorian England. I particularly liked the scenes shot at Haddon Hall with William Hurt. He shines in his role! GREAT ACTOR! He memorably stresses Rochester's goodness combined with his boredom and fear of love, caused by his tragic life experience.

The sense of suspicion is also felt throughout. Jane (Charlotte Gainsbourg) comes to Mr Rochester's castle and hears strange laughter. It is much later when it occurs that it was Rochester's insane wife (Maria Schneider).

The way love is showed is very "Zeffirellian". He loves to show delicate love that is raising in time. There is a feeling on both sides, but it is Rochester who tries to show it first, especially because he considers Jane "an angel of happiness" that appeared in his tragic life. Jane is more "shy" but her way of dealing with Rochester changes, too.

The "Zeffirelian" way of showing love is also expressed when applied to friendship. Consider how Franco Zeffirelli shows the friendship between Helen Burns (Leanne Rowe) and Jane Eyre (Anna Paquin). One of the most touching moments of the movie is when Helen Burns dies and tells Jane that God cares for us. She was the girl that could notice everyone, even the orphan who was let down and terribly ignored by pious and pure "victorian teachers". Faith, open eyes connected with love and open heart is what Zeffirelli loved to show in most of his films.

The music is one of the best from the films I have seen so far. It's very moody but supplies the viewer with wonderful, sometimes even mystical experience. For long after seeing the film for the first time, the music, somehow unconsciously, rang in my ears. Really worth attention!

Maybe some people will treat my opinion with some irony but I must say that Zeffirelli's JANE EYRE can be watched many times and each time one can discover something new, something valuable, teaching, and moving.

TOUCHED INTO TEARS! That's what I feel whenever I watch this incredible film.

I loved the splendid performance of Anna Paquin and the inspired portrait of. Grace Poole offered by Billie Whitelaw.

The great problem remains , for me, William Hurt who, unfortunately, is not exactly the expected - hoped Rochester.

Few significant episodes of novel are just ignored and the basic consolation - it is a Zeffirelli film. Sure, beautiful, seductive, offering interesting cast but in colision against book.

The basic problem - maybe the full unrealism of relation between Rochester and Jane Eyre. Not as question of chemistry but as the result of feeling about two shadows passing one near other. So, Zeffirelli adaptation of remarkable Jane Eyre.

If you have read the book , do not watch this movie! It will ruin your perception of it forever.

There is no chemistry whatsoever and William Hurt (though I am a big fan!)is in no way credible as an Englishman . All sorts of important features of the book are left out in this movie. Even very special interactions between Jane and Rochester!! Entire characters are deleted , and it gets worse. Jane struggle after leaving Thornfield is gone. No mention of her finding her relatives , no , they pop up earlier in a most incredulous place , where they certainly shouldn't be. They even made up things of their own and put it in! As if this story needed "improvement".

Conclusion:I have no idea what they wanted to achieve making this movie. I have found it to be very disappointing and it may very well have distorted my pleasure in reading a most excellent book , for ever!!

I love the story of Jane Eyre so much, to insult anything that has to do with this beloved character is not easy to say. But I must say how disappointed I was with this adaptation. William Hurt was a poor Rochester indeed. He had a very wooden and unemotional presence throughout the film. His scenes with the Jane Eyre character had no fire or emotion at all. He seemed very detached and aloof. If William Hurt was younger he would have played a better St. John. However, I must say Charlotte Gainsborough was a pretty good Jane Eyre. She looked the part and added very charming persona to the character. But she even, at times seemed cool and unattatched to me too. The worst element to this film was casting Elle McPherson as the role of Blanche. Why? Blanche Ingram was beautiful, true, but she was beautiful in the Victorian sense of the word, not a 90's waif snatched from a Parisian runway. Sheesh. The best element to this film, however was the sequences of young Jane and Helen at Lowood. Anna Paquin was amazing as she embodied the young Jane to near perfection. These early, well done scenes where the best in the entire movie but I regret to say they lead me down the primrose path to disappointment.

I saw the movie before I read the book. Usually this means that you prefer one of them, but in this case I like them both as they are. When a novel is filmed, the result will be a kind of summary and hopefully the people that have written the film version have stayed close to the original. This is not always the case. Walt Disney versions of Peter Pan for example, have very little to do with J.M. Barry's original.

Jane Eyre is a very serene, rather melancholical book with beautiful strong characters. The movie has the same quiet atmosphere and the casting of the actors is superbe. The only pity is that the movie is rather short. So see the movie and read the book!