Last week I broke down Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë; this week, “Wuthering Heights” by Emerald Fennell broke me down. In this episode of the pod I give a (loose) plot summary of the movie, but mostly I analyze it and its role in pop culture as a test of media literacy and critical thinking. I get political a lot here and it feels necessary. Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@movies4breakfast Instagram https://www.instagram.com/movies4breakfastpod/ Find me on all platforms at moviesforbreakfast.com Chapter timestamps 00:00:00 hello! 00:03:17 is it smut? 00:07:20 humor + style over substance 00:09:24 checking in re. feminism 00:10:48 theater audiences 00:12:32 my take on Emerald Fennell 00:14:40 let's talk about race 00:16:45 the great adaptation debate 00:20:03 start plot, opening scene 00:23:22 book vs. movie Nelly 00:30:07 childhood at Wuthering Heights 00:35:04 time jump & Cathy’s awakening 00:41:31 the Lintons arrive 00:45:24 “colorblind” casting 00:48:27 whitewashing white characters 00:53:13 Cathy and Edgar 00:54:58 the proposal 00:58:26 costume design + wedding 01:03:27 Heathcliff returns 01:06:11 Heathcliff + Cathy’s affair 01:09:53 Heathcliff and Isabella 01:15:54 book vs. movie Cathy 01:18:09 Cathy gets sick 01:20:57 Cathy departs, end plot 01:23:34 rant about press tour + marketing 01:26:54 rant about media literacy + anti-intellectualism 01:33:04 bye :) Credits Mentioned: Karolina Żebrowska https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNwZIGnHkzy6KpHPQtserzQ Music: Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio Stock videos: https://www.vecteezy.com/free-videos/
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52:04 my thing with Isabella escaping is how horrific life with Heathcliff and l at Wuthering Heights must have been for her to escape the way she did. We’re told in the beginning of the novel how treacherous bad weather makes the trip from Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights. And Isabella a very rich gentry raised young woman ran that at night in a silk dress and slippers in a snow storm. Then tells Nelly girl get me a carriage to Gimmeton or I’m leaving now allows us to see it must have been horrific bc she risks her health and almost life to escape
I am working on my own script for a video about this, and you hit the nail on the head and had every right to be angry. This is a historical rewrite its so scary
The Ralph Fiennes Juliet Binoche version is beautiful, and close to the book, including the second half. Yes, Fiennes is white but he is so much more intense
It's hilarious to me that Cathy arrives back to Wuthering Heights in a coach but walks to her wedding. Dramatic image but ridiculous.
Yes, the success of this film as well as the amount of people who have never opened the book, is proof of the dumbing down of society.
29:45 that's EXACTLY what she's thinking! Even if she's not aware herself
It’s so weird to me that it’s about sex when the book has like no sex 😭 why can’t she just write her own thing
"It's not that deep" it IS that deep, you just don't WANT it to be
I don't know if someone already said this since I'm 3 weeks out from this video dropping, but in the book, Catherine wanted to marry Edgar because he's wealthy and she wanted to use his wealth to help elevate Heathcliff's status, plus the fact that her brother Hindley was an abusive alcoholic at that point in time and she wanted to escape that household. I truly did not enjoy this movie, but I do enjoy the book (which I read for the first time a few months ago). I *did* enjoy this breakdown, and I'll be checking out your book breakdown, too.
why r there ads every 30 seconds also EXCELLENT video on this zeitgeist thank you
I’d also like to point out on the ‘fennell is very rich and from a high class’ point that Bronte was also upper class and rich and in a time period where classism and racism was far more open yet she could tackle the race aspects and how it works with classism. Fennels biggest excuse is that her 14 year old self didn’t read it that way and that’s ridiculous. State school, working class children in the uk are all expected to be able to analyse texts for thematic and contextual meaning at that age. Before someone says I’m mean for holding a kid to that standard - I was a working class kid that was juggling a job while studying at that age and I could talk about classism and racism, she was a spoon-fed rich kid in a private school that had all the guidance and support she could have needed. She chose not to because she didn’t care and that’s ridiculous hasn’t changed in her apparently
I think this whole movie could have worked if at the end it was revealed the whole thing was Cathy's addled last thoughts as she died
This is a wonderful video, but let us not speak it into the world that Fennell gets the opportunity to adapt Austen
The last section resonates with me so much. I think that's why I've actually consumed people commentating on W.H. because it means people actually read the book and thought about it. And honestly, I wonder if the COVID constraints were why Pretty Young Woman did so well for Emerald Fennel?
It was annoying that Cathy had a rags to riches story which then becomes another story of an affluent white woman being trapped in a gilded cage. As you said GIVE ME A BREAK EMERALD.
Its very bizzare to me a multicultural British/ European history being pushed its ok to be proud of your own Hertiage 🇬🇧
I loved every second. Subscribed.
God I hope Emerald leaves Jane Austen works ALONE.
excellent
18:54 👏