I was just a lad of ten when I saw this 1973 BBC production of "Jane Eyre" for the first time. Michael Jayston and, above all, Sorcha Cusack made an everlasting impression on me. After all these years, to be able to see her again as Jane is... all joy!
To acknowledge how well both these actors did portray their respective characters from Robin Chapman's fine script and under Joan Craft's competent direction, allow to remind you here the following excerpts from Charlotte Brontë's immortal novel: - from chapter XIV (Jane about Rochester): "(...) he rose from his chair (...)"; - from chapter XVI (Jane about Rochester and she): "(...) I knew the pleasure of vexing and soothing him by turns (...); - and from chapter XXVII (Rochester to/about Jane): "(...) You entered the room (...)" In these three passages of her novel, Charlotte Brontë gave to all readers a crystal-clear synthesis of how she imagined Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester; and it is exactly this we have the exquisite privilege to contemplate in the 1973 BBC production of "Jane Eyre".
Please, believe me: in no other production you will find these characters portrayed so faithfully to the novel and so perfectly on screen as in this one! Michael Jayston is a great, truly great Rochester; Sorcha Cusack, with that beautiful round face, those lovely eyes and that velvet voice, is a Jane from the other world; and the connection between them is genuine empathy - just like the connection there is between their respective characters.
The portrayal of the secondary characters is made in much the same way. The performances of Juliet Waley as young Jane, Tine Heath as Helen Burns and Isabelle Rosin as Adèle, of John Phillips as Mr. Brocklehurst and Megs Jenkins as Mrs. Fairfax, of Stephanie Beecham as Blanche Ingram, and of Geoffrey Whitehead as St. John Rivers, are all very good and quite close to what can we read in "Jane Eyre".
The real marrow of Charlotte Brontë's novel: this is what one can get from this, the 1973 BBC production of "Jane Eyre". Nothing of real importance is missing here - above all, God. The final lines said by Sorcha Cusack, taken out of the last chapter of novel (sadly missing in all the other TV and movie versions), are a sort of resume of Charlotte Brontë's faith in God: after helping both Jane and Rochester going through their ordeals, God blesses her supremely and judges him with mercy; so, there is reason to believe in God.
Just like the novel, this TV production is a story told by Jane's own point of view: it's a "flash-back". The use of narration through Jane's "inner-voice" is as effective here as it is old in the History of English Theatre: it harks back to William Shakespeare, who used to make his characters turn to the audiences and speak out their intimate thoughts.
Drama and humor, suspense and surprise are all very finely balanced in this BBC production of "Jane Eyre". As for the humor, I don't mean to be rude to those reviewers whom have written elsewhere criticizing Sorcha Cusack's performance, but I'm afraid they simply don't grasp British humor - particularly, the "understatement", which is present in almost every line of many of the intimate dialogs between Jane and Rochester (both in the novel and in this production).
It should be noted that this is neither a "romantic" nor a "Gothic" production of Charlotte Brontë's novel. In fact, I'm not even sure that "Jane Eyre" is a true romantic or a true Gothic novel. As far as I remember, it was Jorge Luis Borges who stated that it could be classified as one of the predecessors of the so-called "Magic Realism" in Literature. Indeed, between "Romanticism", "Gothicism" and "Magic Realism", I personally find "Jane Eyre" much closer to the latter...
To my mind, in a scale of 1 to 10, the 1973 BBC production of "Jane Eyre" deserves 9.9. It would get a clear 10 out of me if it had (as it should!) at least fifteen episodes; but, since it was a "low budget" production, it has only five - and, because of that, the "gipsy scene" had to be pruned up to the point of becoming just a hilarious scene, and the character of Rosamond Oliver had to be simply tossed off.
Nevertheless, it is the best of all screen versions there are of "Jane Eyre": the most faithful to novel, superbly tight and paced, very well put up together, with first class performances and Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for strings, Opus 47 (1904-05), as the musical background.
In short, it is a sublime piece of Art. Don't miss it!...
To acknowledge how well both these actors did portray their respective characters from Robin Chapman's fine script and under Joan Craft's competent direction, allow to remind you here the following excerpts from Charlotte Brontë's immortal novel: - from chapter XIV (Jane about Rochester): "(...) he rose from his chair (...)"; - from chapter XVI (Jane about Rochester and she): "(...) I knew the pleasure of vexing and soothing him by turns (...); - and from chapter XXVII (Rochester to/about Jane): "(...) You entered the room (...)" In these three passages of her novel, Charlotte Brontë gave to all readers a crystal-clear synthesis of how she imagined Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester; and it is exactly this we have the exquisite privilege to contemplate in the 1973 BBC production of "Jane Eyre".
Please, believe me: in no other production you will find these characters portrayed so faithfully to the novel and so perfectly on screen as in this one! Michael Jayston is a great, truly great Rochester; Sorcha Cusack, with that beautiful round face, those lovely eyes and that velvet voice, is a Jane from the other world; and the connection between them is genuine empathy - just like the connection there is between their respective characters.
The portrayal of the secondary characters is made in much the same way. The performances of Juliet Waley as young Jane, Tine Heath as Helen Burns and Isabelle Rosin as Adèle, of John Phillips as Mr. Brocklehurst and Megs Jenkins as Mrs. Fairfax, of Stephanie Beecham as Blanche Ingram, and of Geoffrey Whitehead as St. John Rivers, are all very good and quite close to what can we read in "Jane Eyre".
The real marrow of Charlotte Brontë's novel: this is what one can get from this, the 1973 BBC production of "Jane Eyre". Nothing of real importance is missing here - above all, God. The final lines said by Sorcha Cusack, taken out of the last chapter of novel (sadly missing in all the other TV and movie versions), are a sort of resume of Charlotte Brontë's faith in God: after helping both Jane and Rochester going through their ordeals, God blesses her supremely and judges him with mercy; so, there is reason to believe in God.
Just like the novel, this TV production is a story told by Jane's own point of view: it's a "flash-back". The use of narration through Jane's "inner-voice" is as effective here as it is old in the History of English Theatre: it harks back to William Shakespeare, who used to make his characters turn to the audiences and speak out their intimate thoughts.
Drama and humor, suspense and surprise are all very finely balanced in this BBC production of "Jane Eyre". As for the humor, I don't mean to be rude to those reviewers whom have written elsewhere criticizing Sorcha Cusack's performance, but I'm afraid they simply don't grasp British humor - particularly, the "understatement", which is present in almost every line of many of the intimate dialogs between Jane and Rochester (both in the novel and in this production).
It should be noted that this is neither a "romantic" nor a "Gothic" production of Charlotte Brontë's novel. In fact, I'm not even sure that "Jane Eyre" is a true romantic or a true Gothic novel. As far as I remember, it was Jorge Luis Borges who stated that it could be classified as one of the predecessors of the so-called "Magic Realism" in Literature. Indeed, between "Romanticism", "Gothicism" and "Magic Realism", I personally find "Jane Eyre" much closer to the latter...
To my mind, in a scale of 1 to 10, the 1973 BBC production of "Jane Eyre" deserves 9.9. It would get a clear 10 out of me if it had (as it should!) at least fifteen episodes; but, since it was a "low budget" production, it has only five - and, because of that, the "gipsy scene" had to be pruned up to the point of becoming just a hilarious scene, and the character of Rosamond Oliver had to be simply tossed off.
Nevertheless, it is the best of all screen versions there are of "Jane Eyre": the most faithful to novel, superbly tight and paced, very well put up together, with first class performances and Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for strings, Opus 47 (1904-05), as the musical background.
In short, it is a sublime piece of Art. Don't miss it!...