Beauty vs Beast: Bad Romance
Monday, June 5, 2017 at 5:00PM 
Howdy, everybody - Jason from MNPP here with a brand new round of "Beauty vs Beast" for you on this first Monday of June. Coming up on this first Friday of June a movie called My Cousin Rachel is coming out (you can watch the trailer right here) that stars Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin and is adapted from the 1951 book by Daphne du Maurier (who also wrote The Birds and Rebecca). The book was already turned into a movie once in 1952 with Richard Burton and Olivia de Havilland (which I have never seen; have you?) - anyway it's one of my favorite genres, the overheated gothic romance, brimming with lace and poisons, and I can't wait.
So in the spirit of such things this week we're tackling one of the greatest of all when it comes to these stories - Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. There are a couple of film adaptations but let's go with the most recent, Cary Fukunaga's 2011 film starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, since I found it a grand adaptation.
PREVIOUSLY We spent last week trapped in that damn cryogenic container so we've got to skip back two weeks to our last competition, which pit the Ellen Ripley of Ridley Scott's Alien against the Ellen Ripley of James Cameron's Aliens. And it was the bigger badder bitchier (her words not mine!) version of the latter who stomped away with 67% of your votes. Said markgordonuk:
"Alien is my favourite movie but the Aliens performance is something else, the looks and glances, the fear, the physicality, the line readings, the no bull attitude, I could go on, such an Iconic performance, everyone knows who Ripley is."
Reader Comments (4)
I'm so happy to cheer for Jane. It's a great performance (yay Mia!), and if Jane won't act as her own hype man then I'll happily do it tor her.
I'm not the biggest fan of Jane Eyre but I land on Jane's side, Rochester has too many demons.
I've seen the original My Cousin Rachel, it's nowhere near perfect but entertaining and completely worth seeking out for Olivia de Havilland and Richard Burton.
I've seen the original My Cousin Rachel as well, and it's undeservedly forgotten. Both Burton and de Havilland were terrific. Rachel Weisz is a good choice for the role; I suspect the vibe with Claflin will be completely different from Burton in the original.
I loved Jane Eyre as a novel and loved the 2011 version; both Mia W and Fassbender suited the characters perfectly.
My Cousin Rachel - 1952 gave Richard Burton his first Academy Award nomination as best actor in a supporting role. A good movie...