Wuthering Heights

Director: Peter Kosminsky, Andrea Arnold Peter Kosminsky

Overview

Peter Kosminksy directed this faithful adaptation of the Emily Bronte classic. Ralph Fiennes has the role of Heathcliff, a wanderer adopted by the father of Cathy (Juliette Binoche), "a wild slip of a girl." Heathcliffe is looked down upon by his stepbrothers and becomes a servant. He is further crushed when Cathy, the love of his life, marries another man -- since to marry a servant would be the ultimate in humiliation for her. Heathcliffe disappears for a number a years but then returns, revenge and hatred for Cathy's family the only thing on his mind.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/31/2022
UPC:	0810044713022
Original Release:	1992
Rating:	PG
Source:	Paramount
Language:	English
Time:	1:46:00
Sales rank:	34,392

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Juliette Binoche	Cathy/Catherine
Ralph Fiennes	Heathcliff
Janet McTeer	Ellen
Sophie Ward	Isabella,Mr. Linton
Simon Shepherd	Edgar
Jeremy Northam	Hindley
Jason Riddington	Hareton
Robert Demeger	Joseph
Paul Geoffrey	Mr. Lockwood
John Woodvine	Thomas Earnshaw
Jennifer Daniel	Mrs. Linton
Janine Wood	Frances Earnshaw
Jonathan Firth	Linton Heathcliff
Jon Howard	Young Heathcliff
Jessica Hennell	Young Cathy
Steven Slarke	Hindley Earnshaw (age 16)
Trevor Cooper	Dr. Kenneth
Dick Sullivan	Parson
Sean Bowden	Young Hareton
Sinéad O'Connor	Emily Bronte,Actor
Martin Evans	Actor
Rupert Holliday-Evans	Vicar
Steve Evets	Actor
James Howson	Actor
Solomon Glave	Actor
Shannon Beer	Actor
Simone Jackson	Actor
Amy Wren	Actor
Oliver Milburn	Actor
Ryuichi Sakamoto	Composer

Technical Credits

Anne Devlin

Andrea Arnold

Olivia Hetreed

Peter Kosminsky	Director
Anne Devlin	Screenwriter
Mary Selway	Producer
Simon Bosanquet	Executive Producer,Producer
Sheila Trezise	Casting
Graham Longhurst	Special Effects
Greg Powell	Stunts
Andrea Arnold	Director,Screenwriter
Olivia Hetreed	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Near the beginning of their careers -- in fact, it was his first feature -- Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche starred in this perfectly adequate update of Wuthering Heights, directed by Peter Kosminsky. But what shackles it to mere adequacy may be built into the very text itself. Emily Bronte's sweeping novel of tragic romance on the moors is such high melodrama -- in the best sense of that word -- that any film adaptation is inevitably and inescapably earthbound, including William Wyler's excellent 1939 version. The tormented passion and gothic spiritualism of Bronte's work is best realized in the reader's mind, where it can achieve untold depths and vistas no filmmaker can touch. That said, Kosminsky's attempt is as good as any, if a little bit technically uninspired. Fiennes suppresses his natural regality to inhabit the feral skin of Heathcliff, an orphan adopted by the kindly owner of two grandiose mansions, and then abused by his son upon the old man's death. Heathcliff is one of literature's most complicated antiheroes, and Fiennes plays him with a rampaging bitterness that overcompensates for his emotional fragility and broken heart. The cruelty Fiennes shows he's capable of may help explain why the actor was cast as a villain early in his career, including his breakout role in Schindler's List the following year. Binoche is not quite so impressive while playing two admittedly less ostentatious characters. While Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff's star-crossed soul mate, is also quite complex, Binoche plays her with a fickleness that produces markedly different characterizations from scene to scene. Granted, it's possible there's nothing she could have done about that, given the character's troubling changeability as written by Bronte. Janet McTeer, Jeremy Northam and an uncredited Sinead O'Connor also fill out the star-studded cast, making this an involving but not quite enduring Wuthering Heights.

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