The best version
Added 11/12/2009
I have been looking for this version for quite sometime and was thrilled to find it here and for a reasonalble price. It is 311 minutes long so be prepared for a long time infront of the tv. However, you can watch it by chapters and there is only one dvd so you only have to flip it when you are ready for the next chapters. Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clark is excellent. I wish that Zelah had made more films. Enjoy if you are as much a fan of Jane Eyre as I am.
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Excellent Product and Fabulous Seller
Added 11/5/2009
I had an excellent experience with this seller. The first DVD was damaged and would not play certain episodes. The seller was quick to respond and offered to send a replacement the next day. The replacement worked perfectly.
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POWERFUL, UNFORGETTABLE, A MASTERPIECE
Added 10/20/2009
This is a great time!--there is a Rochester and a Jane for very nearly everyone now. Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke are MY Rochester and MY Jane. I fell hard for this adaptation (SUPERB AND VERY FAITHFUL TO THE BOOK) long ago, and it is the only one I own. It inspired me to read the book in earnest. I'm enchanted, mesmerized, moved as if for the first time--no matter how many times I watch. I've cringed and winced while viewing clips of some others. It can be painful--or even amusing sometimes!--to hear Brontë's beautiful language modernized to the point it's nearly unrecognizable. Those who prefer her undiluted will be delighted with the dialogue, even if they prefer another version.
Much has been said of the physical appearances of Dalton and Clarke in reviews here and elsewhere, some remarks none too flattering. A sampling: too handsome, too tall, too thin, too plain, too short, too round, too old. Happily, I find no fault, and can only gush my approval! A different sort of criticism is "no chemistry". I'm baffled when I do come across this comment: if these two had generated any more heat, conveyed any more repressed longing, my screen might incinerate and me with it... As for negatives that have been brought to my attention with regard to the production values--poor lighting, etc.--I NEVER EVEN NOTICED! Dalton and Clarke could have performed on a bare stage with little more than cardboard props, and have WOWED me just the same.
Clarke is plainly styled, yes--she is portraying the plainest of heroines, after all. But the simple updo and quaint frocks can't dim her glow: she's "a beauty in my eyes." I've read she had trained as a ballet dancer; this is evident in her excellent posture and graceful movements. I love the quiet dignity, the refined quality of her voice. She has AMAZING EYES--intelligent and soulful--and is capable of speaking with them alone. Her lovely face is incredibly mobile, registering a wide range of emotions equally well. She's a self-possessed, gently assertive, perceptive and compassionate Jane--and an excitable, determined, warm, and tender one. And she's ABUNDANTLY PASSIONATE--don't let anyone convince you otherwise! There is SO MUCH SINCERITY in her love for Rochester. You feel that she understands him, that his broken heart is in good hands--she's his angel. She's playful, too--his elf--and even possesses the "dimpled cheek" referred to in Chapter 24--amazing! She is quite short, as she should be for the role. Brontë wrote, "--being so much lower of stature than he, I served both for his prop and guide." The sight of her--tucked under Dalton's chin, wrapped snugly in his arms--never fails to thrill me. She is absolutely adorable (and 18 enough for me) when still in her nightcap and robe, listening to her seductive master tell her he has "found the being." I can vividly recall her anxious face when, in asking Mr. Rochester for leave, she gathers the courage to inquire if he is shortly to be married. When he intimates he will indeed soon wed Miss Ingram, she looks fatally wounded, but struggles valiantly to regain her composure--heartwrenching! The devastation rocking her can be seen and felt when she bids him farewell "for the present", and the oh so sweet sexual tension reaches a new level of intensity: WHITE HOT! (Dalton's farewell "for the present", delivered so meaningfully, and the desire he expresses for a warmer good-bye, leave me weak-kneed for hours...) And Clarke's teary confession of love under the chestnut tree is EXQUISITE. Clarke has NO EQUAL as Jane, and HER PERFORMANCE WILL NOT BE OUTDONE.
I find Brontë's description of Rochester appealing, save for, "--his unusual breadth of chest, disproportionate almost to his length of limb." That adjective--disproportionate--disappointed somehow, even when I read it as a young person. Dalton's tall, lean, beautifully proportioned Rochester suits me perfectly--he's beyond splendid in the period garb. Yes, he's UNDENIABLY GORGEOUS, but so DARKLY, INTENSELY MASCULINE--"all energy, decision, will"--I can forgive his considerable male beauty: my gaze rests on his perfectly sculpted features with guiltless pleasure. Readers of the book will remember Rochester makes a number of confessions in Chapter 27: Very briefly, he tells Jane he returned to England "...rid of all mistresses--in a harsh, bitter frame of mind..." and was "...corroded with disappointment, sourly disposed against all men, and especially against all womankind ... ." He assures her, "It was not [his] original intention to deceive... ," and explains he was "...content and stimulated with what [he] saw...," and that "[he] was an intellectual epicure, and wished to prolong the gratification of making...[her] acquaintance." Dalton gets Rochester exactly right, and he plays his dangerous, deceitful game so very well. A lesser woman might surrender without a struggle. But Jane presents something of a challenge, resolved as she is to obey him only in "all that is right," so Rochester must take extreme measures to excite her jealousy. Dalton is endlessly irresistible, heartstoppingly sexy, deliciously predatory--never more potently seductive than when cruelly testing, teasing and tempting Clarke's lonely little love starved Jane. Observe his eyes as they follow her every move: as she takes up a candle preparatory to playing a tune and, later, as she approaches hesitantly when asked to join him on the library sofa. He can be just as achingly tender: he broke my heart as the vulnerable lover kneeling at her side--begging her to stay. Dalton understands the extraordinary affection Rochester feels for Jane, and utters all those wonderful endearments--"my pet lamb," "my pale little elf," "my fairy," etc.--with a naturalness and a depth of feeling I could not have imagined possible. And that incomparable voice!--very like a caress--I sometimes close my eyes in order to enjoy it alone. Dalton brings the tormented figure to life--in all his complexity--LIKE NO ONE ELSE CAN EVER EVEN HOPE TO: HE'S THAT GOOD. To watch his bitter and despairing but still hopeful Rochester fall for little Jane is to witness a rare magic that won't be repeated. The emotion he brings to the proposal scene--from start to finish--is ASTONISHING IN ITS POWER, and UNFORGETTABLE.
Thornfield has become almost a real place for me, and Rochester and Jane living, breathing lovers--thanks to this treasure.
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Once upon a romance
Added 10/11/2009
During the first half of the 19th century, two of the three Brontë sisters wrote books that have endured as great British literature. The middle sister, Emily, wrote _Withering Heights,_ which became one of the golden year, 1939's, films, Charlotte Brontë, the eldest, wrote the great romance, Jane Eyre, whic has been issued in multiple editions, and filmed 19 times.
The plot is simple: a "plain" young woman, having spent 10 years in an emotionally sterile, still manages to capture the heart of an equally plain man 20 years her senior, loses him, and then, in the end finds him again, after his mad wife has burned down his manor house, taking his eye and hand in the process. This is not the ordinary meat of a great romance, but somehow over the years, millions of people throughout the world have read and watched this story and come away moved.
In this mini-series, the 16th filmed version, Timothy Dalton plays Rochester to Zelah Clarke's Jane. Dalton is probably one of the ugliest handsome men I've ever seen who nevertheless has played the central character is a number of films (remember his two James Bond movies?). Clarke is a wonderful character actress, and probably the closest to Brontë's decision. Each of them do expert performances, playing their characters with warmth, humor and great passion. The sexual tension, never brought to fruition on screen, creates a longing that transfers itself to the viewer.
Dalton's character, believing he will never find real love, growls and snaps at everyone around him, never compromises to the world, and unable to show kindness to his "natural" child, Adéle or any of his servants. However, his willingness to bring an illegitimate daughter into his house, to be raised as a daughter shows his great heart But as Jane begins to fill his world with a shy joy, he that heart to soften to her.
None of the Brontë sisters ever married. It was only through their romances that they could draw their ideal men. The saddest thing about their heroes is that they are all drawn from the withdrawn father who could not show them love. Their stories are testaments to their beliefs that a gentle woman could change such men's personalities, a dream none of them was able to fulfill.
Men and women can related to this romance. Find yourself curled up in your love's arms, crying for the cries of a different time and different kind of story that, I hope, you will never experience.
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The Benchmark "Jane Eyre"
Added 10/9/2009
This version is the benchmark by which I judge all other versions of "Jane Eyre". Timothy Dalton is the way I imagined Mr. Rochester the first time I read the novel. And Zelah Clarke is just perfect as Jane. Wonderful acting, wonderful scenery. It doesn't get any better than this!
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