Sex Education discovery Emma Mackey makes a sensational big screen debut as Emily Brontë in this imaginative biopic from writer-director Frances O’Connor (best known for acting in Mansfield Park and Spielberg’s A.I.). Readers have always been fascinated by how the shy, demure Yorkshire preacher’s daughter could have created something as wildly, dangerously romantic as Wuthering Heights. It’s an open question because most of the relatively little that we know about the writer comes filtered through what her sister Charlotte considered appropriate to share.
O’Connor suggests a sibling rivalry at work, and conceives of a secret liaison with a curate, Weightman, in the employ of the sisters’ father, and even a semblance of a love triangle with Emily’s brother, Branwell. That may sound scurrilous, but this serious, well-directed movie doesn’t lack for nuance or sensitivity; it has smart things to say about how a mixture of conviction, self-belief and mortification can feed creativity, and how Emily’s horizons weren’t curtailed by her remote, rural homestead. In fact, these things may have liberated her.
Emma Mackey, Fionn Whitehead, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Alexandra Dowling, Adrian Dunbar, Amelia Gething, Gemma Jones
UK/USA
2022
English
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Apocalypse in the Tropics
An Academy Award nominee for Edge of Democracy, Petra Costa returns with a fascinating take on how the Evangelical movement has taken Brazil by storm and worked with the right to undermine the constitutional separation of Church and State.
Ghosts of the Sea
Imagine an especially poetic true crime podcast about a sailor who built his own sailboat and lived on the high seas, but lost not one, but two wives along the way... Now imagine it told from the vantage point of his daughter: Ghosts of the Sea.
In the Mood for Love
Wong Kar-wai's most acclaimed and popular film is a love story about two neighbours (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) who are drawn together by the long absences of their respective spouses + a newly released short companion piece from 2001.
In the Heat of the Night
Sidney Poitier in an indelible role a Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs, pulled in as a murder suspect when changing trains in Mississippi. He allies with bigoted local sheriff (Rod Steiger) to solve the case.
Happy Feet
A tap-dancing penguin named Mumble can't sing like the others, but his unique skill may save his colony. Happy Feet is a music-filled adventure that celebrates courage, friendship, staying true to yourself, and is a perfect icy break this summer!
Credits
Executive Producer
Robert Patterson, Jo Bamford, Abel Korzeniowski, Tim Haslam, Hugo Grumbar, Peter Touche, Jamie Jessop, Andrea Scarso, Michael Reuter, Sebastian Barker, Oliver Parker
Producer
Piers Tempest, Robert Connolly, David Barron
Screenwriter
Frances O’Connor
Cinematography
Nanu Segal
Editor
Sam Sneade
Production Design
Steve Summersgill
Original Music
Abel Korzeniowski
Director
Frances O'Connor
Frances O’Connor is an Australian-English actress living in London, best known for her roles in the films Mansfield Park and The Importance of Being Earnest, and the TV series Madame Bovary and The Missing, with the latter two earning her Best Actress nominations at the Golden Globes. Her other film credits include Thank God He Met Lizzie, Bedazzled, and the leading role of Monica Swinton in Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence. O’Connor will be next seen in Sky Drama’s ten-part series, The End. Emily is her directorial feature debut.