Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 8-June-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Jane Eyre (1944)

I don't know about you, but I find Orson Welles' larger-than-lifeness unsuitable for widespread use. His overpowering Orsonosity is fine for a cinematic blowhard like C. F. Kane, for example, but what about a character from English literature who already towers on his own? I have yet to see Welles do Shakespeare but I had my doubts about his portrayal of Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre. Happily, he turns out to be well suited to the tale.

What makes Welles work in this movie is that his huge presence communicates how his character appears to the heroine. Here as in the novel, Jane is a masterful combination of independence, innocence, and nurturing to whom Rochester is nothing short of a wonder. An orphan raised in the home of an uncaring aunt, she is packed off to boarding school at a tender age and subjected to the particular cruelty of the over-righteous. Robbed of her first and only friend (a blooming Elizabeth Taylor), Jane toughs out 10 years at school before liberating herself by advertising as a governess. Her new position is in a huge, shadowy mansion populated only by a housekeeper and a child (or so it seems) from which the master is habitually absent.

Jane meets her employer in a misty, windswept Moment and is immediately confounded by him. Of course, he is one of the only men she has ever known, he is older than she, and he holds her in his power financially. One cannot ignore these influences, but thanks to Welles' intensity and Joan Fontaine's quiet strength one can perceive more than a maidenly fascination. Jane wants to know what secrets lurk in the mind and heart of this blunt, irritable, admittedly debauched man. Why does he seek her out even when he has more glittering guests for company? Why does he trust and rely on her when the strange noises from the attic tower lead to dangerous incidents? In her eyes Rochester is a shipwrecked captain issuing an SOS which she longs to answer. But proper modesty and good sense, both of which she has in spades, keep her from rushing to the rescue.

When she does eventually reach his arms, his secrets precipitate a tragedy. This version omits the heroine's wanderings after her departure from Rochester, whom she loves but cannot have without destroying herself. At least not until he is brought down a notch, humbled, perhaps, so as to be more worthy of her. Welles' nature clinches the romantic yet troubling finale as well, suggesting how much spirit has been tamped down by life — and how much remains to give Jane Eyre a happy ending.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.