Latest / 1-800-1800 / 1-800-Wuthering Heights
Transcript
- 0:00ring ring hello is this weathering heights it's me i'm kathy
- 0:04hello you've reached 1
- 0:10SPEAKER_01: 800 1800 1 800 1800 i have a burning question 1 800 1800
- 0:30SPEAKER_00: I have a burning question.
- 0:33SPEAKER_03: So I'll take that as a yes.
- 0:35SPEAKER_03: It's me.
- 0:36SPEAKER_03: I'm Kathy.
- 0:36SPEAKER_03: Yes, it's Wuthering Heights.
- 0:38SPEAKER_02: Is it Kathy or is it Catherine?
- 0:40SPEAKER_02: Isn't it Kathy?
- 0:41Well,
- 0:42there's something in the book where basically I think
- 0:43Heathcliff called...
- 0:45kathy kathy and edgar called kathy katherine and then when and
- 0:53edgar doesn't call
- 0:54her kathy because it's heathcliff's nickname for her but then
- 0:56when he has a
- 0:56daughter named katherine he calls her kathy and nelly says this
- 1:00thing that like
- 1:01he's able to nickname her kathy because it's different and it's
- 1:05like not blemished
- 1:06with heathcliff and then heathcliff calls katherine linton
- 1:09katherine not kathy
- 1:10SPEAKER_02: because they're different um
- 1:12SPEAKER_02: And in a nutshell, that's why this book is really confusing.
- 1:15It's also like Catherine Linton could refer to either of them
- 1:19as could like
- 1:20SPEAKER_03: Catherine Earnshaw Heathcliff Earnshaw.
- 1:24SPEAKER_02: I have to show you.
- 1:25SPEAKER_02: It's so confusing.
- 1:26So like I've been deep in Wuthering Heights now for like a week
- 1:30because I was
- 1:32SPEAKER_02: preparing to see the new movie.
- 1:34SPEAKER_02: I was rereading the book.
- 1:35SPEAKER_02: I watched the 2012 film adaptation.
- 1:38SPEAKER_02: I started watching.
- 1:39SPEAKER_02: Which I didn't know existed.
- 1:40SPEAKER_02: I know I missed that.
- 1:42i saw the 1939 film adaptation partially and so rebecca who's
- 1:48not interested in any
- 1:49of this has been like what are you talking about and she's been
- 1:52forced to watch all
- 1:53the old weathering heights with me and the preview several
- 1:56times so i had she was
- 1:58like can you just explain it to me so i had to make her a
- 2:00diagram because she just
- 2:01SPEAKER_02: didn't get it and i just want to show it to you and ask what you think
- 2:07there's a little ghost the ghost the ghost represents when
- 2:11Kathy's ghost haunts
- 2:13Lockwood at the beginning which is what sets off the whole
- 2:16story and I'm reminded
- 2:18of this diagram because I'm looking at your copy of Wuthering
- 2:21Heights which is just
- 2:22SPEAKER_02: astounding can you describe it to the listeners
- 2:25SPEAKER_03: So I reread my high school copy of Wuthering Heights,
- 2:30SPEAKER_03: which I somehow peeled off the cover,
- 2:35SPEAKER_03: leaving only the white paper underneath.
- 2:38SPEAKER_03: And then my friend and I wrote all over it.
- 2:44SPEAKER_03: But you did replace the title, which is helpful.
- 2:46Well,
- 2:46yeah,
- 2:46because I and it's on the spine because I wanted to know what
- 2:49was on the spine.
- 2:49SPEAKER_03: But then it's like a quote from Zoolander, which he's a model.
- 2:54idiot are you talking about Heathcliff you think it's really
- 2:58hard for me to know
- 2:59like I there's also it says Ollie loves Eli Stone I have no
- 3:03idea who that would be
- 3:05referring to but you've also taken something from in the book
- 3:08which is you've
- 3:09written C E C H C L yes Catherine Earnshaw Catherine Heathcliff
- 3:14Catherine Linton so
- 3:16SPEAKER_02: you were studying hard
- 3:18SPEAKER_03: Oh, I was like, what did I write there?
- 3:20SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's smart of you.
- 3:21SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 3:22SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 3:22SPEAKER_03: So I was also keeping track of Catherine's changes.
- 3:26I mean,
- 3:28and there's some sort of interest in the last name on here as
- 3:31well.
- 3:32SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 3:32SPEAKER_03: Just in general.
- 3:33SPEAKER_02: I think it's astonishing.
- 3:35SPEAKER_02: And I think that what's helpful about your high school copy is like,
- 3:37I've been trying not to dip my toe into the Emerald Fennell
- 3:41universe and like what
- 3:42SPEAKER_02: people are saying online about the new movie.
- 3:44But one thing I have seen is like the new movie is basically
- 3:47like if the middle
- 3:48SPEAKER_02: school girl who read it made the film adaptation,
- 3:51SPEAKER_02: what would it be like?
- 3:52SPEAKER_03: We can look at some of my...
- 3:54annotations i bet they're smarter i have it's like at the
- 3:57beginning of every
- 3:58chapter i had written like what happens in it as my for my
- 4:00study guide although i
- 4:01did give up for part two but it's like do chapter what is this
- 4:05chapter this chapter
- 4:06four nelly begins the story of wh and tg i don't even know who
- 4:11that is weathering
- 4:12heights and thrushkosh grave with heathcliff's arrival and
- 4:16early childhood with the
- 4:17SPEAKER_03: urn shots okay that's good
- 4:19SPEAKER_03: Chapter two, Lockwood gets stuck.
- 4:22SPEAKER_03: I can't read that.
- 4:23SPEAKER_03: Spending the night at the Grange meets Catherine and Harriton,
- 4:26SPEAKER_03: still unfriendly arrival reminiscent of Isabella's.
- 4:29SPEAKER_03: It's also not true.
- 4:29SPEAKER_03: He doesn't get stuck at the Grange.
- 4:30SPEAKER_02: He gets stuck at the Heights.
- 4:32SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 4:33SPEAKER_02: But it's an honest mistake.
- 4:35Yeah,
- 4:36it's an honest mistake from someone who was probably not paying
- 4:38that close attention.
- 4:41I mean,
- 4:41if the cover of the book tells you anything,
- 4:42it's that I wasn't paying attention.
- 4:46Stays in Kathy's room,
- 4:47sees her ghost,
- 4:48is escorted home by emotionally troubled Heathcliff.
- 4:57SPEAKER_03: That sums up the book.
- 4:59SPEAKER_02: That says it really well.
- 5:00SPEAKER_02: That says it all.
- 5:01SPEAKER_02: Okay.
- 5:01SPEAKER_02: Rewind, Madeline.
- 5:02SPEAKER_02: Why are we here?
- 5:03I guess I'm like a little confused about what we're going to
- 5:05talk about because we
- 5:07both reread Wuthering Heights in anticipation of seeing the
- 5:09Emerald Fennell film.
- 5:10SPEAKER_02: But we might as well have read the Bible before seeing like Zoolander.
- 5:14SPEAKER_03: Like it had nothing to do with the other.
- 5:16SPEAKER_03: It's something biblical about Zoolander for sure.
- 5:19SPEAKER_03: And speaking of Zoolander,
- 5:22SPEAKER_03: Margot Robbie had the most Mugatu curly,
- 5:29SPEAKER_03: like who from Whoville hair I've ever seen.
- 5:32SPEAKER_02: In an outfit that was straight out of the 1890s.
- 5:35SPEAKER_02: It was so wrong.
- 5:37SPEAKER_03: But I'm not even here to like be a correctionist.
- 5:40SPEAKER_03: I guess what we're doing here, it's like, okay, so we reread the book.
- 5:43SPEAKER_03: We saw the movie.
- 5:43SPEAKER_03: And I want to preface this by saying I do not need faithful adaptations.
- 5:47SPEAKER_03: I do not need historically accurate adaptations.
- 5:50SPEAKER_03: I am for...
- 5:50artistic expression using the past as a media using the past
- 5:55and these stories that
- 5:56have become so entrenched in our culture that like every high
- 5:59school girl has read
- 6:00it it's like the myths of our time and myths are meant to be
- 6:03retold and changed and
- 6:05adapted to the current moment i just don't think emerald fennel
- 6:08successfully did
- 6:09SPEAKER_03: that agree
- 6:12yeah i mean or she did because it was like a shallow vapid
- 6:16interpretation of a
- 6:17story did it offend me a little bit because and i think this is
- 6:22why people are all
- 6:23jazzed up about it is because everybody does have their own
- 6:25personal attachment to
- 6:26this story and she is in a way dragging emily bronte's good
- 6:31name in the mud
- 6:33SPEAKER_03: Yeah,
- 6:33SPEAKER_03: what I will say is on rereading the book,
- 6:35SPEAKER_03: I did a sub-stack note,
- 6:38SPEAKER_03: which is my form of Twitter.
- 6:40SPEAKER_03: Why is there a second half of the book?
- 6:42SPEAKER_03: I totally disagree.
- 6:43SPEAKER_03: Emerald Fennell also had that note.
- 6:45SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 6:46SPEAKER_03: She said the volume two, don't want it.
- 6:49SPEAKER_02: Okay, but I said this to you.
- 6:50SPEAKER_02: Defend volume two.
- 6:51Okay,
- 6:51so for those who've never read the book,
- 6:54I think there's a few of you who haven't.
- 6:55SPEAKER_02: Basically, let's give a brief plot summary.
- 6:59The book begins when a man named Lockwood rents a house called
- 7:02Thrush Cross Grange.
- 7:04SPEAKER_02: Which is so like yeast infection.
- 7:06SPEAKER_02: It's so hard to say.
- 7:09SPEAKER_02: Thrush.
- 7:10SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 7:11Someone at work had thrush recently,
- 7:12like got it from their kids and was saying thrush to me.
- 7:15SPEAKER_03: Isn't that a yeast infection?
- 7:16SPEAKER_02: You can get it in your mouth.
- 7:17SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I think that is what it is.
- 7:19SPEAKER_02: I think you're right.
- 7:20SPEAKER_02: Okay,
- 7:20SPEAKER_02: so Lockwood rents Thrushcross Grange being like,
- 7:24SPEAKER_02: I'm such a,
- 7:26SPEAKER_02: what do you call it when you're like a loner?
- 7:27He's a loner,
- 7:28so he wants to go to the Yorkshire countryside wilds and rent
- 7:31this house.
- 7:32SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's like retreating from society.
- 7:33SPEAKER_02: But then it turns out,
- 7:34SPEAKER_02: compared to everyone else who lives in the neighborhood,
- 7:36SPEAKER_02: he's an absolute social butterfly.
- 7:37SPEAKER_02: Well,
- 7:38also his immediate impulse on renting this house in the country
- 7:40to be by himself is
- 7:41SPEAKER_03: to go over to the neighbor's house to hang out.
- 7:43with the opposite of what you should do especially when your
- 7:47neighbor and landlord
- 7:48is a man named heathcliff so he walks into this house he walks
- 7:52into a house called
- 7:52wuthering heights and he finds a man named heathcliff who's
- 7:55like in his probably
- 7:57like late 30s 40s i think that he's like an old man when edgar
- 8:01dies he's 39 yeah so
- 8:02SPEAKER_03: i think heathcliff is the same 35 but it's described as like old and
- 8:08SPEAKER_02: He meets this guy named Heathcliff.
- 8:10SPEAKER_02: He meets a young woman who he's introduced to as Mrs. Heathcliff.
- 8:14SPEAKER_02: And then he sees an old man named Joseph and a young man named Harriton.
- 8:18And he's like,
- 8:18I don't understand the relationship between these four people.
- 8:21SPEAKER_02: There's also a maid named Zilla.
- 8:22SPEAKER_02: He doesn't get it.
- 8:23SPEAKER_02: They're all absolutely miserable.
- 8:26like beating each other in front of him they don't offer him
- 8:29tea they're rude and
- 8:31then he's snowed in and lockwood is like can you have send a
- 8:34boy to bring me home
- 8:35i'm gonna get lost and heathcliff is like absolutely not we
- 8:38can't spare the men
- 8:39yeah but turns out he doesn't really have that many men but
- 8:41it's not because he's
- 8:42poor it's just because he's a cheapo and so lockwood is like
- 8:45well then fine i have
- 8:46SPEAKER_02: to stay the night and heathcliff is like
- 8:48if you'll do you'll do he's basically like sleep under a tree
- 8:51in the yard if for
- 8:52all i care yeah and then he lets him into a room which doesn't
- 8:56really make sense he
- 8:57lets him into the no that maid feels takes pity on him at zilla
- 9:01oh is he actually
- 9:01supposed to like sleep he's supposed to sleep in the yard
- 9:04literally because
- 9:06heathcliff doesn't trust because heathcliff's such a miserly
- 9:08old goat that he
- 9:10doesn't trust him to like even be in the kitchen by himself
- 9:13because he might steal
- 9:14SPEAKER_03: like plums or something and they have like pewter dishes
- 9:16yeah which are hard to put in your bag um but so he's like in
- 9:22like shivering on a
- 9:22chair and then zilla comes and takes pity on him and brings him
- 9:26up to this bedroom
- 9:27which has this interesting interior design which is like it's
- 9:31basically like a
- 9:32window seat but it's a bed and it's also a cupboard i was so
- 9:37confused in the 2012
- 9:39film version there's a good rendition of it and it's really
- 9:41cute okay like i would
- 9:42SPEAKER_02: have loved having a bed like this when i was a little girl can
- 9:44is it like a wood closure that was what was confusing yeah and
- 9:47it has like a wicket
- 9:49window which is also a big 19th century thing because it's like
- 9:52you can prop open a
- 9:53wicket but you don't get like the snow in because of the way
- 9:55the window opens okay
- 9:57so he hops into this little bed he's a little creeped out he
- 10:00picks up a book that
- 10:01he finds inside the wicket window thing and it is like like
- 10:05madeline's high school
- 10:06SPEAKER_02: version of weathering heights is scrawled all over with no it's
- 10:09SPEAKER_02: And the name Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Heathcliff, Catherine Linton.
- 10:13SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 10:13SPEAKER_02: And he's like, who are these people and why is it the same name?
- 10:15And then he notices those three sets of initials are carved in
- 10:19the window.
- 10:19And then he starts sleeping and having nightmares and like an
- 10:24icy girl's hand like
- 10:26SPEAKER_02: comes through the window.
- 10:27SPEAKER_02: He has visions.
- 10:29SPEAKER_02: He starts screaming in his sleep.
- 10:30SPEAKER_02: Heathcliff bursts in and like, what the hell are you doing in here?
- 10:33SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 10:33SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 10:34SPEAKER_02: And then Lockwood goes out of the room and then hears Heathcliff sobbing
- 10:40SPEAKER_02: inconsolably,
- 10:40SPEAKER_02: being like,
- 10:41SPEAKER_02: Kathy,
- 10:41SPEAKER_02: come visit me.
- 10:42SPEAKER_03: Come in, come in, like calling, summoning the ghost in.
- 10:45SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 10:46SPEAKER_03: And so then he goes back to Thrush Grange and goes to the maid there.
- 10:50SPEAKER_03: And I liked when he was like, I bet she's like all maids, a gossip.
- 10:54Yeah.
- 10:57yeah and Nellie is a gossip Nellie is a gossip and just tells
- 11:01him the whole story
- 11:02from beginning to end and in high high level like brief strokes
- 11:08basically the story
- 11:10is that there was this family called the Earnshaws and the dad
- 11:15goes into Liverpool
- 11:16one day he's supposed to come home with gifts for his two
- 11:18children Harriton is that
- 11:21SPEAKER_02: his name
- 11:22no hindley the son hindley sorry he comes home he's supposed to
- 11:27have gifts for
- 11:27hindley his son and his daughter katherine he brings them gifts
- 11:30but they're all
- 11:31messed up because also on the way home the dad decides to do
- 11:34what you do take in a
- 11:35SPEAKER_02: beggar child a beggar child
- 11:37With no name who doesn't really speak English,
- 11:39who's like dirty and like ambiguous.
- 11:42SPEAKER_02: Racially.
- 11:43SPEAKER_02: Racially.
- 11:44SPEAKER_02: And Hindley is instantly like, this sucks.
- 11:46SPEAKER_02: I'm jealous.
- 11:47SPEAKER_02: Catherine is instant.
- 11:49SPEAKER_02: Catherine at first is like, ew, and spits on him.
- 11:51SPEAKER_02: And then she's like, oh, wait, this is fun.
- 11:53SPEAKER_02: I love having a child in the house.
- 11:55and then they name him Heathcliff and basically he grows up on
- 11:58the margins of this
- 11:59family and Catherine and Heathcliff have this close intense
- 12:03bond and Hindley's
- 12:05jealous always and the dad is has like a Christian spirit
- 12:08towards Heathcliff and
- 12:09wants to you know his wants his family to treat him well and
- 12:14basically long story
- 12:15short the dad dies Hindley takes over abuses Heathcliff
- 12:19horribly turns into a slave
- 12:21SPEAKER_02: of the family essentially yeah Catherine what I love about
- 12:24weathering heights is that no character is good yeah they're
- 12:27all really complicated
- 12:28well yeah i think it was arguable that kathy's actually the
- 12:32worst she's pretty bad
- 12:35she's yeah the least redeeming yeah but i think she's redeemed
- 12:38in the second volume
- 12:40where her daughter katherine kind of inherits this generation
- 12:44of trauma and
- 12:45So basically like it's so complicated but the great betrayal is
- 12:50that Kathy ends up
- 12:52SPEAKER_02: marrying a neighboring guy who lives at Thrushcross Grange.
- 12:56Who's like rich and blonde and beautiful even though she's been
- 12:58in love with
- 12:59Heathcliff like since like they were like grew up basically in
- 13:02love with each
- 13:02SPEAKER_03: other.
- 13:03The other complicated thing about the story is,
- 13:04of course,
- 13:05like the incest.
- 13:06SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I know.
- 13:07SPEAKER_03: But it's sort of like we can't touch it.
- 13:09SPEAKER_02: We can't touch it.
- 13:10SPEAKER_02: And like if you're marrying your cousin,
- 13:12SPEAKER_02: it's not that weird to be in love with your surrogate brother.
- 13:14SPEAKER_03: Also, like there's I mean, and I really can't stress this enough.
- 13:21SPEAKER_03: No one else.
- 13:24SPEAKER_03: In the world.
- 13:25SPEAKER_03: The world.
- 13:25SPEAKER_03: They're so isolated.
- 13:26SPEAKER_03: There are these two houses,
- 13:28SPEAKER_03: and then you abstractly hear that there's a village not that far,
- 13:32SPEAKER_03: but there is no interaction with it at all.
- 13:35SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
- 13:35SPEAKER_02: especially there's servant boys who come and get a pail of milk,
- 13:39SPEAKER_02: but they're not boys you marry.
- 13:41SPEAKER_02: It's in that type of class.
- 13:44SPEAKER_02: Also,
- 13:44SPEAKER_02: their class is really interesting because...
- 13:46SPEAKER_02: And I actually think that Emerald Fennel describes it kind of well,
- 13:51SPEAKER_02: where it's like...
- 13:53SPEAKER_02: I mean,
- 13:53SPEAKER_02: this isn't even true in the book,
- 13:54SPEAKER_02: but it's kind of true in the book,
- 13:55SPEAKER_02: which is like in the movie,
- 13:56SPEAKER_02: the Lintons are rich from textiles and the Earnshaws are rich from land.
- 14:03SPEAKER_02: And so it's just very different types of wealth,
- 14:05SPEAKER_02: but they're both kind of in this sort of like upper middle class.
- 14:08yeah i think emerald fennel is kind of enjoying like having the
- 14:12withering heights
- 14:13house be this like kind of thing that would only exist in
- 14:17england which is like
- 14:18very old family very proud like they have the stone above the
- 14:22door that says that
- 14:23the house was built in 1513 or whatever but no money and then
- 14:28the kind of like
- 14:30SPEAKER_03: intrusion of wealth and like the purchase of
- 14:33an old thrush of an old house by this wealthy family which is
- 14:36like actually not in
- 14:37the book no I mean yeah already living there yeah but they're
- 14:41so isolated that even
- 14:42their closest neighbor they never see yeah but basically the
- 14:46way that Kathy gets
- 14:47like swept into the the Linton family is that she and
- 14:50Heathcliff are playing and
- 14:52SPEAKER_02: they're like looking in the windows of Thrushcross and
- 14:54And then the family sees them and gets scared because they
- 14:57don't understand who it
- 14:59SPEAKER_02: is looking in the window because they live in the middle of nowhere.
- 15:01SPEAKER_02: And Kathy and Heathcliff run off.
- 15:03SPEAKER_02: The dogs are sent after them.
- 15:05SPEAKER_02: One of the dogs bites Kathy and she gets hurt.
- 15:09SPEAKER_02: And Heathcliff is like banished instantly.
- 15:11SPEAKER_02: But they realize that Kathy is like the neighbor's girl.
- 15:13SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's a lot less dog attack.
- 15:15in the movie and yeah there's less dog attacks and less abuse
- 15:20of dogs yeah which
- 15:21apparently emily bronte had a weird relationship with her dog
- 15:24whose name is keeper
- 15:25what did she she like abused keeper but like loved keeper like
- 15:29classic stuff yeah
- 15:30SPEAKER_02: um
- 15:31So then Kathy marries Edgar Heathcliff is pissed because he
- 15:35also overhears Kathy
- 15:36talking about it with Nellie and he only hears it's like tragic
- 15:40because he only
- 15:41hears what the worst part of what she says it would degrade me
- 15:44to marry Heathcliff
- 15:46SPEAKER_03: but I love him but he only hears it would degrade me to marry Heathcliff.
- 15:49SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 15:49SPEAKER_02: And she does this thing in the book that also is in the movie,
- 15:52SPEAKER_02: which is so moving where Nellie's like,
- 15:54SPEAKER_02: where is the obstacle?
- 15:55SPEAKER_02: And Kathy touches her heart and touches her head.
- 15:58SPEAKER_02: And she's like, it's in here, wherever the soul lives.
- 16:01SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 16:01SPEAKER_02: I just got chills doing that.
- 16:03SPEAKER_02: Wow.
- 16:04SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's so beautiful.
- 16:04beautiful so heathcliff runs off and disappears for years
- 16:08kathy's married to edgar
- 16:10basically heathcliff comes back looking hot as fuck and he's a
- 16:13gentleman now and
- 16:14he's rich and over the course of a couple of years he moves in
- 16:19with hindley his
- 16:19former abuser hindley has a gambling problem and he uses his
- 16:23money to basically
- 16:24SPEAKER_03: like own hindley's ass now
- 16:26yeah and ends up owning weathering heights hinley has a son
- 16:29named harriton earnshaw
- 16:30who will play a part later who like is raised like a normal
- 16:33child until he's two
- 16:34and then is basically left to be a wild dog never taught to
- 16:37read or write um is
- 16:39SPEAKER_02: treated like a brute and like not only by his own father but also then by
- 16:42SPEAKER_02: heathcliff who becomes his guardian basically right
- 16:45SPEAKER_02: And so and then when Heathcliff comes back all hot,
- 16:48SPEAKER_02: Kathy and Heathcliff,
- 16:50SPEAKER_02: they don't have an affair.
- 16:51SPEAKER_02: They just have like an emotional connection still.
- 16:53SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 16:54And then Kathy is pregnant and still having this intense
- 16:57relationship with
- 16:58SPEAKER_02: Heathcliff,
- 16:59SPEAKER_02: not sexual,
- 17:00SPEAKER_02: not consummated.
- 17:00SPEAKER_02: Nothing's consummated.
- 17:01SPEAKER_02: It's a 19th century novel.
- 17:03And like the relationship to pregnancy is super interesting
- 17:06because like you don't
- 17:07SPEAKER_02: find out she's pregnant until she's giving birth.
- 17:10SPEAKER_02: Which is the same thing that happens with Heathcliff and Isabella,
- 17:13who is Edgar's sister and who he basically marries out of spite
- 17:17and knocks her up.
- 17:18And basically Isabella disappears with the baby and Kathy dies
- 17:22giving birth to
- 17:23SPEAKER_02: Catherine,
- 17:24SPEAKER_02: the baby.
- 17:25SPEAKER_02: And Isabella has a son named Linton Heathcliff.
- 17:29SPEAKER_02: It's like impossible.
- 17:30SPEAKER_00: You got that right.
- 17:33SPEAKER_02: And then in part two,
- 17:35you see the way that Heathcliff and Edgar are still basically
- 17:38competing for Kathy's
- 17:40legacy via arranged marriage between Linton Heathcliff and
- 17:44Catherine Linton.
- 17:45SPEAKER_02: And...
- 17:48it all and then ultimately Linton Heathcliff dies and it's all
- 17:54Heathcliff trying to
- 17:55like collect all the land yeah basically like Heathcliff is
- 17:59just trying to like
- 18:00like he's trying to keep Harriton Earnshaw like stupid because
- 18:03he doesn't want him
- 18:04to like make his way in the world or realize that he's been
- 18:07thieved horribly yeah
- 18:09SPEAKER_03: and like all of the he's just so cruel and conniving but
- 18:12But basically something that's interesting as you're recounting
- 18:17the plot of the
- 18:18SPEAKER_03: book is like,
- 18:19I'm thinking about what Emerald Fennell did in order to
- 18:22basically collapse the two
- 18:23SPEAKER_03: volumes into this one narrative.
- 18:27And she combined the character traits of Catherine Linton and
- 18:32Catherine Earnshaw and
- 18:35Like in this way that makes Catherine Earnshaw more redeemable
- 18:41than I think she is
- 18:42SPEAKER_03: as a character in the book.
- 18:44SPEAKER_02: And are you the quality more sympathetic?
- 18:47SPEAKER_02: Do you think the quality she gets from Catherine Linton are like...
- 18:50i mean katherine linton is complicated too but she ultimately
- 18:53like is redeemable
- 18:54well because katherine earnshaw her like cynicism and
- 18:59monstrosity like ends up
- 19:02hurting everyone and she can't like turn it off and reach like
- 19:07the vulnerability
- 19:08SPEAKER_03: underneath
- 19:09Catherine Linton the daughter does I think she like has this
- 19:14cruel streak but she
- 19:16underneath it and that's why like Nellie always describes her
- 19:20as like actually very
- 19:21sweet and like well and like she's she's like she has enough of
- 19:25Edgar in her that
- 19:26SPEAKER_03: she's like also a sweet girl and she sacrifices herself basically yeah
- 19:31yeah she like she does believe that her cousin is good and that
- 19:35she should marry
- 19:35him and feels a sense of duty but then what Nellie says is like
- 19:40because when
- 19:41Catherine Linton after her husband dies she's just like hates
- 19:44Heathcliff and she
- 19:45hates Harriton and Nellie is like like everybody in this family
- 19:48she has a way of
- 19:49SPEAKER_02: taking pleasure in other people's suffering yeah
- 19:51And but yet through Nellie's guidance,
- 19:54she teaches Harriton to read and they fall in love.
- 19:56And so like the love of Heathcliff and Kathy is revived in the
- 20:00love of Kathy and
- 20:01SPEAKER_02: Catherine and Heathcliff.
- 20:03SPEAKER_02: Sorry, Harriton.
- 20:05SPEAKER_02: But also what I have to say once Heathcliff is completely removed.
- 20:10yeah what i have to say is that is justice for nelly like
- 20:15justice for nelly this is
- 20:17this is such an important part of the book which is that the
- 20:20entire thing is a
- 20:22narrated memory of the maid told to lockwood lockwood very very
- 20:27vaguely does engage
- 20:29with the current world of weathering heights like he goes over
- 20:32there and gets sick
- 20:33and then he goes back when he's well and sees the love of
- 20:36catherine and heriton
- 20:38but he at the very end did you get to this part in rereading
- 20:40where I finished it do
- 20:42you remember this part then where like basically he goes around
- 20:45the front of
- 20:45Wuthering Heights and he sees Harriton and Catherine like
- 20:48kissing and he's like oh
- 20:49my god and then he goes he doesn't want to interrupt them
- 20:51because he's like if I
- 20:52was Harriton I'd be pissed if I was interrupted so then he goes
- 20:55to the back of the
- 20:56house to the kitchen and Nellie tells him what's been happening
- 21:00and then Nellie's
- 21:00SPEAKER_02: like all right do you want to come say hi to Harriton and Catherine and
- 21:04Lockwood says no and Nellie's like well that's really rude but
- 21:07he's he's like
- 21:08jealous in part because he got a crush on yeah but I also think
- 21:12like he he's like
- 21:14us so he can't engage like he can't actually be a part of the
- 21:17story he has to hear
- 21:18it do you know what I mean yeah can't really interact with them
- 21:21which is also like
- 21:23in the movie i actually thought nelly's character was kind of i
- 21:26think if it's like
- 21:27in if you know you know situation where like basically
- 21:30katherine earnshaw gets mad
- 21:32at nelly for like taking pleasure in her suffering and i think
- 21:35there's a few points
- 21:36in the book where nelly is like well basically there's this
- 21:39quote at the end of the
- 21:40SPEAKER_02: book um which if you just please hold i'll pull it up for you holding
- 21:48SPEAKER_02: I'm finding it.
- 21:50SPEAKER_02: I thought this was so interesting.
- 21:53SPEAKER_02: Basically, this is Nellie talking.
- 21:58SPEAKER_02: I seated myself in a chair and rock to and fro,
- 22:01SPEAKER_02: passing harsh judgment on my many derelictions of duty,
- 22:04SPEAKER_02: from which it struck me then,
- 22:06SPEAKER_02: all the misfortunes of all my employers sprang.
- 22:09SPEAKER_02: It was not the case in reality,
- 22:11SPEAKER_02: I am aware,
- 22:11SPEAKER_02: but it was in my imagination that dismal night,
- 22:14SPEAKER_02: and I thought Heathcliff himself less guilty than I.
- 22:18oh isn't that interesting again i just got chills like there's
- 22:21a way that nelly is
- 22:23well she does manipulate the story a lot yeah like i think if
- 22:27there's a bronte
- 22:28stand in it's nelly for sure yeah because she's like on the
- 22:31margins of the world
- 22:33it's in her imagination and like the movie does get right that
- 22:37like when catherine
- 22:38earnshaw is sick like nelly is the one kind of like controlling
- 22:42the narrative yeah
- 22:43SPEAKER_02: because she communicates between catherine and edgar yeah and he goes
- 22:47SPEAKER_02: The other thing is also like Nellie grows up with them.
- 22:49SPEAKER_02: She's the fourth.
- 22:50SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 22:51SPEAKER_02: And so there's like this child labor thing that they never grow out of.
- 22:56SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 22:57SPEAKER_02: It's really interesting.
- 22:58SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 22:59SPEAKER_02: I love Nellie.
- 23:00SPEAKER_02: So I thought Nellie's character was well developed in Emerald.
- 23:03It's such a crazy thing that like obviously doesn't ever happen
- 23:06anymore where
- 23:07people like grow up in a house with child servants who then
- 23:10like grow into their
- 23:10SPEAKER_03: servants and they have to like.
- 23:13SPEAKER_03: I think it might be happening some places.
- 23:14SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 23:15SPEAKER_03: I mean, not yet, but I just mean in like... It didn't happen to us.
- 23:19SPEAKER_03: Yeah, all of my servants were adults.
- 23:22SPEAKER_02: I mean, like my teenage babysitters sort of grew up with me.
- 23:24SPEAKER_02: That's true.
- 23:25SPEAKER_02: You know?
- 23:26SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 23:28So there's a movie version of this amazing,
- 23:31spectacular,
- 23:32complicated story.
- 23:34SPEAKER_02: And the movie...
- 23:37SPEAKER_03: Okay, I want to defend the movie for a second.
- 23:39SPEAKER_03: I didn't like it.
- 23:40SPEAKER_03: I see what she wanted to do.
- 23:43SPEAKER_02: What do you think she wanted to do?
- 23:45SPEAKER_03: Because I do think,
- 23:46SPEAKER_03: like,
- 23:46SPEAKER_03: rereading this,
- 23:47SPEAKER_03: it's like,
- 23:47SPEAKER_03: I really did enjoy it,
- 23:48SPEAKER_03: and I remember enjoying it in high school,
- 23:50SPEAKER_03: although,
- 23:50SPEAKER_03: like,
- 23:51SPEAKER_03: I don't think I ever,
- 23:51SPEAKER_03: it was,
- 23:52SPEAKER_03: like,
- 23:52SPEAKER_03: so important to me,
- 23:53SPEAKER_03: maybe,
- 23:54SPEAKER_03: in the way it was to some other people.
- 23:55SPEAKER_03: But...
- 23:59SPEAKER_03: it is sort of like a teenage fantasy.
- 24:02Like it feels like it was written by a very young woman and it
- 24:05has like a bit of a
- 24:06SPEAKER_03: fairy tale about it.
- 24:08And there were points at which I was like,
- 24:11this is a bit gratuitous in the read.
- 24:13SPEAKER_03: So I think Emerald Fennell captured that aspect of it.
- 24:17I just think she like only captured that aspect of it and like
- 24:22didn't capture any
- 24:24SPEAKER_03: of the kind of like,
- 24:29I mean,
- 24:29it's just the least subtle interpretation I've ever seen of
- 24:32anything.
- 24:33SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 24:33SPEAKER_02: And,
- 24:34SPEAKER_02: you know,
- 24:34the last time we did a major reread plus watch of the
- 24:39contemporary adaptation was
- 24:40SPEAKER_02: Frankenstein.
- 24:41And I was thinking about that while watching where like a
- 24:44common ground is that a
- 24:45very complex family history is compressed into something far
- 24:49more intelligible to
- 24:50SPEAKER_03: modern audiences.
- 24:50SPEAKER_03: You cannot make a movie with as many characters as are in this book.
- 24:55SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
- 24:57SPEAKER_03: But I'm like,
- 24:58SPEAKER_03: I think that...
- 24:58SPEAKER_03: So I actually think that part was effective,
- 25:00like compressing the second half of the book basically into the
- 25:02first part of the
- 25:03SPEAKER_02: movie.
- 25:03Which is what Andrea Arnold also does in the 2012 adaptation,
- 25:06which is far more faithful.
- 25:08SPEAKER_03: Okay.
- 25:08SPEAKER_02: And so in that way, I get it.
- 25:10SPEAKER_02: Like nobody needs to do part two.
- 25:11SPEAKER_02: I can let go of that.
- 25:13SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 25:13SPEAKER_02: I can try to let go of that.
- 25:15SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 25:16SPEAKER_02: But I guess like I...
- 25:18do think it would be nice to like hint at the possibility of
- 25:23that part too like i
- 25:25think that like hindley should have been a character yeah um
- 25:28and i didn't you know
- 25:29what i really didn't like when katherine names heathcliff and
- 25:33she's like daddy i'm
- 25:34SPEAKER_02: naming him after my brother
- 25:36yeah i'm like what the hell like it's actually cooler for him
- 25:40not to be named after
- 25:40your dead brother because heathcliff is like not a name it's
- 25:44like a constant it's a
- 25:45landscape yeah like he is the land itself yeah what do you
- 25:49think i couldn't tell if
- 25:50i thought the relationship to nature was well articulated in
- 25:53the emerald fennel
- 25:55SPEAKER_02: Because I think it's really well done in the Andrea Arnold.
- 25:58SPEAKER_02: Because there's like this,
- 25:59these amazing scenes of the children versions of Heathcliff and
- 26:02Catherine,
- 26:02SPEAKER_02: like in the moors,
- 26:03SPEAKER_02: like in the mud,
- 26:05SPEAKER_02: doing disgusting things,
- 26:07SPEAKER_02: like rolling around.
- 26:08SPEAKER_02: I loved it.
- 26:09SPEAKER_03: I mean, their first like sexual contact is in... The barn?
- 26:15SPEAKER_03: No, in the moors.
- 26:16I mean,
- 26:16like there's the moment in the barn,
- 26:17but then when she's like jerking off in the rocks.
- 26:20SPEAKER_03: Did you like that when she was jerking off in the rocks?
- 26:22SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I loved when she was jerking off in the rocks.
- 26:25SPEAKER_03: No, I mean, that's what I'm saying.
- 26:26SPEAKER_03: Like, there was no subtlety.
- 26:28Like,
- 26:29there was no,
- 26:30like,
- 26:30suggestion that the landscape was,
- 26:32like,
- 26:32part of their relationship.
- 26:34SPEAKER_03: It was, like, quite explicitly she was, like, jerking off on the rocks.
- 26:38SPEAKER_02: And he, like, then licks her fingers.
- 26:40SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 26:40SPEAKER_03: To put it bluntly.
- 26:41SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 26:42SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 26:42Whereas in,
- 26:42like,
- 26:43in the Andrea Arnold version,
- 26:45like,
- 26:45it's not consummated.
- 26:46But you get the sexual tension and the love between Heathcliff
- 26:50and Catherine.
- 26:50SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 26:51SPEAKER_02: And I think in some ways I'm like,
- 26:53SPEAKER_02: yeah,
- 26:53SPEAKER_02: it actually is like everyone reading this is like,
- 26:55SPEAKER_02: I wonder what it would be like if they had sex.
- 26:57SPEAKER_02: So it's like, cool.
- 26:58SPEAKER_02: We can see two really attractive people doing it.
- 27:01well it's also i think there's something interesting about
- 27:03emerald fennel's
- 27:04sexuality yeah what the hell is going on there like because
- 27:08there's also the
- 27:09bathtub scene in saltburn like she has like aestheticized
- 27:12sexuality so much that
- 27:14it's actually not sexual like it's so removed i mean have you
- 27:20seen promising young
- 27:21SPEAKER_03: woman no
- 27:23SPEAKER_03: That's one where they murder rapists.
- 27:25SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 27:26SPEAKER_02: I mean,
- 27:26the entire plot device of Promising Young Woman is that Carrie
- 27:31Mulligan plays a
- 27:32SPEAKER_02: woman who,
- 27:33SPEAKER_02: after suffering this insane trauma,
- 27:35does this basically a game with herself where she goes to a bar
- 27:39and she pretends to
- 27:40SPEAKER_02: get really drunk,
- 27:41SPEAKER_02: waits till a bad guy decides to take her home,
- 27:44SPEAKER_02: lets him kind of fool around with her sort of unconscious body,
- 27:47SPEAKER_02: and then wakes up sober and goes,
- 27:49SPEAKER_02: what are you doing?
- 27:51completely sober when he thinks that he's about to get to like
- 27:54assault someone
- 27:54who's unconscious yeah and that's the device and i feel like
- 27:58there's a lot about
- 27:58like voyeurism yeah and confrontation that's in all of these
- 28:03movies and yeah i
- 28:04don't get it it's not i'm just like well explored thinking
- 28:07about like there's a
- 28:09scene where they're like kind of hooking up and then it cuts to
- 28:12like a slug on a
- 28:14SPEAKER_03: window yeah and i'm just like
- 28:18SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
- 28:18It's so,
- 28:18it's almost like porn or something where it's like,
- 28:22it's only visual.
- 28:24SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 28:24SPEAKER_02: Well, like the eggs too.
- 28:25SPEAKER_02: The eggs.
- 28:26SPEAKER_02: Because there's this like major plot point of eggs in a bed,
- 28:29SPEAKER_02: like cracked raw eggs and like the way that the yolks get.
- 28:33SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 28:35But it's like,
- 28:35it's,
- 28:36that felt so different to me than like the peach scene in.
- 28:40SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
- 28:40SPEAKER_03: What's it called?
- 28:41SPEAKER_02: Call Me By Your Name.
- 28:42SPEAKER_02: Call Me By Your Name is also a really good title for other guys.
- 28:44SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 28:48SPEAKER_03: Oh, God, it is.
- 28:49SPEAKER_02: Yeah,
- 28:49SPEAKER_02: because I think,
- 28:50SPEAKER_02: like,
- 28:50SPEAKER_02: in the peach scene and,
- 28:51SPEAKER_02: like,
- 28:51SPEAKER_02: in more subtle,
- 28:52SPEAKER_02: sophisticated sexual content,
- 28:55SPEAKER_02: you...
- 28:57are you see something that's revolting and you were like why is
- 28:59this actually
- 29:00turning me on yeah whereas in all of emerald fennel's work
- 29:04you're like no you're
- 29:05making me want to like go to the nunnery put the chastity belt
- 29:08on and like close my
- 29:10eyes forever yeah you know it's sort of like i mean this is so
- 29:13mean to emerald
- 29:14fennel but it's sort of like when the real housewives get like
- 29:16really bawdy and i'm
- 29:17SPEAKER_03: like
- 29:19SPEAKER_03: I don't believe you.
- 29:22SPEAKER_03: Like, I don't know what you're doing.
- 29:24SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 29:26SPEAKER_02: I mean, part of what I was also thinking about.
- 29:28So this film was produced by Margot Robbie,
- 29:31who stars as Catherine Earnshaw.
- 29:34SPEAKER_02: And I was thinking,
- 29:36SPEAKER_02: I was trying to imagine what their conversations would be being like,
- 29:39SPEAKER_02: yeah,
- 29:39SPEAKER_02: I really want to play Catherine.
- 29:41SPEAKER_02: And I don't.
- 29:42SPEAKER_02: Should we discuss the casting?
- 29:43SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 29:44SPEAKER_02: Okay.
- 29:45SPEAKER_02: So what were your thoughts on Margot?
- 29:47SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 29:47well i thought she was terrible in the role or i thought she
- 29:50was terrible for the
- 29:51role i don't think she was terrible for the role i think she
- 29:53played it actually
- 29:54pretty well yeah but she was she's too old she's too old the
- 30:00whole i mean the other
- 30:01like thing is that emily bronte died at the age of 29 and so
- 30:06and like in the book
- 30:07edgar dies at 39 like this whole edgar dies at 39 after there's
- 30:11two generations of
- 30:12SPEAKER_03: these
- 30:13like twisted love stories like Catherine Earnshaw dies at 29
- 30:18and I know Margot
- 30:20Robbie claims to be 35 to be 35 but there is absolutely no
- 30:25fucking way yeah should
- 30:26we just okay so I don't I don't want to be ageist and I'm like
- 30:29if Hollywood and the
- 30:31patriarchy made Margot Robbie feel the need to lie about her
- 30:34age I shouldn't be
- 30:34SPEAKER_02: publicly shaming her for it but well you're lying about your age and
- 30:39SPEAKER_02: Well, I have receipts to back that up.
- 30:41SPEAKER_02: Do you?
- 30:42I have access to interviews with her from like 2005 in
- 30:47Australia saying I'm 23 years old.
- 30:49And then I have access to interviews with her in the United
- 30:52States in 2016 being
- 30:53SPEAKER_02: like,
- 30:53SPEAKER_02: I'm 25 years old.
- 30:53SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's not adding up.
- 31:00um i also just think like and i i've said this too and i was
- 31:04gonna write a
- 31:04newsletter about it that's gonna come out on thursday also but
- 31:07like even if she was
- 31:09like i think there are 35 year olds or 45 year olds who could
- 31:12have played the role
- 31:15still i also just think she's wrong like kathy is feral yeah
- 31:20like she's an animal
- 31:22And like Margot Robbie plays female characters who have an
- 31:25animal side like I,
- 31:26SPEAKER_02: Tonya and Barbie.
- 31:28SPEAKER_02: No, I'm just kidding.
- 31:28SPEAKER_02: Not Barbie.
- 31:29SPEAKER_02: But like she was in Mary Queen of Scots.
- 31:31SPEAKER_02: Like I guess she does, but I never find it that convincing.
- 31:34SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 31:34Like I read this interview with her years ago where she talks
- 31:36about how she like
- 31:37SPEAKER_02: always channels a different animal for each character.
- 31:39SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 31:40and like i tanya was like a a badger or something which i'm
- 31:44like yeah you look like
- 31:46a badger when you're playing that sure your hair was so messy
- 31:48it's just like but
- 31:49she's too prettified like because emerald and margo are
- 31:52unwilling to let go because
- 31:53i think emerald actually is unwilling to let go of the like
- 31:56aesthetics of her
- 31:57universe and so if i also think that like wuthering heights was
- 32:00way too stylized
- 32:01like well yeah it was insane i mean i feel like we'll get to
- 32:04that but let's finish
- 32:05SPEAKER_03: the casting conversation because i have a lot to say about that
- 32:07SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I just thought she was weird for the part.
- 32:11SPEAKER_02: Yeah, who would you have cast?
- 32:12SPEAKER_02: Did we discuss this?
- 32:14I actually think Amanda Seyfried,
- 32:15though not the right age,
- 32:16would have been really good.
- 32:17SPEAKER_03: She would have been good.
- 32:18SPEAKER_03: I feel like Saoirse Ronan actually could have been really good.
- 32:21SPEAKER_03: Who else?
- 32:24I was kind of listening to the soundtrack being like,
- 32:27Charlie XCX could have done it.
- 32:28SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 32:29SPEAKER_03: She's wild.
- 32:30SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 32:31SPEAKER_03: Though I don't know if she has enough pathos.
- 32:33SPEAKER_03: Well, people are loving her movie, so I don't know.
- 32:35SPEAKER_03: Maybe there's more there.
- 32:37SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 32:39I think like a really unexpected casting like Charlie XCX or
- 32:41someone completely
- 32:42SPEAKER_02: unheard of would have been cool.
- 32:44SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 32:44SPEAKER_03: I'm just like...
- 32:47she's yeah she just wasn't right and i just feel like it was
- 32:50all marketing like
- 32:51yeah it's because people think margot robbie's hot and people
- 32:53think jacob belordi
- 32:54is hot he is hot i think he was much better cast he was good he
- 32:59was good and
- 33:00emerald fennel chose him because when she was making salt burn
- 33:02with him she in one
- 33:04scene she realized that he looked just like the illustration of
- 33:07heathcliff in her
- 33:08SPEAKER_02: childhood version of weathering heights and i was like okay okay yeah
- 33:11SPEAKER_02: I mean, he is like the perfect man.
- 33:14SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 33:15SPEAKER_02: Except I will say his limbs are so freakishly long.
- 33:17SPEAKER_02: And when he's riding a horse, I was really distracted.
- 33:20SPEAKER_03: He did look like a chicken flapping its wings trying to fly.
- 33:22Him riding a horse was like me standing on a horse flapping my
- 33:25wings trying to fly.
- 33:27SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was a bit intense.
- 33:29SPEAKER_02: But he was so hot.
- 33:31SPEAKER_02: But it wasn't sexy.
- 33:32SPEAKER_02: I just was like, what a beautiful specimen of man.
- 33:35SPEAKER_02: That was my take.
- 33:36SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 33:36SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 33:38SPEAKER_03: I was not attracted to him.
- 33:40SPEAKER_03: I'm going to be honest.
- 33:42I've like never really understood like what it means to have a
- 33:45celebrity crush or
- 33:46SPEAKER_02: like,
- 33:46I feel like sometimes I'm watching a movie and I feel a flutter
- 33:49of something.
- 33:51SPEAKER_03: I did not feel that.
- 33:52SPEAKER_02: PQs.
- 33:52SPEAKER_02: Do you know what that means?
- 33:53SPEAKER_02: No, it's that.
- 33:54SPEAKER_02: You're not going to like it.
- 33:55SPEAKER_02: Pussy quivers.
- 33:57SPEAKER_02: I heard that on Love Thy Nader, the show about Brooks Nader.
- 34:00SPEAKER_03: That is horrible.
- 34:01SPEAKER_02: PQs.
- 34:02SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I didn't get any PQs.
- 34:05SPEAKER_02: I just had like chills in a bad way.
- 34:08SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 34:08SPEAKER_03: I was like skewed out.
- 34:10SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 34:11SPEAKER_02: And that's just unfortunate because like when two beautiful,
- 34:13SPEAKER_02: I guess I was like recently I've been,
- 34:15SPEAKER_02: we've talked about this,
- 34:16like actors deserve to be paid as well as they are because what
- 34:20they're doing is
- 34:21SPEAKER_02: the most embarrassing job on earth.
- 34:22SPEAKER_02: Insane.
- 34:23And I,
- 34:23when I was watching the film yesterday,
- 34:25judging it,
- 34:26I was like,
- 34:26I couldn't do that.
- 34:27SPEAKER_03: Like,
- 34:27SPEAKER_03: There's just no way.
- 34:29SPEAKER_03: No.
- 34:29SPEAKER_03: I mean, and like that was like actually pretty tame.
- 34:31Like I would literally rather be a garbage man than like play
- 34:34aqua woman and like
- 34:35SPEAKER_03: spend six weeks suspended in the air,
- 34:37SPEAKER_03: like pretending to cry about like being broken up with.
- 34:41SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 34:43The thing about like when I think about being suspended from a
- 34:46harness dressed as
- 34:46SPEAKER_02: aqua woman,
- 34:47SPEAKER_02: I'm like,
- 34:47SPEAKER_02: well,
- 34:48SPEAKER_02: with my figure,
- 34:49SPEAKER_02: it's just not a great idea.
- 34:50SPEAKER_02: But I'm like, probably every woman feels as insecure as I do.
- 34:53SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 34:53SPEAKER_02: It just probably feels horrible.
- 34:55SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 34:55SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 34:56SPEAKER_02: Like no one should have to see that.
- 34:57SPEAKER_03: And you've been like starving yourself to be able to do that.
- 35:00SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 35:01SPEAKER_03: So you're like weak in the head.
- 35:02SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 35:03SPEAKER_03: There's just no reason.
- 35:04SPEAKER_03: But I guess I enjoy the movie.
- 35:06SPEAKER_03: So.
- 35:07SPEAKER_02: So the thing about.
- 35:08SPEAKER_02: I'm glad someone's willing to humiliate themselves.
- 35:10SPEAKER_02: I'm really grateful.
- 35:11SPEAKER_02: In these days, that's all we have.
- 35:12So the other thing about Heathcliff in the book is that he's
- 35:15described as racially ambiguous.
- 35:17SPEAKER_02: And Jacob Lorty is a white Australian man.
- 35:19SPEAKER_03: And Margot Robbie is a white Australian woman.
- 35:21I mean,
- 35:21I feel like we should also address the Australian elephant in
- 35:24the room.
- 35:24SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 35:27which is that emerald fennel is so like posh and british that
- 35:30she was like oh these
- 35:31SPEAKER_03: people are like wild animals who live in the wilderness like australians
- 35:36unbelievable they're also like i don't know enough about like
- 35:39commonwealth accents
- 35:40to really understand what was happening with jacob alordi's
- 35:43voice but he was he was
- 35:45kind of playing english as if he was american but then i was
- 35:48remembering that he's
- 35:48australian he was doing a and i didn't know if it was like a
- 35:51heathcliffism or if he
- 35:52SPEAKER_02: was like pretending if that's what he thinks yorkshire people sound like
- 35:55SPEAKER_03: I don't know what Yorkshire people sound like.
- 35:57SPEAKER_03: He was doing weird voices.
- 35:59He was also like had like a well in the book Heathcliff is
- 36:03often described as like growling.
- 36:05SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 36:05So I feel like maybe he was trying to do that but then he was
- 36:07just sort of speaking like softly.
- 36:10I mean I've met people from parts of England north of London
- 36:14and it is really a
- 36:15SPEAKER_02: different dialect.
- 36:17SPEAKER_03: I have two, but like Manchester, which I feel like is a bit more like.
- 36:21SPEAKER_03: It's intense.
- 36:22SPEAKER_03: It's intense.
- 36:22SPEAKER_03: But is that what Yorkshire sounds like?
- 36:24SPEAKER_02: I went to Yorkshire.
- 36:25SPEAKER_02: I went to York with my mom once.
- 36:27SPEAKER_02: Old York.
- 36:28SPEAKER_02: And we stayed at a convent.
- 36:29SPEAKER_02: It was awesome.
- 36:30SPEAKER_02: What did the nuns sound like?
- 36:31SPEAKER_02: Do an impression.
- 36:32SPEAKER_03: Gosh, they were just so happy we were there.
- 36:34SPEAKER_03: Gosh.
- 36:37SPEAKER_03: Um,
- 36:38SPEAKER_03: so yeah,
- 36:39the race of Heathcliff is also something I've been seeing a lot
- 36:41of discourse about.
- 36:44SPEAKER_03: Lots of people have lots of opinions.
- 36:45SPEAKER_03: It didn't offend me.
- 36:46SPEAKER_03: It didn't offend me either.
- 36:48SPEAKER_03: I,
- 36:48SPEAKER_03: I said to you and I'll say again,
- 36:51SPEAKER_03: like when I read a 19th century novel and someone is described as like,
- 36:56SPEAKER_03: which is how Heathcliff is described in the book,
- 36:58SPEAKER_03: he's described as like dark as a gypsy and like,
- 37:01SPEAKER_03: and I think she calls him like pretty black.
- 37:04Yeah.
- 37:05SPEAKER_02: She says, like, his dad was maybe a Chinese emperor.
- 37:08SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 37:09SPEAKER_02: She says a lot of things that are all conflicting and different.
- 37:12SPEAKER_02: That are all conflicting and different.
- 37:13Because also,
- 37:13what the hell did Emily Bronte know about any of these things?
- 37:16SPEAKER_03: Well, nothing, because she, like, never left her house.
- 37:18SPEAKER_03: But... But...
- 37:21SPEAKER_03: That's just what I said to Mabel initially is like,
- 37:24SPEAKER_03: I understand when you're reading that as a contemporary reader.
- 37:27And I think Bronte is leaving it more of an open question
- 37:29because Heathcliff's
- 37:30SPEAKER_03: parentage is unknown.
- 37:32But it is a really common thing for white people to be
- 37:34described in 19th century
- 37:36SPEAKER_03: novels as dark as a gypsy or pretty black.
- 37:40Those are descriptors that are used for white people with dark
- 37:45coloring who have a wild nature.
- 37:48SPEAKER_03: I'm not condoning this as a practice.
- 37:49SPEAKER_03: I'm just like...
- 37:51SPEAKER_03: When I read that as someone who reads a lot of 19th century fiction,
- 37:55SPEAKER_03: I don't like take it literally.
- 37:58yeah I mean it's like in Jane Eyre there's a far more like
- 38:03legible plot about
- 38:04someone of a different race which is that like Jane Eyre is a
- 38:08governess in a house
- 38:09where there turns out to be a secret wife locked in the attic
- 38:12who the man of the
- 38:14house married while he was like living in the Caribbean okay as
- 38:18a sugar planter so
- 38:20like and there's lots of scholarship on like who what that
- 38:23woman is like and who
- 38:24SPEAKER_02: she might be and what she represents um
- 38:28i don't know i'm just like there's a lot of i think that people
- 38:32who are into 19th
- 38:34century fiction get excited about these moments where you see
- 38:38or like can peek at a
- 38:39larger world and something that i was thinking about like right
- 38:43before i started
- 38:44rereading weathering heights i put down a book i had just
- 38:46started reading that my
- 38:47dad gave me which is a new historical non-fiction work called
- 38:51the zorg have you
- 38:52SPEAKER_02: heard about this no no
- 38:54which is about the slave ship where that like doing the
- 38:57transatlantic slave trade
- 38:59basically like an entire ship of slaves was murdered
- 39:03purposefully to like oh for
- 39:05insurance yeah and it and it's all about the liverpool that's
- 39:09what started there
- 39:10anti-slavery movement in England exactly and it's been like
- 39:13shrouded in all of this
- 39:14mythology and basically this historian like has done a more
- 39:19correct history that
- 39:20also like acknowledges the gaps it's really interesting I don't
- 39:22remember the name
- 39:22of the author but like it it does make sense and I was reading
- 39:27some of the like
- 39:27SPEAKER_02: racist stuff about Heathcliff like
- 39:29liver like they did live in this isolated world but they were
- 39:32close enough to
- 39:33liverpool which was like became had like people like indian
- 39:37people who worked on
- 39:38ships that were going back and forth to colonies and enslaved
- 39:41people yeah and the
- 39:42brutality even for english people like the way that they would
- 39:45get staff or like a
- 39:48crew for a slave ship was that they would work with the
- 39:51captains of ships would
- 39:52SPEAKER_02: work with gangs and go to pubs and find out who owed money to the pub
- 39:57owner and instead of putting those people in jail they would
- 40:00get those people to
- 40:01work the crew of a slave ship and your chances of survival its
- 40:05own sort of an
- 40:06indenture yeah like the horrible abuses that it creates like in
- 40:10every aspect of
- 40:11society is so poisonous it's also I learned a lot about like
- 40:15Liverpool's geography
- 40:16and docking system basically Liverpool like could not compete
- 40:19with London as a
- 40:20SPEAKER_02: place for like shipping because it had a really really shallow um
- 40:26like yeah what do you call it shore coastline and so they had
- 40:30to build these like
- 40:31huge docks anyway very interesting stuff fascinating which i
- 40:36know is not what we're
- 40:36talking about no it kind of is i mean i think it is because it
- 40:39was like a very apt
- 40:40SPEAKER_02: thing to read right before reading this yeah
- 40:43SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 40:43I just think like some of the discourse about the Heathcliff
- 40:47race thing was a
- 40:47SPEAKER_03: little like,
- 40:49SPEAKER_03: I don't,
- 40:49SPEAKER_03: I don't know that I think Jacob Elordi was the wrong casting.
- 40:52SPEAKER_03: I do think Margot Robbie was, you know.
- 40:55Also in the 2012 Andrea Arnold version of Wuthering Heights,
- 40:59Heathcliff is black.
- 41:00yeah and has like he shows up at Wuthering Heights with scars
- 41:03on his back from
- 41:04being whipped he's also branded on his back with someone yeah I
- 41:07was there was
- 41:07something bothering me about casting Jacob Elordi and then
- 41:10fetishizing like there
- 41:12that there were scars on his back that was a little like yeah
- 41:15that was yucky
- 41:16SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 41:16SPEAKER_02: But also like the Andrea Arnold,
- 41:17SPEAKER_02: like then in the movie,
- 41:20SPEAKER_02: the Hinsley like uses the N word all the time with Heathcliff.
- 41:23SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, that's not in the book.
- 41:25SPEAKER_02: And like, but I see it as an interesting interpretation.
- 41:27SPEAKER_02: And like,
- 41:28SPEAKER_02: honestly,
- 41:28if something like generates more empathy towards like people
- 41:32who are victimized by
- 41:32SPEAKER_02: the slave trade,
- 41:33SPEAKER_02: I'm like,
- 41:33SPEAKER_02: okay,
- 41:34SPEAKER_00: cool.
- 41:34SPEAKER_00: Like that is...
- 41:35a good take I think it's a realistic interpretation because
- 41:38like no matter how
- 41:40isolated and charming the Brontes were in their house like they
- 41:43were profiting off
- 41:44of slavery so it was everybody in England at the time so like
- 41:47if you want to put
- 41:48SPEAKER_02: slavery into the home of Wuthering Heights like more power to you yeah
- 41:52SPEAKER_03: OK,
- 41:52should we talk about the one other weird race thing in the
- 41:54Emerald Fennell version,
- 41:56SPEAKER_03: which is that so Heathcliff's rival,
- 41:58SPEAKER_03: Edgar Linton,
- 41:59is both emotionally and intellectually his rival in the sense
- 42:05that he's sort of a
- 42:06SPEAKER_03: soft,
- 42:06SPEAKER_03: rich boy as opposed to Heathcliff.
- 42:08But he's also described as physically his rival in the sense
- 42:11that he's like blonde
- 42:12SPEAKER_03: haired and blue eyed.
- 42:13SPEAKER_03: And for some reason,
- 42:14SPEAKER_03: despite casting Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff,
- 42:17SPEAKER_03: the racially ambiguous character,
- 42:20Emerald Fennell made the decision to cast a racially ambiguous
- 42:23person as Edgar
- 42:26SPEAKER_03: Linton.
- 42:26SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 42:28SPEAKER_03: Which again, I'm fine.
- 42:30I don't care about like correct race casting,
- 42:33but I was a little like,
- 42:35that's a cop out.
- 42:36SPEAKER_02: Here's the quote from the text.
- 42:38SPEAKER_02: Heathcliff says this to Nellie talking about Edgar.
- 42:41But Nelly,
- 42:42if I knocked him down 20 times,
- 42:43that wouldn't make him less handsome or me more so.
- 42:46I wish I had light hair and a fair skin and was dressed and
- 42:49behaved as well and had
- 42:50SPEAKER_02: a chance of being as rich as he will be.
- 42:53yeah so it's pretty clearly written out here and then Nellie's
- 42:57like you're so
- 42:58handsome Heathcliff actually because that's the thing they're
- 43:00like you're confusing
- 43:01looking but then she goes who knows but your father was emperor
- 43:04of China and your
- 43:05SPEAKER_02: mother an Indian queen each of them able to buy up with one week's income
- 43:08weathering heights and thrush cross grange together which is
- 43:11what happens like yeah
- 43:12it doesn't really matter what Heathcliff's origins are like he
- 43:15does he does the
- 43:16thing I guess I'm just like it feels like that choice of
- 43:19casting was her being like
- 43:21no it's not about race yeah and i'm i also and i would just
- 43:25like cast someone else
- 43:28as heathcliff i didn't think that guy was like amazing at being
- 43:31edgar he was like
- 43:32kind of a bitch yeah i think in the andrea arnold he's like the
- 43:37thinnest blonde guy
- 43:39which i thought was more accurate like in terms of like he's
- 43:41supposed to be really
- 43:42weak he's like shuddering also like he and heathcliff are
- 43:45childhood rivals in this
- 43:47SPEAKER_02: way that's like so important to the story yeah
- 43:50doesn't really work when he shows up when they're 40 years old
- 43:53he like has gray
- 43:54hair yeah there's like an amazing scene where young heathcliff
- 43:57throws gravy at
- 43:59young edgar it's like it's so awesome that's yeah that is a
- 44:03good scene i did think
- 44:05that the like isabella um casting was good yeah and like her
- 44:10but also she was also
- 44:11SPEAKER_03: too old
- 44:12she was i thought she was a bit more appropriately aged she in
- 44:15that she just read
- 44:16as like shuddering and like immature but did look like she was
- 44:20in her mid-30s also
- 44:23yeah i just think they couldn't cast an actual young person
- 44:25across from margot
- 44:26SPEAKER_02: robbie at that point also i know it would make it too intense yeah
- 44:30Okay,
- 44:30so should we talk about sort of the visual universe of
- 44:33Wuthering Heights,
- 44:34the movie?
- 44:35SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 44:35SPEAKER_03: I mean,
- 44:36I think that the thing that I am thinking about and sort of
- 44:39encapsulating the
- 44:41visual universe of the movie is the wedding night scene when
- 44:45Edgar is standing in
- 44:47SPEAKER_03: the mirror,
- 44:48SPEAKER_03: you know,
- 44:48SPEAKER_03: waiting for his new bride to appear and Margot Robbie appears in a clear,
- 44:54SPEAKER_03: glad trash bag.
- 44:55SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 44:57SPEAKER_03: It's like in Project Runway, unconventional materials challenge.
- 45:01SPEAKER_03: But the inspo is like 80s goatee.
- 45:03SPEAKER_03: She looks like an Easter basket.
- 45:06SPEAKER_03: It is like cellophane.
- 45:10SPEAKER_03: And it's just like, it all looked so cheap and gaudy.
- 45:16SPEAKER_03: And...
- 45:18SPEAKER_03: I think that there was so much plastic.
- 45:23And I think that's part of the reason there was such a problem
- 45:25incorporating the
- 45:26landscape is because she had over-aestheticized everything to
- 45:32such a degree that it
- 45:33SPEAKER_03: then doesn't really make it...
- 45:35SPEAKER_03: It undermines the beautiful shot of the moors.
- 45:39SPEAKER_00: You can't have that.
- 45:40SPEAKER_03: Justice for the moors.
- 45:41SPEAKER_03: Justice for the moors.
- 45:42SPEAKER_03: You can't have that in this pans labyrinth looking fish tank.
- 45:48SPEAKER_03: Like, I was just like, what the fuck is this?
- 45:50SPEAKER_03: I didn't like it.
- 45:51SPEAKER_03: The worst part was the skin room.
- 45:53SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 45:54Which is that basically the production team wanted Catherine
- 45:59Earnshaw's bedroom at
- 45:59SPEAKER_02: Thrust Cross Grange to be,
- 46:01SPEAKER_02: like,
- 46:02SPEAKER_02: as if she's enveloped in her own skin.
- 46:04SPEAKER_02: And then Edgar...
- 46:06is like do you like it i based it off your skin and it's like
- 46:09latex pink walls with
- 46:10like veins and freckles but it's also like so when you
- 46:13initially told me that i
- 46:14thought it was just like a production design decision i didn't
- 46:17know it was a plot
- 46:18point it was a plot point and like so i thought it would just
- 46:21like match her skin
- 46:22and be kind of like fleshy and she'd be like pressed up against
- 46:25it and it would
- 46:25just be like a little like yucky like flesh but it was like
- 46:28literally the veins
- 46:29SPEAKER_03: were painted onto the walls it was just like
- 46:31SPEAKER_03: She needs to stop herself short like one level of like association.
- 46:38SPEAKER_03: Do you know what I mean?
- 46:39SPEAKER_03: Like Emerald Fennell needs to pull herself out of being so explicit.
- 46:43SPEAKER_02: I mean,
- 46:43SPEAKER_02: I'm like,
- 46:44SPEAKER_02: if we had unlimited money and resources,
- 46:46SPEAKER_02: what would Mandy Line books look like?
- 46:48SPEAKER_02: I mean, maybe they would be incomprehensible.
- 46:50SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 46:50SPEAKER_02: So it's like,
- 46:51I feel really grateful that our art is limited by material
- 46:55constraints because we
- 46:57SPEAKER_02: are definitely producing more refined,
- 46:59SPEAKER_02: interesting work as a result.
- 47:01but i mean she just lacks subtlety yeah i also wait i do want
- 47:06to say back to
- 47:07frankenstein sorry but like jacob olorty playing in the course
- 47:10of one year the
- 47:11creature in frankenstein and then heathcliff is super
- 47:14interesting what do you think
- 47:15he's feeling psychologically coming off of that i kind of i i
- 47:18don't want to be like
- 47:19one of the other desperate girls online but i am like i would
- 47:21like to talk to him
- 47:22about that and i'd like for him to come on 1-800-1800 to talk
- 47:24to us about it
- 47:26because i think he would be delighted to come on i'm just
- 47:28curious too yeah i mean i
- 47:29know he's like a serious guy and he's a thoughtful person he's
- 47:32a reader he's a
- 47:32reader and those are really complicated but also similar
- 47:37characters to inhabit
- 47:39they're like the monsters of english society in the 19th
- 47:42century yeah the other and
- 47:46for that to all be housed in six foot five full of australian
- 47:49man is really
- 47:50SPEAKER_02: interesting i
- 47:51yeah like for the perfect guy to be made into you love jacob i
- 47:58like don't i didn't
- 47:59i mean obviously he's so high and if he was like standing in
- 48:03front of me i'm sure i
- 48:04would be like rendered like senseless but watching him on tv
- 48:08i'm like not really
- 48:09SPEAKER_03: moved
- 48:10i'm not usually moved i just i guess i'm also like he doesn't
- 48:14do it for me in
- 48:15euphoria he doesn't i've never seen you like but i think that i
- 48:19am like emerald
- 48:20fennel like i do like a period drama but also like i wasn't a
- 48:25again i was like this
- 48:26SPEAKER_02: isn't that hot like pride and prejudice with keira knightley hot like
- 48:31really hot i don't know like i'm trying to think of another one
- 48:33that's hot another
- 48:35period piece that i love but in pride and prejudice did they
- 48:37kiss like one time at
- 48:39the end yeah and you're like you've earned it it was just
- 48:41gratuitous sexuality as
- 48:42you said like also like yeah i was i went into this movie
- 48:46wanting to like it
- 48:46because people have been hating on it so hard and like wanting
- 48:49to be able to defend
- 48:50SPEAKER_03: it
- 48:50And even like through the first like half hour,
- 48:5345 minutes,
- 48:54I was like,
- 48:54I think I can do it.
- 48:56SPEAKER_03: I can do it.
- 48:56SPEAKER_03: Like, it's OK.
- 48:58SPEAKER_03: And then the sex started and it did not stop.
- 49:02SPEAKER_03: And I was like, I can't.
- 49:03SPEAKER_03: There's nothing I can say about this.
- 49:05SPEAKER_02: Then we were like checking the time.
- 49:07SPEAKER_02: We were checking the time.
- 49:08SPEAKER_03: I Googled the runtime during the movie, which is not a good sign.
- 49:12SPEAKER_02: No, like I never really liked that.
- 49:13SPEAKER_02: Like I'm, when I'm in it, I'm in it.
- 49:16SPEAKER_02: I don't know if it's because I am like that a lot.
- 49:18SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 49:18SPEAKER_02: But I was not that captivated.
- 49:20SPEAKER_02: And for me,
- 49:21that's really crazy because like we cried during the
- 49:23commercials before the movie,
- 49:24SPEAKER_02: but we didn't cry during the movie.
- 49:26SPEAKER_03: I cried during the commercial.
- 49:28I cried during a commercial for a movie about a woman who like
- 49:30goes to Italy.
- 49:31SPEAKER_03: The tagline of which was goes for the pasta gets lost in the sauce.
- 49:35SPEAKER_03: I cried during the commercial for that.
- 49:37SPEAKER_03: And didn't cry during Wuthering Heights.
- 49:39And it was also a moment in the preview for that film where the
- 49:43girl reveals that
- 49:44SPEAKER_02: she doesn't have a mother.
- 49:44Catherine Earnshaw doesn't have a mother,
- 49:46but like it didn't do it for me.
- 49:47SPEAKER_03: She was like, we're your family now.
- 49:49SPEAKER_03: And I was moved to tears.
- 49:51SPEAKER_02: I guess I do.
- 49:52SPEAKER_02: I did think it like captured...
- 49:54well what is so relevant to me about the book which is like
- 49:58what is it like to be a
- 49:59woman who's horrible like yeah who can't you know like when
- 50:02basically at the
- 50:03beginning of the movie when young Catherine like is having a
- 50:07absolute hysterical
- 50:08meltdown and her dad gets pissed at her and is like well and he
- 50:10gets too pissed at
- 50:11her like more than necessary but like I did that to my parents
- 50:13all the time and
- 50:14they were like well you don't deserve like that I'm not taking
- 50:16you out to breakfast
- 50:17SPEAKER_02: Mabel yeah and like the way that you feel when you know you've acted out
- 50:21horribly but you feel so bad for yourself like i did think that
- 50:25is the feeling of
- 50:26SPEAKER_02: weathering heights and that was in the movie yeah at least i was a pretty
- 50:30well-behaved kid lucinda if you want to call should we get your
- 50:37mom she'll tell you
- 50:38no she'll tell you my brother was the one who was a bit of
- 50:40trouble i guess once i
- 50:42had a brother i would do stuff like that because i would like
- 50:44torment him yeah but
- 50:45SPEAKER_03: when it was just me and my parents i never would do
- 50:48Yeah I mean I would have been perfect if I just had my parents
- 50:50but like when you
- 50:51have siblings and you're like you want to torture them and then
- 50:54your parents see
- 50:54you and you're like oh god that was so embarrassing like and I
- 50:58wish I hadn't acted
- 50:59SPEAKER_02: this way I mean I feel like that all the time.
- 51:00Yeah there's like a famous story where I punched my brother in
- 51:03the face and then
- 51:03SPEAKER_03: accused him of biting my hand.
- 51:07it's like the punishment did not match the crime um yeah i mean
- 51:12what i said to you
- 51:13is what i'll say again which is since this movie came out i was
- 51:17forced to and happy
- 51:19happy to do so to like re-engage with weathering heights reread
- 51:22it which was a
- 51:23delight like i devoured this book and i wouldn't have been
- 51:27rereading it yeah not
- 51:28for the movie so thank you for that emerald and margo and jacob
- 51:32thank you all
- 51:33um and it made me think about like what are the other like 19th
- 51:37century novels that
- 51:38you just like have to rip through you can't put them down yeah
- 51:43like i do think i
- 51:43was like i could do a little jane austen reread that sounds fun
- 51:46and you've never
- 51:47like read some of them right i haven't so i would love to do
- 51:50that with you okay and
- 51:52then we could watch the kira knightley we're watching we're
- 51:53reading pride of
- 51:54SPEAKER_02: prejudice um anything else
- 51:59SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I do feel like we gave short shrift to the set design.
- 52:02SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
- 52:02SPEAKER_03: Let's talk about that.
- 52:05um what did you think about it um i hated the houses i thought
- 52:10they were hideous
- 52:11and stupid that's the thing they like were ugly and cheap and
- 52:14it was another
- 52:15situation where like i wanted to like it and i understand i'm
- 52:17like the thing is i'm
- 52:19smart i understand what she was doing she was trying to make
- 52:22them like a like bawdy
- 52:2370s romance i just feel like there was a way to do that that
- 52:27was better like i
- 52:31SPEAKER_03: I'm not upset that she failed to achieve the 1820s or whatever.
- 52:35SPEAKER_03: I'm upset that she failed to achieve the kind of,
- 52:38SPEAKER_03: like,
- 52:38SPEAKER_03: Suspiria-type thing that she was trying to do.
- 52:41SPEAKER_02: Have you seen The Love Witch?
- 52:42SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 52:43SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like, that's better.
- 52:43SPEAKER_03: That's way better.
- 52:45SPEAKER_03: Like, that's what she was going for.
- 52:48SPEAKER_03: Like,
- 52:48SPEAKER_03: it was,
- 52:49SPEAKER_03: like,
- 52:49SPEAKER_03: totally,
- 52:49SPEAKER_03: like...
- 52:50SPEAKER_03: Yeah,
- 52:50SPEAKER_03: Suspiria is,
- 52:51SPEAKER_03: like,
- 52:51SPEAKER_03: probably one of her big references,
- 52:53SPEAKER_03: I would guess,
- 52:54SPEAKER_03: actually.
- 52:54SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 52:55SPEAKER_03: And, like, she just, like...
- 52:59like everything just looked like it was from Party City I guess
- 53:03it's like Emerald
- 53:04Fennell kind of wishes she was Sofia Coppola I guess like I
- 53:07think what Sofia
- 53:08Coppola could stand to have more of in her films is like a bit
- 53:11more passion yeah
- 53:12and I think Emerald Fennell is overflowing with passion but I
- 53:15think Sofia Coppola
- 53:16does visuals really well like I think the two of them should
- 53:20collab her visuals are
- 53:21pristine yeah like so well thought out but like with an edge of
- 53:25something more like
- 53:26SPEAKER_02: yeah yeah
- 53:27i just thought it was like the beguiled did you see that no i
- 53:30didn't see that
- 53:31that's one with nicole kidman right and like l fanning they're
- 53:34like living it's
- 53:35sort of like a southern gothic sophia coppola like that
- 53:40representation of the 19th
- 53:41century was just like much more beautiful i think than yeah the
- 53:45like weird like
- 53:46SPEAKER_03: plastic
- 53:48SPEAKER_03: I mean,
- 53:48there's literally a scene where it's like supposed to be this
- 53:51like sumptuous room
- 53:53that she's walking into after she gets married where they've
- 53:55like given her all of
- 53:56SPEAKER_03: these gowns and the gowns are like Renaissance fair,
- 53:59SPEAKER_03: like princess costumes from Party City.
- 54:02And the thing in the middle of the room is like dripping with
- 54:06truly cellophane.
- 54:07SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I tried to take a picture, but I couldn't.
- 54:10SPEAKER_02: And then there's like some moments where the absurdity is funny.
- 54:13Like when she goes and finds her dad dead and he's like
- 54:16surrounded by an absurd
- 54:18SPEAKER_02: number of empty bottles.
- 54:19SPEAKER_03: Like two mountains of bottles.
- 54:20SPEAKER_02: I was like, okay, that's like kind of funny, but also not.
- 54:23SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
- 54:24SPEAKER_02: I guess it was like kitsch, but it wasn't like self-aware about it.
- 54:29SPEAKER_02: Like the meanest thing I could say is like, I do think that...
- 54:32it is worse than bridgerton in terms of like historical
- 54:37inaccuracy and cheapness
- 54:40yeah which is like really really negative of me don't watch
- 54:45bridgerton but like in
- 54:46bridgerton when i watch bridgerton i'm like this is really
- 54:49garish but i'm now i'm
- 54:50SPEAKER_02: like whoa bridgerton is showing a huge amount of restraint um
- 54:56and like bridgerton also inhabits this like fantasy of regency
- 55:00england and yeah
- 55:02wuthering heights was inhabiting it wasn't specific enough i
- 55:04guess it was like it
- 55:06was every decade of the 19th century plus some of the 20th yeah
- 55:10it was so many
- 55:11different she was only wearing materials that had been invented
- 55:14in the wake of
- 55:14SPEAKER_03: world war ii yeah like
- 55:17though i just think that it was not very rigorous in its
- 55:20references and so it was
- 55:22too much and it was trying to like it dulled my senses like i
- 55:25wasn't turned on
- 55:26because it was too sexual i wasn't like amazed because it was
- 55:29too so bright you
- 55:30know yeah and i just i think we go to films not for the
- 55:34spectacle but also for the
- 55:35SPEAKER_02: editing and i think that film could have used a lot of editing
- 55:40yeah like just to give you guys some like visuals like the
- 55:44floor in thrushcross
- 55:45grange is painted like glossy red and the walls have sconces
- 55:50that are shaped like
- 55:51hands oh my god the fireplace the fireplace was a million
- 55:55plaster casts of hands
- 55:57going up the chimney yeah i was just like this isn't like
- 56:00kitschy and fun this is
- 56:01just like ugly yeah and then the like urns at the entrance to
- 56:05thrushcross grange
- 56:06SPEAKER_02: are fish tanks they were plastic fish tanks like what
- 56:11i there was all this christmas decoration stuff there was like
- 56:14a scene where they
- 56:15like cut to his bed and i laughed you remember yeah his green
- 56:18bed it's like but
- 56:20it's like it was like fake painted gold wood like and then this
- 56:25green like velour
- 56:26SPEAKER_03: wrapped all over it
- 56:29it was like a golf course so cheap it was like trump it was
- 56:34like it was like cheap
- 56:35trump yeah like i'm telling you like like trump would never
- 56:38trump's apartment looks
- 56:39SPEAKER_03: better than that yeah like and that is crazy yeah
- 56:44SPEAKER_02: I was really, I was not impressed by that.
- 56:48SPEAKER_02: I guess shout out to my mom.
- 56:49SPEAKER_02: My mom saw the movie before we did.
- 56:51SPEAKER_02: And I asked her what she thought.
- 56:52SPEAKER_02: And she said, I only have one word to describe how I felt befuddled.
- 56:56SPEAKER_02: And the whole time I was watching, I was like, wow, my mom was right.
- 56:58SPEAKER_02: I am befuddled.
- 56:59i know i was befuddled and i really just went in with such like
- 57:04generosity of
- 57:05spirit in a way that i like don't actually usually go into
- 57:07movies and i was i was
- 57:12shown that that's the wrong i mean way to receive the world i
- 57:16remain hopeful for
- 57:18what for like something next time like i'll be there the next
- 57:23time any of the
- 57:24SPEAKER_02: people involved in this film make something
- 57:26SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we'll have no choice.
- 57:29SPEAKER_02: I'm a Margot Robbie stan.
- 57:30SPEAKER_02: No, you're not.
- 57:32SPEAKER_02: You're a Margot Robbie truther.
- 57:33SPEAKER_02: I'm a Margot Robbie stalker.
- 57:36SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 57:37SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 57:38SPEAKER_02: I was befuddled in a word.
- 57:42SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 57:43SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 57:43okay all right well i hope you guys loved it let us know what
- 57:47you think like
- 57:47subscribe comment share this episode it's usually a paid
- 57:52episode but we're deciding
- 57:53to give it to you for free because you deserve it monkeys yeah
- 57:56you crazy monkeys
- 57:57SPEAKER_02: you crazy monkeys all right love you hello you've reached 1-800-1800
- 58:19SPEAKER_00: I have a burning question.