Wuthering Heights (2026)
The Excess of Desire and the Music Video Aesthetic
Part One: The Typography of Blood and the Feast of the Senses
Approaching a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights inevitably means confronting the ghosts of cinema history. In our collective memory resides the acclaimed 1939 version, where Sir Laurence Olivier’s chameleonic ability transformed Heathcliff into a myth of monochrome Gothic romance, framing untamed passion through dramatic restraint.
Emerald Fennell’s approach takes the opposite route, surrendering entirely to visual and formal excess. The exaggeration begins with the opening credits, where a highly creative—yet flawed—typography attempts to represent blood and Gothic dread through stylized fonts. However, once past this stylistic stumble, the narrative plunges us rawly into Emily Brontë’s universe: the gambling father bearing the darkest traits of a Dickensian character, and woman treated as mere merchandise—a reminder of how Brontë’s proto-feminist perspective was light-years ahead of her time.
In its first half, the film tracks the youth of two characters growing up together in a relationship where social class is irrelevant, which later mutates into a powerful sexual attraction upon adulthood. Jacob Elordi commands the screen monumentally, projecting the image of an orphan subjected to the harshest labor who still retains an almost mystical sensuality. Meanwhile, Margot Robbie’s Catherine radiates an explicit eroticism tailored to the 21st-century gaze; the scene where she seeks her own satisfaction under Heathcliff’s burning gaze marks a sharp departure from classic romanticism, turning the narrative into an explicit display of unbridled desire.
Following Heathcliff's bitter departure, the director employs vivid palaces and frames that evoke luxury commercials. In the Linton estate, Catherine's room appears color-matched to the actress's own skin tone, even replicating her signature beauty mark on the wall—a display of luxury, fine dining, and saturated colors where form threatens to consume substance. Within this environment, Isabella Linton stands out as a 22-year-old sister-in-law overflowing with unrepressed sexual allusions, seeking solace in giant dollhouses and crafting phallic mushrooms and flowers. Her madness recalls an Ophelia unhinged by sexual repression, turning into a demonic apparition screaming as she watches Catherine from across the fence.
Part Two: The Return of the Beast and the Actantial Trap
The second half begins with Heathcliff’s return. He arrives rich, immaculate, and well-dressed, stripped of his primitive wildness but fueled by an unyielding resentment. From this point on, the lovers immerse themselves in a series of clandestine encounters where the costume design and the high-end perfume commercial aesthetic continue at full steam.
The plot becomes a vicious cycle of intercepted letters and boundaries. The submissive Edgar Linton (the timid husband who prefers inaction) is finally alerted by the housekeeper, unleashing a definitive ban on their meetings. Heathcliff’s vengeance materializes when he secretly marries the obsessed Isabella Linton, who sinks into a masochistic relationship.
The film concludes tragically with the death of the unborn child inside a dying Catherine. The final scene shows Elordi over Robbie, a striking visual closer reaffirming that despite destruction and death, they will forever love each other as soulmates. The closing images—leeches crawling up walls, blood staining the duvet, deep reds, and the protagonists drenched under a storm—consolidate a work acclaimed for its visual beauty, even if at times it feels like a director’s new toy, designed to create gorgeous but gratuitous imagery.
Actantial Model: Wuthering Heights (2026)
| Function | Actant | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Subject | Heathcliff and Catherine (Jacob Elordi & Margot Robbie) | The lovers seeking the consummation of their passion and the union of their twin souls. |
| Object | Absolute Union / Sacred Love | The spiritual and physical fusion denied to them on the earthly plane. |
| Sender | Passion / Shared Childhood | The primitive force of nature and the unbreakable bond born in childhood that drives them together. |
| Receiver | Themselves | The sole beneficiaries of a destructive love that ignores collateral damage. |
| Helper | Isabella Linton (partially) & Their Own Obsession | Isabella acts as a masochistic tool facilitating Heathcliff's access to the family, while their mutual desire pushes them to break societal rules. |
| Opposer | Nelly Dean (Hong Chau), Edgar Linton, and Social Class | The housekeeper Nelly Dean (played masterfully by Hong Chau, whose Asian heritage brings a fascinating, uncanny note to an otherwise Anglo atmosphere) acts as the silent harpy intercepting and burning letters. Edgar Linton represents the social order and conventional marriage blocking their union. |
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