Film director Emerald Fennell has opened up about the "impossible" challenge of adapting Emily Brontë's classic novel, Wuthering Heights, for the screen, explaining her deliberate choice to frame the film's title with quotation marks.
The Significance of the Quotation Marks
In a recent interview, Fennell detailed her creative process for the upcoming movie, which stars Margot Robbie as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff. She stated that directly adapting a book as complex as Brontë's seminal work is not feasible. Instead, filmmakers create their own interpretation.
"You simply can't adapt a book as dense, complicated and difficult as Wuthering Heights," Fennell asserted. "I can't say I'm making Wuthering Heights. It's not possible. What I can say is I'm making a version of it." This philosophy led to the distinctive title: "Wuthering Heights".
Fennell emphasised her deep respect for the source material, revealing she consulted with experts at the Brontë Parsonage Museum and other devoted fans before finalising the title. "It is Wuthering Heights and it isn't," she summarised, suggesting that all literary adaptations, particularly of such a beloved novel, inherently exist within their own interpretive framework.
Costume Designer Addresses Fan Backlash
The film's modern aesthetic, previewed in a trailer released in November ahead of its 13 February release, has not been without controversy. A significant portion of the criticism has been aimed at the costume design, with some social media users labelling Margot Robbie's outfits as "hideous" and questioning their historical accuracy.
In response, the film's acclaimed costume designer, two-time Oscar winner Jacqueline Durran, has defended her creative choices. In an interview with Vogue, Durran explained that the team was not striving for period precision.
"The dates are all confused," Durran admitted, highlighting that the approach was to select "clothes we like for each character." For Cathy's wardrobe, Durran focused on "shiny surfaces" to reflect her character, deliberately mixing Victorian silhouettes with contemporary fabrics to create a distinct, modernised feel.
A Deliberate Reinterpretation for a New Audience
The combined statements from Fennell and Durran paint a clear picture of an adaptation that consciously departs from a traditional, historically rigid retelling. From its punctuated title to its anachronistic fashion and soundtrack—which features music by pop artist Charli XCX—the project positions itself as a bold, personal vision.
This approach aims to connect the novel's timeless themes of passion and revenge with a contemporary sensibility, even if it risks alienating some purists. The debate surrounding the costumes and the director's philosophical justification for the film's very name underscore the perennial challenge and creative liberty involved in bringing a literary monument to the cinema.
