Jane Eyre (1943)

Charlotte Bronte's novel given the romantic, thundery, film noir treatment. Adapted by John Houseman and Aldous Huxley (!) and directed by Robert Stevenson, but the real authors of this film are its photographer and composer (more on their contributions in a minute). It stars Orson Welles as Rochester and Joan Fontaine as the title character. Now, I have a problem with both of these actors. Welles, aside from being a brilliant director, was an absolute spellbinder on talk shows. When seated in conversation with Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson, or Merv Griffin, he was a peerless raconteur. As an actor, he (for me) never managed to translate that charisma to the screen. In play acting, he comes across as showy, blustery, and fake. Then there is Miss Fontaine. I've seen at least half a dozen of her films, and in two of them (Hitchcock's Rebecca and Max Ophul's astounding Letter From An Unknown Woman) she is absolutely perfect. However, there is the other Joan Fontaine: The wooden, tense, plastic one...the one that clutches her bosom, sighs, and contorts her eyebrows. That's what we get here. She keeps making faces that look as if the assistant director were dangling a puppy right off camera. As you would expect, huge chunks of the book are gone or distorted for the sake of economy. The book is very cinematic, yet the filmmakers pass so many moments by on their race to the finish line.

The cinematography is by the great George Barnes, one of the most esteemed (and lengthy) careers in movies. It looks as beautiful as anything that came out of Germany during the silent era. It's a hackneyed sentiment, but every shot does look like a photograph, a photograph worthy of a museum wall. Then there is Bernard Herrmann's music. This guy was the greatest composer to ever write for films, his scores can stand on their own, and have often outlived the films they were written for. Herrmann's film music is actually performed by symphony orchestras all over the world. At one point while watching this, I realized that the intense emotional reaction I was having was due to the music. This is Herrmann's movie. There is a recurring motif, introduced early in the film, that is not only some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard in a film, but some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. It holds the entire movie together like glue.