Jane Eyre 1973 Clip 2 (Sorcha Cusack, Michael Jayston)

Scene from the 1973 BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Jane
• Eyre
• 1973
• 73
• Sorcha
• Cusack
• Michael
• Jayston
• BBC

[JeremyIrons1fantoo]

I just love Michael Jayston, He was the best Rochester! his acting is superb!

[caroljaneeyre]

"In the proposal scene, when he [Rochester] has got her [Jane] to admit Ireland is a long way off - from him! he pauses and again there is that slight movement of his lips and I swear I can see him thinking do I tell her the truth now or continue this a while longer?"

[mendoncacorreia]

@stefan103 - Michael Jayston ('Mr. Rochester') to Sorcha Cusack ('Jane Eyre') about her performance in "Jane Eyre" (1973): "After this you'll be huge." True, she didn't get any big breaks afterwards; but she really did a superb job in this mini-serial. If you watch her carefully (as I did), I'm sure you'll see what Jayston meant.

[stefan103]

@JeremyIrons1fantoo Wow, no kidding! I always felt Timothy Dalton the best. This guy nails him entirely. Not sure about "Jane" though as she's a bit prim.

[commenting2008]

Pretty awful makeup for Jane. The makeup artist should be punished! How could they have managed to make a 23 yr old looks like a 50 yr old playing a 19 yr old?!??!? Rochester looks younger than her!

[mendoncacorreia]

Well, well, well! Getting six "thumbs down" on my own favorite version of "Jane Eyre"!!! And that just because I dared to be a little bit... vehement! Doesn't that give you food for thought?... [grin]

[2hopskipjump2]

Great cutting sarcasm, he sounds just how I imagined Rochester to be... Never seen this version;)

[mendoncacorreia]

[7/7]

This brings me back to Michael Jayston and his performance in Jane Eyre (1973). The only consistent remark I read about him is that he didn't look like Héger. But in 1973, everybody thought the character was based on Arthur Nicholls. Jayston matched physically with him - and psychologically with Rochester. Working from a script which is the most faithful to the novel, he delivered what anyone in good faith sees as the most complete portrait there is of Rochester on screen.

[mendoncacorreia]

[6/7]

The idea that Rochester is Héger is a dangerous oversimplification: it ultimately means that Rochester is a XIX century Belgium teacher who owns land in England. It would be far more precise to say that Rochester is a XIX century English landlord with several of the most notable physical traits and some of the most significant moral traits of a certain XIX century Belgium teacher Brontë met in Brussels in 1842 (that taking for granted that Héger was the model of Rochester...).

[mendoncacorreia]

[5/7]

If Rochester was a mere replica of Héger, Brontë would have never written the amusing lines we read in the novel he says about sprites and elves, men in green, pricked pride, penknives under ears, pyramids of Egypt, niggardliness, truancy and absence, butterflies flying away home, and so on, because no Belgium would have said as no Belgium says such lines: they are alien to Belgium culture in general and Belgium humour in particular; they are British.