Jane Eyre is one of my favorite novels of all time, so I have made a point of watching every movie version I could find over the years. I’ve seen the ones with Orson Welles, William Hurt, Timothy Dalton, and Ciaran Hinds. I know it’s widely debated among Jane Eyre fans, but my favorite is the Toby Stephens-Ruth Wilson miniseries produced for Masterpiece Theatre in 2006. I’ve watched it at least four times–a fifth to take photos of Thornfield Hall for this post–and I never get tired of it.
Haddon Hall, a fortified medieval manor house in Derbyshire, England, dating from the 12th Century, was used as the setting for Thornfield in the film. (Photo found here.)
This is a photo from the Haddon Hall website of the Long Gallery. If it looks familiar, it’s because it’s been used in lots of other productions, including the 2005 version of Pride & Prejudice with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen (another favorite of mine that I’ll do a post about someday!).
- Jane wakes up on her first morning at Thornfield.
- Jane explores the grounds of Thornfield on her first morning there.
- Jane sees a red scarf waving from a window in the North Tower.
- Adele performs a French love song for Jane when she arrives that Jane finds a little inappropriate.
- Adele in the schoolroom at Thornfield.
- Jane and Adele in the schoolroom.
- Jane grading Adele’s homework.
- Jane sketching in her room.
- Jane’s bedroom door at night. Is something out there?
- Jane sees Rochester’s study for the first time.
- Adele’s bedroom.
- Jane writes to her uncle in Madeira.
- Jane steps down into the back hall.
- Jane watches Rochester pacing in the garden below her bedroom window. What’s he so tormented about?
- Jane looks up at the roof of Thornfield, where Grace Poole is shaking out the rugs.
- The servants’ kitchen, where Jane and Adele eat breakfast.
- Jane sits on a hill, sketching Thornfield in the distance.
- Jane and Adele watch the elegant party guests arrive from the upstairs landing.
- Jane enters the drawing room.
- The party goes on for days.
- Jane in the drawing room.
- Rochester confronts Jane in the back hall, asking her why she has left the party.
- The party guests watch Rochester leave.
- Rochester’s high society guests, including Blanche, who is expecting a proposal.
- Jane and Rochester discuss her leaving to visit her dying Aunt Reed.
- The exterior of Mrs. Reed’s house, where Jane lived as a child until she was sent off to Lowood School.
- Visiting her aunt, Mrs. Reed, on her death bed. I thought the murals on the walls were interesting.
- In her aunt’s house, Jane sits with her cousins.
- Jane helps Bessie polish silver in her Aunt Reed’s house.
- Jane returns from her aunt’s house.
- On the lawn.
- Rochester and Jane make wedding plans in his study.
- Jane getting ready for the wedding in her room.
- Jane in her wedding dress.
- The wedding scene.
- The wedding is interrupted. Someone knows a good reason why Rochester and Jane shouldn’t be married.
- The servants line up in the front hall to congratulate the newlyweds and throw rice at them. Rochester says, “Save your congratulations! You’re 15 years too late!”
- Bertha may look normal, but there’s a reason she’s locked in the North Tower.
- St. John Rivers takes Jane to his sisters’ home after rescuing her from the moor.
- Jane recuperates in bed at the Rivers’ home.
- St. John sits in his sisters’ parlor, pondering why Jane has still not accepted his proposal.
- I love this shot of Jane as she sits pondering St. John’s proposal. She hears Rochester calling her name and returns to him instead.
- Jane is stunned to find that Thornfield has burned.
- Thornfield after the fire.
- Thornfield is a ruin.
- Jane finds Rochester living here, in the caretaker’s cottage.
- Jane and Rochester finally reunite. He is blind and “crippled” from his burns and tells her to leave unless she’ll be his wife because he doesn’t want her as his caretaker. She tells him she still loves him and will never leave again. I always get sniffly at this part!
- Final shot in the movie, of Jane and Edward with their two children, extended family, and friends, in front of their new home.
The scenes inside Thornfield were all so dimly lit that some of these photos are kind of dark. Sorry about that. It was very authentically shot, so you felt how cold and formidable it must’ve been inside the hall, especially at night by candlelight.
In his behind-the-scenes production notes, producer Diederick Santer wrote about filming at Haddon Hall:
Haddon is a magical place. We’re made extremely welcome by Lord Edward and his staff. The hall does not open to the public until well into April, so we have the run of the place. The rooms are rugged and beautiful, and are made all the more so by the brilliant decoration and propping of designer Grenville Horner and his team. Our base is close by, and it’s an extremely comfortable location in which to work.
Except that it is FREEZING.
I wear more layers than ever before — three on my LEGS! And a coat that’s more like a duvet. And I’m still FROZEN! Heaters are no use. We line up about a dozen in the long gallery (which serves as the drawing room of Thornfield Hall) and our breath is still condensing. It’s as though the stone of Haddon contains all the cold of seven centuries, and there’s nothing we can do about it. At times through the day, I feel myself losing focus, getting light-headed, unable to perform simple tasks. I feel like I’m lost in the ice…
Brrr. Gives me new appreciation for how well Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens managed to heat up the screen!
Visit TV/Movie Houses for links to all the others I’ve featured, fromStepmom to The Holiday.
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