How Wuthering Heights became this year’s most divisive film

The trailer shows Robbie blushing as he recalls Elordi’s naked torso, pumping up his upper body and doing a very suggestive bun. Then there’s a shot of the corset being tightened, a shot of Elordi taking off her shirt, and, uh, a shot of someone putting their finger in the fish’s mouth. The typical reaction to all this lust and obscenity is spin-off It was titled “Everyone Hates the New Wuthering Heights Trailer, and Here’s Why.” “Fennell takes a work of art and reduces it to its dullest form,” wrote Claire Mabey.

There were many other problems besides the overt eroticism. The trailer was thoroughly anachronistic, with Charli XCX on the soundtrack and Cassie reportedly wearing a white wedding dress. fashionwhich “looked more appropriate for the 1980s than the early 1800s.” And when a clip of the film was released last month, the actors themselves were ridiculed as anachronistic. “I’m sure there were great dentists back then,” said one comment on YouTube. “I love Margot but she looks like she’s about to pull out her iPhone,” said another.

reason for resentment

But these far-fetched arguments raise some big questions. The first question is: Why shouldn’t Fennell come up with her own quirky, sexy version of Wuthering Heights? If Clueless can tell a Jane Austen story set in 1990s California, and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet can do the same in Shakespeare, why do we make such a fuss about dress design?

There are two obvious answers, one of which is suggested by the fact that Robbie’s Cassie sounds classier in the trailer than any movie character since Saltburn’s Toff.

Fennell’s last film, Saltburn, was set in a stately mansion, and one of the best things about it was how well the writer-director seemed to know her upper-class characters. There’s no mystery as to how she accomplished it. As the daughter of famous jewelry designer Theo Fennell, she grew up in a gilded circle. To quote Patrick Sproule: absentmindedness“Not many 18-year-olds have their birthday parties photographed by Tatler and attended by Delevingne, multiple Guinness heirs, several members of the aristocracy, and Sting’s daughter.” In short, Fennel is classy. In fact, her career was so fortunate that when she played Camilla Parker Bowles (now better known as Queen Camilla) in The Crown, she didn’t have to sound any more bossy than she usually is.