MovieChat Forums > Wuthering Heights (2009) Discussion > Olivier - Fiennes - Hardy Wuthering Heig...

Olivier - Fiennes - Hardy Wuthering Heights

posted 15 years ago by coolbluegreen
21 replies | jump to latest

Or I could say Oberon - Binoche - and, well, what's her name?

Anyway, I cannot pick a favorite. Although I am now deeply in love (another testament to my bad taste in men) with Tom Hardy (I am not saying HE is bad -- I don't know him -- he just plays such yummy bad boys), I love all three films.

Yes, the Oberon/Olivier one can be, well, you know, 1930s style, but I still find myself sobbing at the end of it. Of course, my husband is making fun of me, looking at Merle Oberon in bed, every gorgeous ringlet in place, and he says, "Well, she looks healthy enough to get up and go for a nice, brisk jog," which she does, but whatever -- I love it. And she's gorgeous.

Ralph Fiennes knows how to do evil and I love Juliet Binoche -- she sure looks the part, oh, I can't pick. Can anyone pick?

I would LOVE to see the Wuthering Heights with Ian McShane -- that's right, Al Swearengen. God, he must have made a fantastic Heathcliff. Anyone ever seen it?

[–] dirtyboots92 15 years ago

Hardy/Riley
Fiennes/Binoche (a distant second)

Olivier/ Oberon - nope. Not a huge Olivier fan. Liked him in Spartacus, but that's about it. You can blame his acting on conventions of the time, but then how do you explain the likes of Leslie Howard. A contemporary of Olivier and ten times the actor.

[–] coolbluegreen 15 years ago

dirtyboots92 wrote: <<Olivier/ Oberon - nope. Not a huge Olivier fan. Liked him in Spartacus, but that's about it. You can blame his acting on conventions of the time, but then how do you explain the likes of Leslie Howard. A contemporary of Olivier and ten times the actor.>>

Well, Leslie Howard was a Jew. That's why he was better -- JUST KIDDING! I have no idea why he was better -- he just was. Yeah, I LOVE Leslie Howard, especially in the Scarlet Pimpernel. He was FANTASTIC in that. Merle Oberon (Cathy) was in that too as Marguerite St. Just and she was just GORGEOUS. Have you ever seen it? I don't think I've ever seen anything as gorgeous as she was in The Scarlet Pimpernel.

[–] dirtyboots92 15 years ago

I have seen it - and loved it. In fact, thats the film I was thinking of when I replied to your post.

[–] coolbluegreen 15 years ago

I caught a few lines of it the other day...I think it was in a Sopranos re-run, actually! Imagine -- what was the Scarlet Pimpernel doing there?

[–] rachel70802002 15 years ago

My favorite now is Hardy/Riley. Yes, Hardy does play alot of "bad" guys but he's so good at it! In His next TV movie "The Take" his character is good/evil, bad guy type but it will be great to watch bc to me that's the most interesting kind. Previously, it was Olivier/Oberon but I liked him better in Rebecca but he did get to say alot of Heathcliff's memorable lines.
Ian McShane as Heathcliff sounds really interesting. Never have seen that though.

~Rachel~

[–] coolbluegreen 15 years ago

<<Ian McShane as Heathcliff sounds really interesting. Never have seen that though. >>

Has ANYONE? Man, I would practically KILL to see that. Al Swearengen and Heathcliff would have nothing on me! ;-)

[–] silcock-2 15 years ago

I've only seen a couple of brief clips of it on a documentary about hero's in fiction, from what i saw he seemed very good.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] rachel70802002 15 years ago

Sir Olivier, Sir Hardy nice ring to it..I like the anti-hero Heathcliff that he has created so very well..I am wondering why the US version was cut since the UK version is said to have included extra scenes how odd. Well, I hope I get to see that version.
~Rachel~

[–] coolbluegreen 15 years ago

<<Binoche is French and beautiful but there is not a grain of Cathyin her...sorry to be so harsh..she was miscast>>

She had the look of Cathy -- the dark, temestuous beauty, so that is probably part of why they cast her. Casting a Frenchwoman was an odd choice.

<<...and Oberone was a good Cathy of her times......>>

I agree. Olivier wanted to cast his girlfriend, the gorgeous Vivien Leigh, who, although she was an excellent actress (better than Oberon), was all wrong for the role. Cathy has to be dark and mysterious. Leigh wasn't. Oberon was. God, Oberon's face was just so beautiful. I love to watch her.

<<Ian McShane would probably have captured him...i bet he did..but alas have not seen that version...would love to tho... >>

I am SURE McShane was a fabulous Heathcliff! I WISH there was some way to get that version on dvd! As it is, I agree with you; of all the versions I have seen, Tom Hardy is definitely the best Heathcliff.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] coolbluegreen 15 years ago

LuvHisChi wrote: <<Hi there Coolbluegreen,>>

Hey, there, LuvHisChi!

LuvHisChi wrote: <<I am a big Tom Hardy fan>>

I am, too. He's a brilliant actor. Each generation only gives us a few. In rhis case, Hardy has amazing sexual appeal as well as incredible talent -- a rare and most delightful combination.

LuvHisChi wrote: <<As it is, i heard he was up for Mr. Darcy once upon a time...and some bright spark in casting said NO... >>

Whoa. Do you mean Tom Hardy was up for the role as Darcy in the horrible Keira Knightely version of Pride and Prejudice? Maybe it's better he didn't get it. He would have outshone everyone in that dreadful movie and still have had to live down being in that awful adaptation.

LuvHisChi wrote: <<WHAT A DRONGO!! (AUSSIE SLANG FOR DUMBASS!!) Don't they realise, that The Hardy can play anything...well, they'll soon learn, won't they???>>

Thanks for the lesson in Aussie slang! And yes, they will soon learn, I hope. If they had any brains they would.

LuvHisChi wrote: <<Oh and coolbluegreen, i agree Merle Oberon was a much better choice as Cathy Earnshaw than Vivien Leigh; she was dark and mysterious even in her real life...a great beauty of her time too!>>

Both Vivien Leigh and Merle Oberon were great beauties of their time (and of all time, I think). I do think Vivien Leigh was a better actor, not that Oberon wasn't up for the job, its just that Leigh was an exceptionally talented actor. However, when it comes to the role of Cathy, well, ONLY Oberon could have played that role. No other actor in that era had the combination of dark beauty and a mysterious aura that Oberon had.

In fact, I think Leigh and Oberon were the two most beautiful actors of their time. Did you see The Scarlet Pimpernel? Oberon was very good in that and she was so knock-out gorgeous, so unbelievably beautiful...I don't think anyone in the world was more beautiful than Merle Oberon was at that moment in time.

Sometimes, while watching Wuthering Heights, I just get so seduced by Oberon's beautiful face that I can't watch anything else. I cannot even look at anything else. Does anything like that ever happen to you?

[–] rachel70802002 15 years ago

I have not seen that version of P&P but I would if he was in it. Who had the stupid idea not to cast him? Geez..Glad they got it right with Wuthering Heights.

~Rachel~

[–] dirtyboots92 15 years ago

I read an interview with Tom Hardy (somewhere) in which he said that he has always wanted to play Mr. Darcy and was really broken up about it when the casting director of P&P told him (somewhat unkindly) that he wasn't what they were looking for.
However, like a previous poster, I think that production was unworthy of his talent. Watching Kiera Knightly as Elizabeth Bennet was akin to nails on a chalkboard. She may be high profile but her talent as an actress is questionable. I like Matthew Macfadyen, but he and Knightly had no chemistry (who could blame him - she's ghastly!)All in all a terrible hash - Hardy should count himself lucky for having been passed over.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] silcock-2 15 years ago

Yeah, i think it's probably for the best that he wasn't in that version of P&P. Maybe it's just me but i think Heathcliff is a better part to play anyway. He's more complex. But, i'm not as huge on the Darcy love as most people seem to be. Col Brandon is my favourite Austen hero.

On a side note, i didn't think KK was bad as Elizabeth Bennet, but, her and Matthew didn't have alot of chemistry.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] Cellophane_Boy 10 years ago

Olivier was a great Heathcliff. His dark, gypsyism (if that's even a word) was convincing. Oberon was pretty good, too, despite suffering from 1930's filmmaking.

I really disliked Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff. Yes, he's a great actor. But he's not Heathcliff. I found him completely unconvincing. And Binoche was not Cathy. Far from it. Mind, I loathe Cathy as a character. There's never been a character in literature I hated more. But I just couldn't summon any hatred for Binoche's portrayal.

I actually thought Charlotte Riley was the best Cathy I've seen thus far. She's exactly what I pictured when reading the book. Watching Charlotte's portrayal of Cathy made me just as furious as I'd get when reading the book. Brilliant.

Wuthering Heights wasn't the first thing I'd seen Tom Hardy in (I had seen RocknRolla, Virgin Queen, Black Hawk Down, Star Trek: Nemesis, Band of Brothers), however I had absolutely no idea the guy playing Heathcliff was the same actor. So I watched Wuthering Heights with no preconceived ideas or opinions of who this guy was. And I legit thought he was the perfect Heathcliff. Not what I was expecting, or what I had imagined when reading the book, but I realized while watching Hardy's performance that what I had imagined was wrong. THIS was the real Heathcliff.

[–] coolbluegreen 10 years ago

Oh, I like that sentence "suffering from 1930s filmmaking"! Yes! You hit the nail on the head with that one! I liked Oberon. Heck -- I just like looking at her face. Beautiful woman.

I agree that Tom Hardy is the perfect Heathcliff and Charlotte Riley (such a pretty woman!) is the best Cathy and despite the changes etc., theirs is a wonderful Wuthering Heights.

[–] NotoriousRio (12927) 5 years ago

Olivier is still the best Heathcliff for me, maybe because I saw that one first? I'd have Fiennes and Hardy in second and third, both were good, Hardy could of played the character a little later in his career, his older Heathcliff seemed a little young still.

[–] slimone (7996) 5 years ago

I've only seen the Fiennes/Binoche version. I loved it.