Lessons from the directing, design, and discourse of Emerald Fennell’s interpretation of Emily Brontë’s gothic novel.
Aesthetics
First, let’s get the semantics out of the way:
“Let’s do the one we know is going to work, and then let’s do something different… you need to kind of feel the edge of a cliff with your toes.” Writer/director Emerald Fennell explains her directing approach to Simon Mayo, and how she wanted “Wuthering Heights” to look like “an emotional landscape… the absolute physical embodiment of pathetic fallacy” (from 6:08):
‘The Wild And Wonderful Costumes Of “Wuthering Heights”‘ designed by Jacqueline Durran (via British Vogue and La Mode Unknown):
Discourse
Discussion ranges from how successful the director has been in realising her vision, to questioning the intentions behind the vision to begin with. In one corner, there is race casting controversy:
In another, there are accusations of narrative vandalism:
One reading other readers point to is Georges Bataille‘s popular essay on Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Rationality vs Mysticism, and the “danger” of Literature/Writing as linked to mysticism/the asocial aspect of religion (available for download here):
Esteemed video essayists have shared thoughts worth sharing here. Princess Weekes examines Heathcliff’s racial identity. Be Kind Rewind takes the occasion of this film’s release to tell the fascinating story of Merle Oberon, the Cathy of a previous adaptation. And then there’s Broey Deschanel‘s scathing and detailed critique of both this film and its director. “Fennell’s anachronisms do not enhance our understanding of Wuthering Heights‘ themes but actually harm it,” she asserts, while comparing this literary adaptation to its contemporaries, such as Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet (1996) and Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006). Between this and her analysis of Fennell’s previous film Saltburn (2023), she argues that Fennell is incapable of critiquing class in her work, at least in part because of her own privileged background. “Rich in visuals, but thematically impoverished… she is a master in betraying the ethos of her own material, while simultaneously bashing your head in with the themes she thinks her material is about”:
Further Viewing
This viral clip did a victory lap in the leadup to the release of “Wuthering Heights”, less because it actually has anything to do with this film, and more because Tina Fey smashed her ‘I Don’t Think So, Honey’ minute on the Las Culturistas podcast:
as tina fey once said can’t wait to pretend to be shocked by the sexual violent third act turn pic.twitter.com/RjHHHnMbBZ https://t.co/ZBoMgxxWOe
— Cris ✨ (@lionesspike) September 3, 2025