Charlotte Bronte's gothic Victorian novel Jane Eyre is one of the most adaptable books in film history, most recently rendered earlier this year in a wonderful adaptation by Cary Fukunaga. When most people reference the best version though, they often point to this 1943 version starring Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles and directed by Robert Stevenson. "Jane Eyre" tells the story of a young orphan brought up by her nasty aunt who sends her to an abusive girls school run by a tyrannical zealot. After suffering and surviving the abuses their, Jane is summoned to be the governess to the ward of Edward Rochester, a rich and cagey young man. However, Jane's manner begins to soften the lord and the two begin to fall in love, which is only to be stifled by Rochester's dark secret. "Jane Eyre" is a darkly beautiful film, with Rochester's castle brilliantly captured in all its shadows and angles. Fontaine is ideal as Jane, with her beauty shining through her plain facade. Welles is great as the brooding Rochester, and as always when he stars in a film he is not credited with directing, questions of authorship arise. "Jane Eyre" is a great adaptation of a wonderful story that never fails to be moving with its superbly realized and tragic characters.
