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Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights is here – and let's just say, it's divisive. While plenty of girlies are grabbing their phones, turning on the flash and filming their mascara-stained faces as the credits roll, others are leaving the cinema with nothing more than a confused, slightly outraged guffaw. At least this was my experience.
Fennell had warned us all: “The thing for me is that you can't adapt a book as dense and complicated and difficult as this book,” she told Fandango. "I can't say I'm making Wuthering Heights. It's not possible. What I can say is I'm making a version of it. There's a version that I remembered reading that isn't quite real. And there's a version where I wanted stuff to happen that never happened. And so it is Wuthering Heights, and it isn't."
Whatever version of Wuthering Heights you crave, there's plenty to choose from.
You can actually sleep in Cathy's bedroom.
How many Wuthering Heights adaptations are there?
Brontë's novel has been given the screen treatment dozens of times, including a Bollywood musical version, a 1988 Japanese rendition and a 2003 modernised teen musical take.
Where to watch other versions of Wuthering Heights
Andrea Arnold's gritty, understated retelling is the first and, so far, only adaptation to cast Heathcliff as a person of colour, with James Howson taking on the role. As such, it's the only adaptation to engage with the novel's central theme of racial prejudice and discrimination. This adaptation is also not entirely faithful – but it does engage with the novel, particularly when it comes to its representation of the barren, wild, rugged moors upon which Cathy and Heathcliff develop their tortured, tragic mutual obsession. Arnold brings a clarity to the doomed love and the unstoppable, violent revenge plot it inspires in stripped-back cinematic fashion.
The 2011 film is available to stream on Mubi, Channel 4 and Disney+.
An ITV two-parter, the 2009 version sees a brooding Tom Hardy take on the Byronic hero, while his IRL wife Charlotte Riley brings an entitled cruelty to Cathy. Naturally, their chemistry sizzles. Happy Valley's Sarah Lancashire also appears as unreliable narrator Nelly. The length of this adaptation allows us to get a little deeper into the source material, and it ends up being one of the most faithful retellings around – in a rare move, it also attempts to acquaint viewers with the second generation and the generational trauma theme that is so vital to Brontë's work.
The 2009 miniseries is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
Another ITV adaption, the 1998 version features Robert Cavanah, whom you may know as Jared Fraser in Outlander, and Orla Brady as the central couple. Pride and Prejudice's Matthew Macfayden also appears as Cathy's nephew, Hareton. This is a version that commits to the windy, gritty, earthy elements of the Yorkshire moors. It also commits to the novel's brutality, with Cavanah showing Heathcliff's capacity for unsparing violence and cruelty.
The 1998 film is available to watch on YouTube.
With acting titans like Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche at the helm, the Peter Kosminsky film adaptation is widely cited as the go-to for those dissatisfied with the Fennell version. A complex, character-driven adaptation, this is the film to watch for lovers of the book, looking for what are perhaps the most nuanced, compelling portrayals of Cathy and Heathcliff.
The 1992 film is available to stream on Paramount+, Amazon Prime and YouTube.
Robert Fuest's 1970 adaptation is slow, pensive, restrained – and it will, undoubtedly, feel a little dated (and a little over-steeped in '70s haircuts) for many viewers, but it does have some things going for it. The moors are in full glory here, while young Timothy Dalton brings an ominous, dangerous quality to Heathcliff.
The 1970 film is available to rent on Sky Store.
The first version to hit the big screen is, as might be expected, a rather melodramatic old Hollywood retelling – but it remains a favourite for many nonetheless. Stage legend Laurence Olivier is not known for his on-screen understatement, but once you get lost in this sumptuous, dreamy version, its impossible not to be moved by his haunted, haunting, thundering performance. As for Merle Oberon, hers is a vibrant, haughty, tempestuous Cathy and an equal match to Olivier's Heathcliff.
The 1939 film is available to stream on Amazon Prime and NOW TV.
