Emily: biopic about Emily Brontë, portrayed by Emma Mackey.
Plot and background
Emily Brontë (Emma Mackey) is considered an outlandish young girl in her home village in rural Yorkshire. The stubborn, introverted vicar’s daughter prefers to escape into nature and imaginary worlds. Together with her siblings, Emily spins stories together and finds her passion in this creative everyday escape. But the youthful joys come to an abrupt end. Emily and her older sister Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling) are to become governesses in order to contribute to the family’s upkeep. The pressure to live up to her family and her sensible older sister takes its toll on the shy outsider. The only one who seems sympathetic to Emily is her brother Branwell (Fionn Whitehead), a rebellious party-goer who rebels against his father’s demands. When the new tutor William Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) is asked to teach Emily French, she is initially sceptical. But contrary to expectations, Emily finds an ally in William. There is a great attraction between the two, but William is also overwhelmed by Emily’s passion for writing and her idiosyncrasies.
“Emily” – cast, background, cinema release
In “Emily”, the story of the young Emily Brontë (1818-1848) is told. With her first and only novel “Wuthering Heights” (original: “Wuthering Heights”), the British writer wrote probably one of the greatest love stories in the world. The story about the tragic couple Cathy and Heathcliff has been filmed many times and singer Kate Bush even dedicated the hit song of the same name “Wuthering Heights” to it.
Frances O’Connor has previously worked as an actress (“The Missing”). With “Emily” she makes her directorial debut and even wrote the screenplay for the film. The drama is not a classic biopic, but a portrait of an introverted rebel in which both fact and fiction resonate. Actress Emma Mackey (“Sex Education”) slips into the leading role of young Emily in Victorian England, who tries to resist the conventions imposed on her. But not only Emily’s story is special. Her sisters were also to become famous writers in later life. Charlotte Brontë wrote “Jane Eyre”, while the youngest sister, Anne Brontë, published “Agnes Grey”. The drama thus tells the stories of ambitious women, of feeling different and of forbidden love.
“Emily” will be shown in German cinemas from 24 November 2022.
