The Tamesis
“We’re well aware that we have another event today,” Mahler said, nodding to the Super Bowl as the crowd laughed. “But here we’re pushing paperbacks, not quarterbacks.” Introducing the film, she said, “I’m so excited for all of you to see it. I saw it this week and I was in Technicolor heaven, and I know you will be too.”
The audience is quickly put into a trance as the haunting, mesmerizing love story between Margot Robbie’s Catherine and Jacob Elordi’s Heathcliff unfolds amid the epic misty beauty of the English countryside. (No spoilers: Let’s just say, this is a movie that makes you put down your popcorn and take a breath—either out of lust or shock. It opens in theaters on Friday, February 13.)
“On the way to the Chelsea Hotel, I actually thought about the description in the book about ‘the cold air stabbing her shoulders like knives,’ so in a way it felt appropriate to host this on the coldest day of the year, especially since everyone was getting so hot and bothered during the screening,” Mahler told Fashion Then.
Following the screening, director Emerald Fennell spoke with Mahler, which will appear on an upcoming episode of Vogue’s “The Run-Through With Vogue.” During the chat, Fennell welcomed the opportunity to talk about the source material: “It’s a book club, so I can really talk about it: I absolutely love this book.”
“I think that’s sort of the magic box of the novel, and everyone who reads it will experience something slightly different,” Fennell said. “It completely erased me,” Fennell said, describing her feelings when she first read the book as a teenager. That first reading ultimately inspired what Fennell hopes to revive for movie audiences: “What I really wanted to do with the film was try to recreate the feeling of a teenage girl reading the book for the first time,” she says.
The wide-ranging conversation also touched on casting and creative decisions (such as the backstory of “Skin Room”), rain machines in the wasteland, saltburn Bathtub scene equivalents, as well as some slimy food-related Foley details.
When the final fog cleared and the credits rolled, guests reported in the lobby. Designer Jackson Wiederhoeft told us it’s “very wet” Fashionsharing their two-word review of the film.
It’s hot enough and everyone is ready to brave the cold again, this time in the paperback edition of the Women in Film Collection Wuthering Heights (Foreword by Fennell) and a tassel Fashion Book club bookmarks in hand. As for what are their hearts and thoughts? That’s another story.
