Jane Eyre (1996 film)

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

This film adaptation of the novel Jane Eyre was released in 1996.

Franco Zeffirelli's adaptation of the novel starring Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane and William Hurt as Rochester. Notably also includes Anna Paquin as the young Jane.

Reader, in addition to the novel's tropes, I used these tropes:
  • Dawson Casting: Charlotte Gainsbourg was 25, seven years older than Jane's 18 - though her build and height work well.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: St. John and his family appear when Jane returns to her childhood rearing house to attend her aunt's final illness. While not on the level of either the 1943 or 2011 films in including him from the very beginning, it is still earlier than his final-quarter appearance in the novel.
  • Pragmatic Adaptation: Though in general the film plays like an Adaptation Distillation, the final Rivers section is combined and manipulated quite a bit to fit it into a coherent, unified narrative.