This is a must-see, if only to be (dis)believed, as one of the most pure unadulterated specimens of prototypical Hollywood biopic bunkum.
Masquerading as the story of the lives & loves of the TRIO of Bronte sisters, poor Anne however is swiftly swept under the carpet once Charlotte and Emily score their respective literary successes with 'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights'.
The film scales the heights of delirious melodrama soon after the starting blocks and, in terms of dramatic consistency, tumbles down the other side into ponderousness fairly early on. However, its fulsome romanticism remains clearly pitched at 'Wuthering Heights' level and thus should at least continue to engage those predisposed to camp. "I have found the meaning, dear Emily" pontificates Charlotte as she walks off into the studio-bound sunset with her lover following the death of her eponymous sibling. Unfortunately she is not at liberty to share it with us!
Suffice to say that the real star of the show is Ernest Haller's stately, tableaux like camera-work which accords every scene the illusion of an imaginary golden gild. If that appeals to you, then you are the sort of viewer who will, alongside the shameless and the senile, deem 'Devotion' to be a well-deserved vintage Hollywood treat, and it would be pretty facile of me to argue.
Masquerading as the story of the lives & loves of the TRIO of Bronte sisters, poor Anne however is swiftly swept under the carpet once Charlotte and Emily score their respective literary successes with 'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights'.
The film scales the heights of delirious melodrama soon after the starting blocks and, in terms of dramatic consistency, tumbles down the other side into ponderousness fairly early on. However, its fulsome romanticism remains clearly pitched at 'Wuthering Heights' level and thus should at least continue to engage those predisposed to camp. "I have found the meaning, dear Emily" pontificates Charlotte as she walks off into the studio-bound sunset with her lover following the death of her eponymous sibling. Unfortunately she is not at liberty to share it with us!
Suffice to say that the real star of the show is Ernest Haller's stately, tableaux like camera-work which accords every scene the illusion of an imaginary golden gild. If that appeals to you, then you are the sort of viewer who will, alongside the shameless and the senile, deem 'Devotion' to be a well-deserved vintage Hollywood treat, and it would be pretty facile of me to argue.