On Sunday afternoon—just hours before the Super Bowl and Bad Bunny’s electrifying performance— Vogue’s book club members gathered at the SVA Theatre in Chelsea for a special preview of Wuthering Heights. The screening was followed by an insightful conversation for The Run-Through between director Emerald Fennell and Chloe, in which they compared Emily Brontë’s gothic novel with Fennell’s film adaptation.
Drawing on literary scholarship and her own childhood memories of the book, Fennell explained why she chose to lean into its sadomasochistic undercurrents. “There’s a quote from Daphne du Maurier in which she describes Wuthering Heights as a kind of sexless book. But I’ve never experienced it that way. That’s part of the novel’s magic—everyone who reads it takes away something slightly different. For me, the sexual power dynamics are extremely explicit.”
Fennell’s version makes several notable departures from the classic text. Isabella Linton emerges as a more dynamic character (Fennell joked that she’s “more of an Isabella than a Cathy”), and the adaptation omits both Nelly’s first-person narration and the novel’s second half (William Wyler did it first!). Perhaps the most memorable addition, however, is the inclusion of crushed eggs beneath bed sheets – an “inside joke” between lovers Heathcliff and Cathy. Fennell revealed that she volunteered to sit on them herself during filming. “Somebody has to do it, and I don’t want my crew to have to sit on a bunch of eggs, so I’m like, I’ll do it,” she said.
Earlier in the episode, Chloe and Chioma catch up on their two iconic covers released this week: powerhouse pop star Rosalía (Chloe’s first print issue for Vogue) and Bhavitha Mandava, the newest model taking over the fashion industry. Chloe also previews the NYFW schedule, highlighting Rachel Scott’s Proenza Schouler show as one to watch, while Chioma recounts her morning, which included breakfast with Jill Biden.
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