Les Soeurs Bronte (aka The Bronte Sisters) (1979)

In the bleak English countryside, the three Bronte sisters (Isabelle Adjani as Emily, Isabelle Huppert as Anne, Marie France Pisier as Charlotte) and their brother Branwell (Pascal Gregory) live an austere existence with only each other and their creativity to give them solace. The film's running time reputedly had a three hour running time cut down to two hours. I suppose it's a blessing in disguise as the two hours we have move at a snail's pace and one shudders at sitting through three hours of such tedium. On the downside, that missing hour might have provided more insight into the lives of the Bronte family especially their creative drive which is all but absent from the film. I suppose one could carp at a movie about three famous English sister novelists living in the isolated Yorkshire moors being made in and by the French but Hollywood had been making films about France with American casts for years so what's good for the goose ..... but that's the least of the film's problems. It's just as lifeless as the gloomy Northern England setting on display despite the attempt by three of France's best actresses to breath life into it. Directed by Andre Techine. With Jean Sorel, Helene Surgere and Patrick Magee (dubbed into French) as the Bronte patriarch.