After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meets the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Edward Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?
Acting
Gainsbourg's quiet intensity vs. Hurt's smoldering wreck.
Production
Zeffirelli's Thornfield: damp, grand, gloriously miserable.
Costume
Jane's gray dresses scream 'I have boundaries AND trauma.'
Director
Franco Zeffirelli
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Zeffirelli cut the novel's opening Gateshead sequence significantly; Anna Paquin's young Jane only appears briefly.
This was the first major Jane Eyre adaptation to cast age-appropriate actors—Gainsbourg was 25, Hurt 46, closer to Brontë's text than previous Hollywood versions.
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