It’s been a while since a Brontë sister bodice ripper has been adapted for the screen, so when it was announced that Emily Brontē’s novel Wuthering Heights was being turned into a hyper-sexual film starring Skin Hall-of-Famer Margot Robbie, we couldn’t help but get excited at the prospect of seeing Margot stripping off some period garb and going nude again.
****
But in the meantime, it just so happens that there’s a Brontë adjacent work that has more than enough nudity to tide us over until Wuthering Heights is released. The 1993 film Wide Sargasso Sea is an adaptation of a 1966 novel by Dominican-British author Jean Rhys, who wrote the book as a prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. The Australian film carries the notorious NC-17 rating of old, no doubt because of its nine naughty nude scenes featuring star Karina Lombard and supporting actress Rowena King.
Karina Lombard and Rowena King Nude in Wide Sargasso Sea
Karina plays Antoinette Cosway, the Creole heiress of Jamaica who would marry Englishman Edward Rochester (Nathaniel Parker), a man who would then change her name to Bertha Mason and lock her in an attic insisting she was crazy.
**** Is it crazy to want to spend all your time naked in bed? Not when its with Karina, who delivers all three of her beguiling Bs throughout. Not wanting to miss out on all the fun, Rowena flashes full frontal to seduce Rochester, leading him to bang her against a wall and slip her a little money the morning after. **** The film was remade in 2006, with Rebecca Hall going topless three times in the leading lady role. Here’s hoping Wuthering Heights takes a page out of Wide Sargasso Sea’s book when it comes to showing skin!
