The Big Picture

The Heaving ‘Wuthering Heights’ and the Throbbing ‘Pillion’: A Very Horny Valentine's Day Double Feature

February 13, 2026

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  • The hosts and guest largely found Emerald Fennell's *Wuthering Heights* to be an unsuccessful provocation that fundamentally misunderstood the novel's core themes of revenge, class warfare, and cultural frustration by prioritizing a simplified, tragic romance narrative. 
  • The film's visual execution, despite high-caliber talent like cinematographer Linus Sandgren and ornate costume design, was criticized for looking strangely flat and failing to deliver on the promised visual sumptuousness, leading to a lack of heat between the leads, Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. 
  • Emerald Fennell is recognized as a rare brand-name female filmmaker with a distinct, provocative vision—often compared to Baz Luhrmann for her music video aesthetic—but her commitment to portraying sex as viscous, painful foreplay without resolution ultimately left the film feeling like an unfulfilled tease. 
  • The discussion heavily critiques Emerald Fennell's *Wuthering Heights* for lacking clear vision and execution, contrasting it with *Marie Antoinette* which, despite anachronisms, had an understandable visual take, and raises concerns about Fennell's recurring thematic obsession with low-born figures seeking revenge against the wealthy given her own class background. 
  • The panel overwhelmingly praises Harry Lighton's debut feature, *Pillion*, for its wonderful pacing, sparse script, nuanced handling of a consensual BDSM relationship, and its fulfilling, growth-oriented ending for the protagonist, Colin. 
  • A significant point of contention is the lack of explicit male nudity (specifically penises) in contemporary cinema, with the hosts noting that *Pillion* likely self-censored for ratings, unlike pornography or certain streaming shows, which limits the authenticity of sexual representation. 
  • Director Harry Lighton finds the nine-month promotional cycle for his film 'Pillion' exhausting and is eager to begin writing his next project after a planned six-month seclusion. 
  • Lighton hires big-name actors like Alexander Skarsgård either because he believes they are brilliant or because their involvement is necessary to secure financing for a film. 
  • The last great film recommended by Lighton was 'The Love That Remains,' praised for its blend of family kitchen sink drama with surprisingly effective, laugh-out-loud slapstick fantasy sequences. 

Segments

Podcast Introduction and Guest Welcome
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(00:01:16)
  • Key Takeaway: The Big Picture is a conversation show focused on sex, love, yearning, desire, and movies, featuring hosts Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins alongside guest Sam Sanders.
  • Summary: The episode is dedicated to breaking down two ‘horny and thorny’ new releases: Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights and Harry Lighton’s Pillion. The discussion on Pillion will later include an interview with director Harry Lighton regarding adaptation and intimacy coordination. The show is sponsored by State Farm.
Fennell’s Filmmaking Identity
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(00:03:25)
  • Key Takeaway: Emerald Fennell has established herself as one of the few brand-name female filmmakers in studio cinema over the last decade, known for provocative work like Promising Young Woman and Saltburn.
  • Summary: Sam Sanders notes that Fennell’s films are intentionally provocative and generate significant noise, though he feels her previous films have failed to stick the landing. This tendency to create discussion is a recognized skill worth acknowledging, even if the execution is flawed.
Wuthering Heights Adaptation History
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(00:05:30)
  • Key Takeaway: The 1847 novel Wuthering Heights is considered significant literary IP, often seen as a gothic rejection of the Jane Austen era’s manners, despite being notoriously confusing due to multiple families, perspectives, and unreliable narrators.
  • Summary: This is the 35th film or television adaptation of the work, suggesting its enduring appeal as a cinematic set piece rich in desire and darkness. The book’s confusing structure, involving two generations and shifting perspectives, makes it a challenging text for filmmakers.
Heathcliff’s Ambiguous Race
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(00:10:50)
  • Key Takeaway: The original Wuthering Heights novel intentionally leaves Heathcliff’s ethnicity ambiguous, using terms like ‘gypsy’ while also describing him as pale, suggesting race and class are central themes that Fennell’s casting choices ignore.
  • Summary: The 2011 Andrea Arnold adaptation addressed this by casting a Black actor as Heathcliff and using racial slurs, making the theme explicit. Fennell’s decision to cast Jacob Elordi (white) as Heathcliff while casting non-white actors in traditionally white roles creates a confusing, race-blind approach that sidesteps the novel’s inherent social commentary.
Adaptation Philosophy and Thematic Misalignment
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(00:15:47)
  • Key Takeaway: Fennell’s adaptation fundamentally alters Wuthering Heights by excising the mean brother character, which removes the primary motivation for Heathcliff’s revenge plot and reframes the story as a pure, tragic romance akin to Romeo and Juliet.
  • Summary: A faithful adaptation risks being boring, but Fennell’s distortion seems to prioritize an epic desire narrative over the novel’s focus on resentment, class warfare, and property disputes. The removal of the brother, who was key to Heathcliff’s psychological development and revenge arc, undermines the story’s foundation.
Critique of Erotic Portrayals
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(00:23:33)
  • Key Takeaway: Fennell excels at portraying the viscous, imaginative foreplay and longing associated with sex, but the actual consummation scenes in Wuthering Heights are boring, fully clothed, and fail to deliver the promised payoff, suggesting her interest lies only in restraint and yearning.
  • Summary: The book is fundamentally about yearning, not consummation, but the film adds explicit sex scenes that fall flat, contrasting sharply with the visceral, painful imagery used in the buildup (like the hanging man opening scene). This failure to resolve the tension makes the film feel like it is constantly ’edging’ the audience without climax.
Casting and Performance Issues
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(00:46:26)
  • Key Takeaway: Both Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are considered miscast, as their controlled, charismatic performances lack the necessary abandon and irrationality required for the teenage passion central to Wuthering Heights.
  • Summary: Robbie’s inherent ‘winning’ quality, reminiscent of Julia Roberts, makes her unsuitable for playing the self-sabotaging Catherine, while Elordi’s overwhelming size and controlled brooding feel more like Frankenstein than the complex Heathcliff. The film’s visual presentation also fails, making ornate costumes look flat, despite being shot by heavyweight cinematographer Linus Sandgren.
Wuthering Heights Vision Critique
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(00:55:59)
  • Key Takeaway: Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is criticized for prioritizing singular vision over audience enjoyment, lacking the understandable execution found in her previous work like Marie Antoinette.
  • Summary: The filmmaker’s singular view is seen as provocative but ultimately unclear, unlike Marie Antoinette where the visual style and anachronisms served a discernible purpose. The lack of clarity in Wuthering Heights is attributed to a lack of execution, even if a vision exists. The hosts express a strong desire to interview Fennell to ascertain the ‘North Star’ or mission statement of her work.
Fennell’s Class Obsession
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(00:57:40)
  • Key Takeaway: Fennell consistently explores themes of low-born figures using revenge, sex, or death to break power structures, raising questions about this obsession given her own privileged background.
  • Summary: This pattern is noted across all three of her films, suggesting a persistent narrative focus on class conflict where the lower-born character is often overly chaotic. The hosts worry this thematic focus might translate to a problematic perspective: ’these people who have less than me are trying to kill me.’ A complete conversation about class requires acknowledging racial complications, which the hosts feel Fennell avoids.
Pillion’s Rom-Com Structure
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(01:06:02)
  • Key Takeaway: Pillion successfully updates the classic romantic comedy structure by expressing the central ‘will they/won’t they’ tension through unconventional, visceral sexual encounters rather than typical romantic beats.
  • Summary: The film is praised for being wonderfully paced and landing its ending fulfillingly, unlike Wuthering Heights. Its ingenuity lies in using sexual tension—including explicit details like a pierced cock ring in the first encounter—as the primary vehicle for conflict and connection. This approach allows the film to hit familiar emotional beats while expressing them through entirely new, queer, and visceral scenarios.
Pillion’s Nuance and Consent
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(01:10:37)
  • Key Takeaway: The film maintains its lovability by centering the BDSM dynamic entirely on consent, which differentiates it significantly from the source novel where the first sexual encounter is closer to rape.
  • Summary: Colin’s journey is nuanced because he actively chooses submission, and the film explores the separation between sexual desire and deeper emotional longing, a distinction few films, especially queer romances, capture authentically. The protagonist exhibits significant personal growth by the end, becoming wiser and more self-aware, contrasting sharply with the static characters in Wuthering Heights.
The Taboo of Male Nudity
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(01:21:18)
  • Key Takeaway: The lack of full frontal male nudity in mainstream cinema remains the last major taboo, largely driven by the taste of straight or closeted male executives who fear presenting male genitalia as normalized as female breasts.
  • Summary: Despite the prevalence of pornography, mainstream films like Pillion cut away from explicit male nudity, likely to secure a favorable rating for wider viewership. The hosts note that while Pillion is horny, it relies on thrusting and butt shots, contrasting with the explicit lingering on an erect penis seen in films like In the Realm of the Senses.
Lighton’s Filmmaking Origin
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(01:26:57)
  • Key Takeaway: Harry Lighton’s path to filmmaking was sparked at age 19 by watching The Lives of Others, leading him to obsessively watch two films daily for a year to develop his aesthetic taste.
  • Summary: His initial practical step was creating a short commercial for a play, which solidified his enjoyment of the production process. He secured the Pillion source material (Box Hill) after his planned sumo wrestling feature became unfeasible due to the pandemic. Lighton deliberately avoided classic biker films like The Wild One to create a new iconography rooted in contemporary streetwear and racing culture for the character Ray.
Adapting Tone Visually
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(01:30:38)
  • Key Takeaway: To adapt the novel’s complex, shifting tone, which relied on first-person narration, Lighton chose to avoid voiceover entirely and instead focused on finding equivalent visual imagery to support the emotional shifts.
  • Summary: Lighton collected multiple takes—both comedic and sincere—for scenes to ensure flexibility in the edit, a strategy he learned from reading about directors like Justine Trier and Maren Ade. His tactic for retaining an uninitiated audience was using comedy as a bridge, making viewers less likely to leave during abrasive or unsettling moments.
Choreographing Intimacy and Conflict
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(01:46:41)
  • Key Takeaway: Intimate scenes in Pillion were choreographed by finding a balance between structure (to give actors confidence) and allowing present-tense performance, contrasting with the wrestling scene which required formal stunt coordination.
  • Summary: The film intentionally separates sexual satisfaction from true longing, showing Colin’s journey of realizing his needs extend beyond the physical connection with Ray. The parents’ reaction reverses the typical queer cinema trope: they are initially accepting but become uncomfortable when the relationship’s nature becomes less normative, reflecting a more realistic modern dynamic.
Actor Casting Rationale
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(01:55:35)
  • Key Takeaway: Big name actors are sought either for their talent or as a necessary component for film financing.
  • Summary: Working with major actors is motivated by genuine belief in their brilliance, as seen with Alexander Skarsgård, or by the practical need to secure financing for otherwise tricky projects. The speaker notes this is a first for them in their career journey.
Film Promotion Cycle
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(01:55:53)
  • Key Takeaway: The nine-month promotional cycle following a premiere like Cannes or Telluride leads to speaker fatigue and halts new creative work.
  • Summary: The speaker finds the long promotional spin cycle, which began after the film premiered at Cannes and screened at Telluride, to be wild and exhausting after nine months. Having been warned that promotion prevents writing, the speaker plans to lock themselves away for six months immediately after finishing promotional duties to focus on their next script.
Next Project and Film Recommendation
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(01:57:08)
  • Key Takeaway: The director has an idea for their next film but will not discuss it publicly until after completing promotion for ‘Pillion’.
  • Summary: The speaker has recently worked out the idea for their next film but cannot yet disclose details, planning to begin writing immediately after the current promotional tour concludes. The last great film seen was ‘The Love That Remains,’ which is highly recommended for its laugh-out-loud funny moments and incorporation of slapstick fantasy sequences within a family drama structure.