Gothic (1986)
Keeping things in the same vein (!), Gothic begins with famous poet Percy Shelley arriving at Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva to visit Lord Byron, with his bride-to-be Mary Godwin, and her stepsister Claire Clairmont. Byron’s physician Dr. John Polidori provides an endless supply of laudanum, sending these literary figures on a riotous, hallucination-filled journey through one stormy night that’s famed for being the source of some of our most famous fictional monsters.
Byron, Godwin, Shelley and Polidori whip each other into a fervour as a metaphor for the artists creative process and the courage required in the face of all the imagery and emotions that can fly around while making art. They bicker and fight and challenge each other in ever more excessive ways. I love Ken Russell. He’s not afraid to be weird, sexual, gloopy and violent.
His camera gets in the faces of the actors, and what actors he found: Julian Sands, Natacha Richardson, Gabriel Byrne, Timothy Spall, and a wondrous Myriam Cyr (here talking about working with Ken Russell who sounds like he was a bona fide genius). Cyr is a new name to me, and had a long career after this in theatre, writing and directing.
The script was written by Stephen Volk (here talking in depth about the history of the Frankenstein story and how he worked with Russell). Volk went on to write Ghostwatch and many other things for television, as well as novels and short stories. In that linked interview he talks about writing being done by aristocrats back in the day, the idle minds that didn’t have to work, and how we’re heading back to that today, with most writers not being able to make a living as writers, and film-makers having to be lucky enough to be supported by rich parents with houses in London.