Pretty Good

How sad is this?

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Historical accuracy moves over to make room for dramatic license in this extremely bizarre "re-imagining" of the weekend Mary Shelley first brought "Frankenstein" to life (as it were!). Although, to be fair, there isn't too much about the novel at all.Byron (Gabriel Byrne) invites Mary, her then future husband Percy (Julian Sands) and her cousin Claire to spend the weekend with himself and another friend of his, Dr Pollidore (who also went on to write a Gothic horror) at his estate in Geneva. After much drug-fuelled recourse, dodgy parlour games and sexually liberated liaisons it becomes apparent that the ever omni-sexual Byron has questionable motives and is basically trying to fire-in to all the guests! This brings about an adequate amount of paranoia,jealousy and arguing amongst everyone which inevitably turns into soul-seeking, psychotic breakdowns and eventual emotional ennui. Presumably it is in this state Shelley went on to put pen to paper.The cast are solid in their roles and Byrne is thoroughly convincing as the foppish predator. Russell delivers this movie with complete frankness and is somewhat mercenary in his reshaping of the facts to suit his own ends. Never one to shirk from the difficult often shocking subjects, he manages to turn an otherwise average script into a sexually charged hallucinogenic nightmare. While not exactly deserving of the "horror" label it has been tagged with, "Gothic" is an interesting foray into the dark abyss of the director's mind.

Not a terrible film, but not one of Russell's best. It is very easy why one would be fascinated or dumbfounded, because it is a very good example of being a fairly unique film but a weird one at the same time, so you're not sure what to make of it(again very like Lisztomania). To be honest there's not a whole lot to add that hasn't already been said. The story is very jumpy and chaotic that it is not very easy to follow, sometimes in the middle verging on incoherent. There are a few dull stretches in the middle too, and the ending feels forced and structurally at odds with the rest of the film. Gothic can feel all-over-the-place tonally too, the subject matter- a good idea by the way- is relatively serious but is performed in a camp, theatrical way so it is not easy to take things seriously, considering that this is Ken Russell we're talking about that may have been the intent. There are not many directors quite like Ken Russell, and he is certainly an interesting one but also can resort to excess, and while not as badly as Lisztomania and the Richard Strauss documentary Dance of the Seven Veils this happens in Gothic. His touches do fit well generally within the decadent atmosphere but they are not always tasteful or relevant, sometimes overwrought, and they do swamp what's going on. Most of the cast are very good, taking on a characteristically(of Russell that is) theatrical approach, though Julian Sands' performance is a mix of soppy and over-exaggerated and Myriam Cyr's inexperience does show. Of the performances, Natasha Richardson for me gave the best performance, she was the most subtle actor in the cast and she does it with skill and allure. Timothy Spall is a total sleaze and so much fun to watch and Gabriel Byrne is mysterious personified. Some of Russell's excesses aside, Gothic is a well-made film, as Gothic as the title suggests and has the right amount of grandiose and decadent, which suits the tense and imaginative atmosphere to a tee. The photography was fine as well. Thomas Dolby's music score pulsates with eeriness and energy and not in an over-bearing way. The script doesn't always find the right tone, but I personally can't deny that the campiness was fun to watch and hear, even more so when the actors were uttering it with the amount of relish they did. The prologue at the beginning was beautifully done, it looked beautiful and had a real sense of atmosphere. On the whole, not an easy film to rate but while interesting and with a fair bit to recommend it was personally one of Russell's weaker films. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Story of the night that Mary Shelley gave birth to the horror classic "Frankenstein." Disturbed drug induced games are played and ghost stories are told one rainy night at the mad Lord Byron's country estate.When you have a horror film directed by Ken Russell, starring Gabriel Byrne as Lord Byron, Julian Sands as Percy Bysshe Shelley and Natasha Richardson as Mary Shelley, you expect a certain level of quality, or at least entertainment. And I think this more or less hit those marks.For me, the most troublesome part was the poor quality DVD. Maybe there are good ones and bad ones, but the one I had was pretty fuzzy -- not unlike a VHS transfer. This is the sort of title that Shout Factory could do wonders with.

Fierce and flamboyant film director Ken Russell takes the viewer for a weekend in the country with some literary notables in Gothic, a nightmarish orgy of blood and thunder based in fact. It is nothing new for Russell who unlike like any other director took factual historic accounts of lives of the famous (Mahler, Tchaicovsky, Isadora Duncan) and applied audacious compositions that some might say bordered on character assassination. Given Byron's temperament I'm sure he would have approved.Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne) has the poet Shelly (Julian Sands) , wife Mary (Natacha Richardson), and half sister sometime lover Claire down to the Villa for a weekend of sadistic parlor games challenging the status quo and their sanity with ungoverned imagination and confession. Accomodated by a violent storm the five scurry wildly from room to room to roof hallucinating and acting out monstrously. The weekend is framed between two eras fitted into brief prologue and epilogue, centuries apart with inquisitive tourists checking out the grounds and listening to the same gossipy chatter of the guide. Within this framework we are barraged with relentless scenes of shock and awe as each character confronts and is confronted with mean spiritedness and cruel reality. Russell in typical form offers up some incredibly potent imagery with copious amounts of blood and sexual depravity as well as appearances by living gargoyles and leeches. He allows no respite between opening and finale as the dark humor he skillfully applies in other films is so dark as to be invisible here. Byrne provides the character of Byron with a a perverse twinkle in his eye while half sis Claire played by Myriam Cyr remains semi demonic throughout. Sands idealistic Shelley counterpoints Byron nicely and Natascha Richardson brings a balance and touch of sanity to the group as Mary Shelly, even as she endures a night of terror and memory. Fifth wheel Dr. Polidori played by Timothy Sprall conveys a magnificent repugnance. With Byron's well documented esoteric lifestyle and the fact that Mary Shelley claims to have been inspired on this night to write the book Frankenstein Russell's wild style is a good fit to fill in blanks. Watching it for some may be an ordeal but I'm sure Lord Byron would have been impressed with Ken's kindred spirit.