Gothic

With his 1986 film GOTHIC, director Ken Russell brings to life the infamous stormy night which took place at the Villa Diodati by the shores of Lake Geneva, during which the enfant terrible poet Lord Byron and his guests, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Dr. Polidori and Claire Clairmont, entertained each other with ghost stories – culminating in the birth of Mary W. Shelley’s immortal classic ‘Frankenstein’ and Polidori’s short work ‘The Vampyre’. With a unique screenplay by Stephen Volk and with Russell directing, expect this get-together a laudanum-induced and well, gothic nightmare!

There was really never anyone quite like maverick director Ken Russell, regarded by many as a genius although some may have thought madman a more likely word. Few directors could encompass a stretch from shall we say 'Mahler' to 'Tommy' and then cast the star of that film, The Who's Roger Daltrey, in the pivotal role of Liszt in 'Lisztomania' - which turned out to be a mega-flop. Somehow a film about the radical literary geniuses (oh, that word again) Byron and the Shelleys (not entirely overlooking Byron's in-house 'personal' physician Dr. John Polidori) would seem a very likely subject for Russell; although in this instance it wasn't exactly his idea - screenwriter Stephen Volk had sent his script to the head of Virgin Films (what? - unsolicited?) and he passed the idea onto Russell, who was clearly taken with the subject matter.

Before watching the film, it might perhaps be a good idea to bone up on your knowledge of what actually occurred at Lord Byron's mansion Villa Diodati on that eventful night in 1816, which resulted in Mary writing her masterpiece 'Frankenstein - or The Modern Prometheus' and Polidori's short story 'The Vampyre' (initially credited to Byron) - the first vampire story without which Stoker's own classic ‘Dracula’ may possibly never have been written. Just how much of a liberty Russell and Volk have taken concerning the actual events we shall never really know - one feels they may well have gone overboard with Polidori but...
The film begins with a nearby neighbouring group spying on Byron's estate through a large telescope - thus serving as a prologue narrative. We then hop back some years earlier and the controversial Lord (mad, bad and dangerous to know – perhaps the Russell Brand of his day…) and played with conviction by Gabriel Byrne, has invited the free-thinking poet Shelley (the late Julian Sands), his lover, Mary Wollstonecraft (Natasha Richardson) who was later to be become his wife, and Mary's step-sister Claire Clairmont (Myriam Cyr), who was actually already pregnant with Byron's baby at that time, to the villa (in reality Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire - which is a much larger country mansion that the original Villa Diodati). This get-together was probably Clairmont's idea as she had fallen madly in love with the self-exiled Lord.

We see the three arriving in a rowing boat on (supposedly) Lake Geneva. The wild and wanton Claire is pretending to be a ship's figurehead. Their behaviour tells us that they are all up 'for a bit of fun' - although Mary is a little more reserved. Byron greets them from the top of his ornate staircase and immediately Mary senses danger and she is right to do so. Not so Shelley, who is much taken by the slightly older man and it won't be difficult for the bisexual Lord to seduce the younger poet who was, after all, a great believer in free love. Also on board is Polidori (Timothy Spall), here portrayed as a monstrously guilt-ridden, effeminate homosexual and presumably his Lordship's on and off lover. It is he who takes no time in introducing the newly arrived guests to laudanum (a 10% tincture of opium mixed with alcohol) although their later behaviour would suggest a far more lethal dose... A fair few glasses are consumed and Shelley downs his in one. The 'games' are about to commence, with everyone on a completely fevered imaginative overdrive. Byron, the catalyst, would appear to be in control and introduces the small group to a new book he has acquired called 'Phantasmagoria' and asks that they all read extracts from it, resulting in them seeing the stories in their minds, which are only too vividly depicted. Meanwhile, Mary is still consumed by the loss of her baby - was it this sad event that caused her immortal, indestructible literary creation? Either way, she starts to imagine no end of nightmarish scenarios, which literally beggar description. Shelley is seen naked on the roof challenging the elements (one wonders if this was actually dangerous to do - but this was daredevil Julian Sands after all), Claire goes even more bonkers than she already is and it’s hard to decipher whether her bulging-eyed grimaces are down to acting or natural.

Then they all decide on a séance (why not?), putting their hands on an old skull Byron has lying about. Indeed, you wouldn't believe quite what he has lying about, for example a life-size female automaton seated at the harpsichord, another automaton which resembles a seductive belly dancer, plus a life-size anatomical figure in Polidori's unfurnished white bedroom dominated by a crucifix above his bed (tormented soul Polidori, it being the early 19th century, believes God does not approve of his sexuality). They all succeed (or do they?) in summoning forth some evil entity that is glimpsed by all except Byron and drives them nearly to the brink of madness, what with Mary having the most macabre dreams and in tears throughout (as indeed Richardson was, we are informed on set). In one instance, Henry Fuseli's famous painting 'The Nightmare' comes to life, albeit with Mary slumped across the bed and an imp sitting on her. Polidori becomes insanely jealous of Byron's preference for Shelley and goes totally awol while a naked Claire is found in the rat-infested cellar covered in mud (or was it supposed to be something else?), actually chewing on a rat - causing Mary to vomit (and perhaps some viewers too). And so it goes on – with the film culminating in the foreboding of Shelley’s untimely death by drowning and Mary’s literary creation.

Screenwriter Volk and director Russell conjure up a whole roller- coaster of outrageous horrors, all of which take place under one roof (albeit a seemingly huge palatial one). God alone knows what this must have been like for the actors (here thinking of James Fox's breakdown after 'Performance). We may also ask ourselves how bad a catalyst Byron actually was - after all, Shelley was certainly no angel either. Competent performances all round (which could not have been that easy) with Byrne the master of ceremonies, Sands was always Sands while Richardson delivers a more nuanced performance. They certainly worked hard for their wages and Timothy Spall quite possibly steals the show. As for Miriam Cyr, what became of her? Not the loveliest part to play, was it? GOTHIC is not for the easily offended - but we are talking Ken Russell! Despite its small budget, it is beautifully filmed and edited.

Special Features: feature film presented in HD / Feature commentary by film historian M. Melia and L. Russell (2018) / ‘The Fall of the Louse of Usher’ (2002, 83 mins): Ken Russell’s outrageous reworking of Poe legendarily lurid late video work, starring ‘Gallon Drunk’ frontman James Johnston as demented rock star Roddy Usher, with Russell himself playing Dr. Calahari, leader of an insane asylum – judging by this ‘homage’ it would appear that Russell himself had lost the plot by this time… / A Haunted Evening (2023, 35 mins): Stephen Volk, the writer of Gothic, revisits his earliest feature scrip / ‘The Soul of Shelley’ with Julian Sands (2017, 18 mins): the late actor reflects upon the making of Gothic / ‘Amelia and the Angel’ (1958, 27 mins): a charming early Russell short set in London / The Guardian Lecture: Ken Russell in conversation with Derek Malcolm (1987, 88 mins, audio only) / Original trailer / Illustrated booklet (first pressing only).