Top of the evening, cats and kittens, and welcome to the first installment of what I like to call my “Unsung Wonders” collection. These are movies that, for one reason or another, were overlooked and have never received critical or cult acclaim. They may have been in the wrong genre or released at the same time as a big-budget blockbuster, or simply been so strange and beautiful that no one quite knew what to think. These films show up hidden in the recesses of obscure local video stores, and in order to find them one must often watch endless hours of pure drivel. I, in my selfless devotion, slog through these cesspools of z-grade cinema to find these gems so that you, gentle reader, don’t have to.
Gothic is one of these rare unsung wonders. Ken Russell, creator of such oddities as Lair of the White Worm and The Who’s Tommy has made a career of the strange and beautiful, and though unnoticed, Gothic is no exception. It’s psychedelic cinematography, complex imagery, and deep themes unfolds a tale that, while not historically accurate, is nonetheless true on some deeper level than that of facts.
The film is a dramatization of the famous “Summer of Fear”, when literary figures Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley shared a home at the Villa Diodati in 1816. They were joined by Mary’s half-sister Claire Clairemont and Lord Byron’s biographer and physician, Dr. Polidori, and spent the summer creating tales of horror. The novel that spawned a thousand other tales, “Frankenstein”, was allegedly conceived during this summer, and this the focus of Gothic: the night these great writers and poets gave birth to a monster with their imagination.
In all of this, Gothic is historically accurate. But as the film develops we see that Russell’s fascination with the absurd and philosophical, with lines such as “What love between a mad god and the devil!” and “Lightning is the fundamental source of the universe! The ether! The spirit!” interspersed with a droll humor and blatant sensuality, is in full force. The group drives themselves into frenzies of both terror and and exhilaration as they explore the extremes of their own personalities, until finally they are seized with an idea: they shall give birth to a life from their imagination, formed out of their fears and fueled by their appetites.
In a sense, the entire movie is a ritual, an exorcism and cleansing of the deepest kind. Each character, who we must remember were each real people whose lives were drenched in tragedy, is confronted by their worst fears and deepest hungers given shape and substance. These scenes are tragic and deeply moving, as each of them are forced to come to terms with the darkness within them. The fact that the movie is honest to the lives of these people, in each scene pointing back to the historical facts the tale is built from, forces a real empathy onto the viewer. We know, if we bother to look it up, that Mary Shelley was deeply scarred by the death of her child, and so when the movie shows us a kaleidoscope of her pain we are invited to join her in it. In every way this film is participative, causing a change in the viewer.
Especially impressive is Julian Sands, who’s career has been overall lackluster. His portrayal of the desperate genius Percy Shelley allows him to prove his emotional range in a way that Warlock could not, and shows him to be more than a pretty face and an accent.
Gothic is a strange and complex film. I heartily recommend it as I would recommend any piece of potent art. It will move you, change you and make you into something different than you were before. It is not for the faint of heart, but it is truly one of the unsung wonders. Watch it with some friends and discuss it afterward.
Stay tuned for more unsung wonders and gems of the dollar-bin with thePuck.
thePuck is a professional writer and cyber-journalist at large. View his blog at www.thepuckwrites.com.
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