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Gothic (Ken Russel, 1986)
Oct
1
Frankenstein
Percy Shelley (Gabriel Byrne), Mary Shelley (Natasha Richardson) and Dr Polidori (a deliriously delicious Timothy Spall). DP: Mike Southon.
A [favourite] Frankenstein film.
One wet, ungenial summer in 1816, lovers Mary Godwin and Percy Shelley, and Mary's stepsister Claire Clairmont, visited a dear friend at Villa Diodati. That friend was Lord Byron, exiled and residing in the Swiss villa with his physician Dr John Polidori
“There are no ghosts in daylight. You'll get used to our nights at Diodati. A little indulgence to heighten our existence on this miserable Earth. Nights of the mind, the imagination. Nothing more.”
– Lord Byron
Forced indoors, over the cause of three days they turned to the occult, to laudanum, to stories from the Fantasmagoriana, and the horrors of their own. That summer, Frankenstein saw the light of day.
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Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)
Jan
7
Wed
Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) in his tank. Around him visions of clouds, fishes, the ocean. DP: Jordan Cronenweth.
“I'm a man in search of his true self. How archetypically American can you get?”
– Eddie Jessup
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Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)
May
18
tea
An almost monochrome man and woman in Edwardian costumes sit at a round table under a parasol. The couple looks out over a field with bright orange poppies. The flowers are filmed through a fisheye lens and appear to be on a grassy green planet.. DP: Jordan Cronenweth.
“She's still crazy about him. He's still crazy.”
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Mahler (Ken Russell, 1974)
Nov
12
World Pneumonia Day
Gustav (Robert Powell) and Alma (Georgina Hale), both in a three piece suit with top hats. She's in a shadows, wearing a tight, black veil that completely conceals her features. DP: Dick Bush.
A sickly #GustavMahler (Robert Powell) and his wife Alma (Georgina Hale) dwell on their shared lives while travelling to Vienna by train. Storylines – circular like a journey, rondo like #Mahler's compositions – drift from the ordinary to the grotesque.
“I don't want to imitate nature. I want to capture its very essence. As if all the birds and the beasts die tomorrow and the world became a desert, when people heard my music – they would still know, feel, what nature was.”
– Gustav Mahler
This would be the composer's final tour. A train took him to a Vienna sanatorium where not much later he'd succumb to #pneumonia.
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Lisztomania (Ken Russell, 1975)
Jun
16
National Richard Day
“No, Wagner! Stay in Hell where you belong!”
– Franz Liszt