Ken Russell’s films are always interesting to look at, although those who haven’t acquired a taste for his symbolism-laden work and his perplexing visual jokes tend to write them off as nothing more than that. Russell is a smart filmmaker – sometimes too smart – and his movies are uncompromising in their refusal to provide a straightforward narrative. Is there any way to make Russell’s films easier to follow? Apparently there is. If the subject matter is fantastic enough, it might just be that Russell’s need for outrageous images can be satisfied without needing to introduce as many incomprehensible visual non-sequiturs.
In Gothic, Russell has characters that are among the most colourful in history: the writers Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne), Percy Shelley (Julian Sands), Mary Godwin (Natasha Richardson), who was soon to be Mary Shelley, Dr. John Polidori (Timothy Spall) and Mary’s stepsister Claire Clairemont (Myriam Cyr). These were real folks, and by all accounts, they were pretty wild. Their behaviour, and their written works, were ample evidence of this.
The premise here is fascinating – it’s 1816 and the five have gathered at an isolated island estate in Switzerland to share scary stories and stir up scary dreams. They gather around a skull – with the assistance of drugs – to conjure up their greatest fears. They have fertile imaginations, later demonstrated by Polidori’s creation of The Vampyre, which inspired the character Count Dracula, and Mary’s creation of Frankenstein. Legend says that both were inspired by this night of sitting around a skull and letting their imaginations run wild.
Russell’s version of these fantasies is as weird and erotic as one would expect. Each character has a particular fear. Percy is terrified of being buried alive; Mary fears delivering a stillbirth; Byron is intensely frightened of leeches. These and other fears are realized here in the dark of the night. The fantasies are wild enough that Russell’s depiction seems almost straightforward – which is a remarkable thing to say about this director. Sure, there’s an obligatory unexplained fish out of water, flipping about as the film shifts scenes, but inexplicable weirdness is otherwise largely absent.
Is there a point to all the scary fantasies? It’s an odd journey inside the minds of great and outrageous artists. We all have our fears, but you can depend on Byron, Shelley, and company to lend theirs particular colour. Great artists have great ideas and great fears.
Byrne and Sands both do reasonably well in these roles. They show more life here than in the vast majority of their roles since then. Cyr – also nearly a newcomer at the time – is even more perky, grabbing our attention from early in the film. Spall uses his unusual face to great effect – looking like a bug-eyed mole as events spin around him. Richardson seems a bit out of her element.
Gothic is a weird and visually memorable film that Russell fans will love and others will find interesting and at least slightly more accessible than most of his other films.
A weird and visually memorable film that Russell fans will love and others will find interesting and at least slightly more accessible than most of his other films.- Brian Webster
