Gabriel Byrne and Natasha Richardson in Gothic, 1986
Ken Russell
“What is fame? The advantage of being known by people of whom you yourself know nothing, and for whom you care as little.” - Lord Byron
screencap from “Gothic” (Ken Russell, 1986)
The trailer to Ken Russell’s 1986 film <i>Gothic</i>, starring Gabriel Byrne as Lord Byron, Julian Sands as Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Natasha Richardson as Mary Shelley. Inspired by the famous evening at Lord Byron’s villa on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, during which Shelley was said to have come up with the idea for Frankenstein after a night spent telling ghost stories.
screencap from Gothic by Ken Russell.
that’s a boob.
Gothic
Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986)
Director Ken Russell & his family make an uncredited appearance as tourists at the end of the film.
Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986)
Filming was done in England, at Gaddesden Place & Wrotham Park.
Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986)
Gabriel Byrne walks with a limp and carries a cane in the movie. This is because the real Lord Byron had a club foot.
Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986)
Polidori’s line “Sleep is nature’s balm” comes from a poem by Keats, a contemporary and close friend of both Shelley and Byron.
Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986)
The Hungarian title for the film was ‘Gótika, avagy a szellem éjszakája,’ which roughly translates to ‘Gothic, or the Night of Spirit.’
Gothic (1986)
During one of the establishing shots of the villa at night, a slowly revolving band of light appears on screen. This comes from a “phantasmagoria”, a device which displayed pictures by sending light through holes cut in a ring of metal. The book that Mary Shelley and co. read which inspired her to write Frankenstein (and lead to the events in the movie) was also called Phantasmagoria.
Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986)
Originally released at the London Film Festival in November of 1986, and then again at the Fantasporto Film Festival in Portugal in February of 1987. International releases continued from February to July of that year (April for the US), but Turkey did not receive it until 1989. Hungary did not see an official release until 1993.
Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986)
The painting that Mary Shelley sees on the wall, and that subsequently comes to life in her dream, is Johann Heinrich Fuessli’s “Nightmare.” It is again reproduced in the poster.
Gothic (Ken Russell, 1986)
After Percy Bysshe Shelley comes down from the roof and tells of his fascination with lightning, Byron calls him “Shelley, The Modern Prometheus.” When it was first published in 1818, Mary Shelley’s novel was called “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.”
