I Think, Therefore I Review.: Gothic

I Think, Therefore I Review.: Gothic: Kinky and Weird Gothic Not For Everyone By Leigh Wood


Sometimes I wonder if stars Gabriel Byrne, Julian Sands, and Natasha Richardson are embarrassed by Ken Russell’s 1986 horror romp Gothic. I like its sexual and psychological horror blurs between dreams andreality, but I picked up the DVD at the Dollar Store, so maybe that says something
 

Young couple Percy (Julian Sands) and Mary Shelley (Natasha Richardson) travel with Mary’s half sister Claire (Miriam Cyr) to Lord Byron’s (Gabriel Byrne) estate outside Geneva. The stormy lair is full of dark shadows and sexual fun for the uptight Shelleys, and one night with Lord Byron leads them to discover their worst fears and desires-inspirations that lead to the creation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein...

I Think, Therefore I Review.: Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981)

I Think, Therefore I Review.: Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981): Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Again. By Leigh Wood

So, I’m up late at night with no satisfying porn-er film- to be had-until the 1981 version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover comes on. Shorter and a little more uninvolved than Ken Russell’s 1993 adaptation, this version suffers from weak casting and bad styling more than anything else.

After Sir Clifford Chatterley (Shane Briant) is injured in the war and returns home paralyzed, his young marriage to Connie (Sylvia Kristel) strains. Though Clifford gives Connie permission to seek an upper-class lover, she herself becomes sick with the burdens of the household and her husband’s illness. When Mrs. Bolton (Ann Mitchell) comes to the estate to nurse the Baronet, she also suggests ‘fresh air and healthy activity’ for Connie. It’s a prescription that leads Lady Chatterley towards her husband’s strong and brutish gamekeeper Mellors (Nicholas Clay)....

I Think, Therefore I Review.: Lady Chatterley

I Think, Therefore I Review.: Lady Chatterley: Lady Chatterley Not All Porn (But Still Not For Everyone) Guest Review By Leigh Wood


On The cusp of my Lord of The Rings obsession, I’ve been passing the time by watching films starring the actors from Peter Jackson’s Oscar winning epic trilogy. When my quest for Sean Bean films led me to watch Ronin- in English and Spanish-I broke down and bought the first movie I had seen the Boromir actor in- the 1993 BBC production of Lady Chatterley.

 
Sure Patriot Games and Goldeneye are great, but it was director Ken Russell’s adaptation of the banned D.H.
Lawrence novels that embedded Sean Bean in my brain. Sex, adultery,
class divides, and naughty language sent not one, but three versions of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover underground. When the third and most tame version was finally published in 1928, scandal and controversy erupted on both sides of the Atlantic....

I Think, Therefore I Review.: Lady Chatterley's Lover

I Think, Therefore I Review.: Lady Chatterley's Lover: Lady Chatterley’s Lover Wasn’t All That Shocking A 'Novel' Guest Review By Leigh Wood

After one too many viewing’s of the 1992 BBC production of Lady Chatterley, I finally broke down and read the book. I thought the 1928 unedited version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence would be a tough book to find. Expensive, rare, old leather, smelly, buried in an antiquarian store-that type of book. Indeed I was very pleased to find the 1928 Unexpurgated Oriali Edition in paperback at my local Borders. $4.95!

I wrapped Mists of Avalon as quickly as possible and avoided watching the film before I plunged into Lover. I read other writers’ criticisms on D.H. Lawrence and his works before purchasing the book, and I knew the book and movie didn’t have the same ending. Of course, I also knew the book’s controversial reputation and supposedly salacious use of naughty words and torrid sex talk. My edition opened with forwards and introductions detailing the book’s tough road to publication and the aftermath of censorship. Although this story is fairly well known in literary circles, this introduction is informative, with details and facts on the books printing, pirated editions, and trial information. Even if one was a toe towards prudish, you can’t not be interested in reading Lady Chatterley’s Lover after these words of praise....