Gormenghast

Starring: Celia Imrie, Jonathan Rhys Meyers Director: Andy Wilson Original UK Premiere: 2000 Dvd Release: 5th June, 2000 Number Of Discs: 2 Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Region 2 Encoding

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Gormenghast is a novel written by Mervyn Peake & first published in 1950. It is the second work in the Gormenghast series. The other works in the series include Titus Groan, Boy in Darkness, Titus Alone & the unfinished Titus Awakes. The following description may contain material revealing a portion of the plot. The story follows the somewhat bizarre inhabitants of Gormenghast Castle & chronicles the rise to power of Steerpike, a lowly kitchen boy, to the detriment of the eccentric Groan family. The book was well-received by critics upon its publication. Gormenghast & Titus Groan have been the subject of several television, film & radio adaptations. The most recent adaptation was produced by the BBC in 2000.

DVD Extras: The double DVD comes with scene selection, an informative half-hour documentary on the making of the serial & a slide gallery of costume designs, characters & their dooms.

The BBCs lavish, glowingly designed adapation of Mervyn Peakes eccentrically brilliant novels Titus Groan & Gormenghast is a triumph of casting. Ian Richardsons Lear-like depiction of the mad earl of a remote, vast, ritual-obsessed building is matched by the brutal pragmatism of Celia Imrie as his wife, the synchronised madness of Zoe Wanamaker & Lynsey Baxter as his twin sisters & the duplicitous charm of Jonathan Rhys-Meyer as Steerpike, the kitchen-boy determined to take over no matter how many deaths it costs. John Sessions is surprisingly touching as Prunesquallor, the family doctor who realises almost too late what Steerpike intends.

It is always tricky to film a book dear to the hearts of its admirers: Wilson & his design team achieve a look rather more pre-Raphaelite than Peakes own illustrations, shabby velvets, garish sunlight & dank stone passages. The score by Richard Rodney Bennett is full of attractive surprises, fanfares & waltzes & apotheoses, & John Taveners choral additions are plausibly parts of the immemorial ritual of Gormenghast.

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers is an Irish actor & Golden Globe winner for his portrayal of Elvis in CBS mini-series, Elvis. // He was born Jonathan Michael Francis OKeeffe. He changed his name when he began acting. Meyers is his mothers maiden name. He was born with heart problems & was baptised early out of fear that he might die; shortly after, his family moved to County Cork, Ireland, where he still resides. Jonathan had a turbulent childhood. After his father left the family when Jonathan was only three years old, his mother raised Jonathan & his three younger brothers on her own. At the age of 16 he was permanently expelled from school, but he was discovered by casting agents shortly after at a Cork pool hall, the Victoria Sporting Club & began a career in acting. Rhys Meyers has starred in television series like Gormenghast, as Elvis Presley in the CBS 4 hour mini-series Elvis, which earned him an Emmy nomination & a Golden Globe win. His films include Velvet Goldmine & Bend It Like Beckham. In 2005 he starred in Woody Allen s film Match Point with Scarlett Johansson.

Editors Choice: Gormenghast, The Tesseract, Velvet Goldmine, View DVDology

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