|
| Pandaemonium [2001] | ![Pandaemonium [2001]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51SXPMS360L._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Julien Temple
Actors: Linus Roache, John Hannah, Samantha Morton, Emily Woof, Emma Fielding
Studio: 2 Entertain Video
Category: DVD
Buy Used: £29.50
New (2) from £61.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 28831
Format: Anamorphic, Pal, Widescreen
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Running Time: 119 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5014138039523
ASIN: B00006JNBE
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
Release Date: September 16, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews:
 Love in a cold climate August 12, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Julian Temple cinematic creation of the story of Wordsworth and Coleridge's tempetuous relationship is moulded in a curiously stark,black & white manner.
In Julian Temple's world, Wordsworth's creative talent is constantly wilting in the shadow of Coleridge's genius. Furthermore, his revolutionary sympathies are a dark betrayal of Coleridge, the genuine apostle of new-ageism and political egalitarianism. Wordsworth harbouring a burning desire to be the establishments' poet laureate and member of the wealthy status quo.
By contrast,sister Dorothy, brilliantly portrayed by Emily Woolf is a genuine subversive and free spirit and recognizes STC's genius as far and above her brother's quota.
Whether this portrayal is accurate is open to dispute but certainly Julian Temple through casting John Hannah as a weak and generally inadequate individual, certainly leaves the viewer with no doubt who his sympathies lie with.
Linus Roache is excellent as STC and his wild eyed, sweat streaked opium induced rantings are both frightening and convincing.
Visually and lyrically impressive but not quite a classic.
 Pandemonium January 9, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I used to live in the village that Coleridge lived once, but is it me or did i see a shot with hinlley point nucleur power station behind him????
I probably didnt watch the film right but im sure i saw it....please correct me if im wrong....
A Stately Pleasure January 8, 2007
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I rarely give five stars. The magic of this film to me was ironically demonstrated by the director in his commentary when he said he did not understand why Sam West (playing Robert Southey) was in tears whilst Emily Woof (playing Dorothy Wordsworth) related Kubla Khan. It was plain to me why the actor Sam West was in tears because I was too!
Words to sum up this film for me include beauty, depth, incite, spirit. The irregular intrusion of the modern world into the story of the relationship between Coleridge and Wordsworth was not laughable nor blasphemous, but was instead a clever and laudable way of demonstrating the solid links between Coleridge's prophesying poetry and the dangers of breaking the bonds of nature in the 21st century. So shots of jetstreams, nuclear power stations, oil spills, mobile telephones and television aerials only added to the pleasure that this film evokes.
By the way, the music is wonderful, one of the first soundtracks by Dario Marianelli. Shame it's not available on CD.
If I have one criticism, it is the speaking of the poetry itself. It is too regular in metre and too flat in tone. Where is the emotion. The speakers could just as well have been reciting the telephone directory for all the meaning that could be gleaned from those wonderful words. But apart from this minor cavil, the film is otherwise faultless, a classic that will hopefully become more and more worthy as the years progress.
 Thank God for the only film about Poetry... February 10, 2005
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
It's rare for a film about poets to actually have much of the poetry they actually wrote in it as well, but this film tries to dramatise quite nice large chunks of both "Kubla Khan" and "The Ancient Mariner" with a bit of "Frost at Midnight" thrown in too. Sex Pistols and pop video director Julien Temple treats them like the rock'n'roll of their day as they really were, and you don't need to know your stuff to enjoy it. Mixing in modern-city day tableaux with scenes from the 1790s (greatest cultural and revolutionary decade until the 1960s didn't you know)the film then brings up to date a world far from stuck in the bookshelf past that most academics try to make it.
Although the nasty-and-jealous character of William Wordsworth may not be wholly accurate (which many academics have hated Julien Temple for) it makes sense for the story as dramatic obstacle and to highlight wider British social and historical issues as the country descends into boring Victoriana, and well - sort of loses its "cool".
Also represented by some of the cream of British acting talent by the way - with both Emily Woof and Samantha Morton in the two strong female roles, this is a really brave and inspiring attempt, and featuring real shots from the beautiful English West Country that Coleridge and Wordworth wrote in, and in which director Julien Temple himself grew up (but he'll tell you that in his commentary and if you don't know anything about the poetry and times either don't worry because he'll explain the lot).
The Birth of British Romanticism? October 7, 2004
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
This is quite simply the best film I have seen for years. How I had not heard of it before I am ashamed to admit. For anyone interested in this period of history and in the canon of Romantic poetry, this film is required viewing. It is visually stunning, entertaining, joyous, disturbing and hilarious. When I watched it, I was revising for an exam on Romanticism and it really brought the whole era to life for me. Some of the scenes such as Sir Humphry Davy's hot air balloon are beautiful and funny, while the scene with the helium is hilarious. The young poets' optimism and zest for life is wonderfully portrayed. John Hannah gives a very interesting rendition of Wordsworth's lack of genius compared to Coleridge's natural artistic genius: an imagination as deep as Kubla Khan's 'romantic chasms'. Some scenes are breathtakingly compelling. I wanted the film to go on for at least another hour. Linus Roache's portrayal of Coleridge, with his wide-eyed idealism and later utter addiction to opium is brave and totally, for me, convincing. There are also lovely little touches like the lizard he puts in a bell jar in his garden and calls 'the king of his own little kingdom' an allusion perhaps to his idea, unfulfilled, of a pantisocracy.While not strictly sticking to the facts at times, who cares? It is the director's zest for the period that shines through. And after all Romanticism was all about Byron's immortal line: ''Tis to create and in creating live'. It is Julien Temple's masterpiece and I beg him to produce more like it. There are some entertaining 'extras' where the actors' enthusiasm is clearly genuine. One reading of the poem Kubla Khan, each line with a different reader brings the poem to life.
|
|
|
Learn how to have your own
Amazon Shop
Travel Maps and Guides
zeugma
| | Holiday Travel |
alpharooms.com for cheap holiday deals in spain and worldwide
Disneyland Paris for a great family holiday or short break.
Holday Cottages throughout Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland and France with Cottages4you
Hilton - need we say more, you will find Hilton Hotels in most areas throughout Britain, in cities and in the countryside.
Don't forget Travel Insurance
Airport Parking
|
|
|
|
