Film Screening: Gothic

Friday, May 25, 2007. 7:00 PM. Location: Fools Foundation – 1025 19th St, Sacramento. Off of K St between 19th & 20th next to the back end of Old Spaghetti Factory. Admission: $5.00.

Forget your backyard beer and bbq this Memorial Day weekend and load up on your favorite opiate for an evening of twisted Ken Russell weirdness!

The story is embellished from events which allegedly took place at the Swiss villa of Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne) on the night of June 16, 1816 which supposedly led to the creation of the novel Frankenstein. Byron's guests include poet Percy Shelley (Julian Sands) and his future wife Mary (Natasha Richardson); Mary's half-sister Claire (Myriam Cyr) and Byron's leech-happy personal physician Dr. John Polidori (Timothy Spall). Byron promises them a night of horror like only a mad poet can deliver — after partaking of laudanum and other hallucinogens, the guests tell ghost stories while exploring the dark corridors of his home. From here, Russell dives headlong into madness, discarding plot structure in favor of fever-dream setpieces in which the guests confront living manifestations of their own fears and insecurities — creative, mortal and sexual, among others. As the Washington Post synopsis includes: “Things get out of hand. Four-posters squeak with sexcapades. There's perpetual thunder and lightning. Bugs scramble out of people's mouths. Women stroke snakes. And there are enough rats in the basement to send the Pied Piper back to music school. It's a Hell of a weekend.”

Digital projection on to a big screen. Seating is on folding chairs – feel free to bring a pillow or cushion.

You can always check http://www.shiny-object.com/screenings/