Gormenghast

[slum_goddess]

i highly recommend this if you dig adult fairy tales and fantasticly detailed lavish production values. we rented from amazon UK and watched last night (after the tape we made off PBS (in NYC in 2000) broke in Germany). from amazon:

'The BBC's lavish, glowingly designed adapation of Mervyn Peake's eccentrically brilliant novels Titus Groan and Gormenghast is a triumph of casting. Ian Richardson's 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 and Lynsey Baxter as his twin sisters and 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 and his design team achieve a look rather more pre-Raphaelite than Peake's own illustrations, shabby velvets, garish sunlight and dank stone passages. The score by Richard Rodney Bennett is full of attractive surprises--fanfares and waltzes and apotheoses--and John Tavener's choral additions are plausibly parts of the immemorial ritual of Gormenghast.

'Mervyn Peake's epic books come to life in this large-scale BBC production. Gormenghast is a glorious castle, home to the ancient family of Groan. When Titus Groan, the new heir is born the evil kitchen-boy Steerpike threatens the dynasty and begins his ascent to power. Only Titus can stand in Steerpikes way. Includes 'The Making Of'.

most of the reviews here are raves but it's very difficult to get all the book's details into a 4 hour film. i wanna own this again, but am waiting till the DVD price goes down (if ever).