Gormenghast (2000)
A four-episode television serial based on the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake. It was produced and broadcast by the BBC. Gormenghast is an ancient city-state which primarily consists of a rambling and crumbling castle. The narrative, based on the first two of the three Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake, begins with the birth of a son, Titus, to the 76th Earl, Sepulchrave Groan, and Countess Gertrude. This mismatched pair (he'd prefer the melancholy privacy of his library; she'd prefer the company of her menagerie of cats and birds) also have a teenaged daughter, Fuchsia, who resents her new brother but comes to love him dearly. Simultaneously, a young kitchen apprentice, Steerpike, takes advantage of an altercation between head cook Swelter and the Earl's manservant, Mr. Flay, and escapes from the kitchens. Gormenghast is rigidly feudal in structure, but Steerpike has ambitions.
Watch Trailer
Free Trial Channels
Cast
Reviews
Stylish but barely mediocre overall
one of my absolute favorites!
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
I'm an avid reader and found the Gormenghast novels in a friend's book collection and was planning on reading them when I got the chance.He suggested I could also watch the miniseries, which I did not know existed either. So I cannot yet compare the two to each other. I did however like the miniseries. It was well written and very well acted.Christopher Lee was at his usual best. A surprise (probably just to me and maybe not to others) was Rhys Meyers. I was never really impressed by the authenticity he brings to his roles. However in this movie I HATED him, and I mean that in a good way. I really hated his character, he did a fantastic job; I guess now I'll have to watch some more of his work.The sets were incredible.This is one instance where I'm hoping the books will be as good as the movie.
This BBC mini-series is actually a combination of the books Titus Groan and Gormenghast. In 4 - 1 hour parts, being from the BBC they're really close to a whole hour as opposed to the usual 45 minute network episodes.Gormenghast is an ancient kingdom that must be located somewhere in Europe, since it is populated with Europeans. More specifically, it is populated with really odd Europeans, which sounds more like Great Britain. In fact it is a fictional location in which Mervyn Peake has created an extremely ossified culture, technologically stagnant, that indulges itself in numerous obscure rituals that cover almost all routine events, written down in huge books and applied as if their lives depended on it.The story centers around the Groans, who's male heirs rule as Earls. Titus is set to become the 77th Earl of Groan, and as he matures he sees it as his doom rather than his destiny, and comes to despise Gormenghast.At first, however, he's just a baby and the story centers on his father and the odd ducks that are his family and servants. Into this mix is added Steerpike, a kitchen boy of huge ambition that finds ways to ingratiate, titillate and extort his way to a much higher position, hardly killing anyone at all to get there. The Groans and Gormenghast in general are so dense and caught up in the minutiae of their lives it takes them years to realize that there's a raccoon in the chicken house, so there's plenty of story to take up a 4 hour mini-series.I read these two books once upon a time and hardly remember them. I believe the BBC series plays Steerpike a bit more sympathetic than the books did. The trilogy has been compared to LOTR and the Thomas Covenant trilogy, both of which I liked more than Gormenghast. Gormenghast is fiction not fantasy, there are no dragons, orcs or hobbits. The kingdom appears to be mostly medieval with some touches of modernity here and there. The closest thing to monsters are the huge Death Owls.What makes the mini-series work is a very talented cast that bring their characters to life. They make it a pleasure to watch, if only once. 8/10The 2 DVD set has a Making Of, Cast interviews, a few unrelated trailers. It is all shot in a peculiar not-quite 4:3 or 16:9 format, at least the way my hardware decoded it to the screen. Video and audio are strictly TV quality, with video colorful if a bit smeared and audio all upfront mono as far as I could tell. The DVDs get a 6/10 for getting it on my screen but not much else.
Once again, the Brits prove that, at least in the realm of "telly", they know how to do a movie better than Americans. This series appeared in 2000, the same year that THE 10TH KINGDOM aired in the US. And it is simply a far better piece of work. Jonny Rhys-Myers is his usual, MANIC brilliance as the vicious, but somewhat sympathetic Steerpike. You can't help but root for him sometimes, given the utter ignorance and eccentricities surrounding him. Fascinating, is the fact that there is a lack of CLEAR good or evil in this, replaced by characters that can be either, given their situation. As one of the previous commentors stated, I came to GORMENGHAST through Jonathan Rhys-Myers. I loved him in VELVET GOLDMINE and TITUS, but just recently saw him in BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM. Since then, I've been gathering up all I can find to view. I'm now looking forward to owning this DVD and reading these novels. Thanks, Jonny!
I don't think there are any spoilers in this but I suppose the bit I say about the main character could be considered one so to be safe I put this warning in so I don't get blacklisted :)Now that taken care of I can't say much more than what the previous person commented since I pretty much agree with her though I haven't read the books (but now knowing there are some I am very much interested in reading them now :) The main character is, in my opinion, gorgeous and the way he plays people off one another I find incredibly fascinating and fun to watch. I was shown this mini by a friend of mine who has an interest in surreality as much as I do. So yea, I highly recommend this one to anyone who loves a good surreal fantasy story!