The Grotesque (film)

Last updated

The Grotesque
The Grotesque promotional poster.jpg
Promotional poster
Directed by John-Paul Davidson
Written by Patrick McGrath
(novel and screenplay)
Produced by Stephen Evans
John Kay
Trudie Styler
Starring Alan Bates
Lena Headey
Theresa Russell
Sting
Cinematography Andrew Dunn
Edited by Tariq Anwar
Music by Anne Dudley
Distributed by Live Entertainment (U.S.)
Release date
  • 9 September 1995 (1995-09-09)(TIFF)
Running time
99 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

The Grotesque (also known as Grave Indiscretion and Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets) is a 1995 British film by John-Paul Davidson, adapted from the 1989 novel of the same name by Patrick McGrath. It stars Alan Bates, Lena Headey, Theresa Russell and Sting.

Contents

Costume Designer Colleen Atwood worked on the film, and McGrath's wife, actress Maria Aitken, performed in a supporting role.

Plot

Eccentric paleontologist Sir Hugo has little interest in his wife, Lady Harriet, but the new butler, Fledge, gives her the attention she needs. Hugo dislikes his daughter Cleo's fiancé, aspiring poet Sidney, and Sidney's subsequent disappearance places the household in further turmoil.

Cast

Release

The film was released under the title Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets in the United States, and later its US video title was Grave Indiscretion. [1] It is also known as Butler morden leiser in Germany, Grotesco in Portugal, and Perverso in Spain.

The film is available on Region 2 DVD (as The Grotesque) and VHS (Grave Indiscretion) only, though both versions are out of print.

Reception

Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club called the film "predictable", noting its "lack of substance" and that "Bates and Russell deliver amusingly over-the-top performances...but Sting and Styler give wooden performances that make their characters seem not so much eerie and mysterious as heavily sedated." [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highgate Cemetery</span> Place of burial in North London, England

Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as well as for its de facto status as a nature reserve. The Cemetery is designated Grade I on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sting (musician)</span> British musician (born 1951)

Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, known as Sting, is an English musician, activist and actor. He was the frontman, principal songwriter and bassist for new wave band the Police from 1977 until their breakup in 1986. He launched a solo career in 1985 and has included elements of rock, jazz, reggae, classical, new-age, and worldbeat in his music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Brinsley Sheridan</span> Anglo-Irish playwright, writer and politician (1751–1816)

Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan was an Anglo-Irish playwright, writer and Whig politician who sat in the British House of Commons from 1780 to 1812, representing the constituencies of Stafford, Westminster and Ilchester. The owner of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, he wrote several prominent plays such as The Rivals (1775), The Duenna (1775), The School for Scandal (1777) and A Trip to Scarborough (1777), along with serving as Treasurer of the Navy from 1806 to 1807. After dying in 1816, Sheridan was buried at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, and his plays remain a central part of the Western canon and are regularly performed around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artful Dodger</span> Fictional character from the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist

Jack Dawkins, better known as the Artful Dodger, is a character in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel Oliver Twist. The Dodger is a pickpocket and his nickname refers to his skill and cunning in that occupation. In the novel, he is the leader of the gang of child criminals on the streets of London trained and overseen by the elderly Fagin. The term has become an idiom describing a person who engages in skillful deception.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)</span> Cemetery in New York City

Woodlawn Cemetery is one of the largest cemeteries in New York City and a designated National Historic Landmark. Located south of Woodlawn Heights, Bronx, New York City, it has the character of a rural cemetery. Woodlawn Cemetery opened during the Civil War in 1863, in what was then Yonkers, in an area that was annexed to New York City in 1874. It is notable in part as the final resting place of some well-known figures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Dudley</span> English classical and popular composer

Anne Jennifer Dudley is an English composer, keyboardist, conductor and pop musician. She was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in the classical and pop genres, as a film composer, and was one of the core members of the synth-pop band Art of Noise. In 1998, Dudley won an Oscar for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score for The Full Monty. In addition to over twenty other film scores, in 2012 she served as music producer for the film version of Les Misérables, also acting as arranger and composing some new additional music.

<i>Altered States</i> 1980 science-fiction horror film by Ken Russell

Altered States is a 1980 American science fiction horror film directed by Ken Russell and adapted by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky from his 1978 novel of the same name. The novel and the film are based in part on John C. Lilly's sensory deprivation research conducted in isolation tanks under the influence of psychoactive drugs like mescaline, ketamine, and LSD. The film features elements of both psychological horror and body horror.

The Oxford University Press published a long series of poetry anthologies, dealing in particular with British poetry but not restricted to it, after the success of the Oxford Book of English Verse (1900). The Oxford poetry anthologies are traditionally seen as 'establishment' in attitude, and routinely therefore are subjects of discussion and contention. They have been edited both by well-known poets and by distinguished academics. In the limited perspective of canon-formation, they have mostly been retrospective and well-researched, rather than breaking fresh ground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard A. Whiting</span> American composer and songwriter

Richard Armstrong Whiting was an American composer of popular songs, including the standards "Hooray for Hollywood", "Ain't We Got Fun?" and "On the Good Ship Lollipop". He also wrote lyrics occasionally, and film scores most notably for the standard "She's Funny That Way".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trudie Styler</span> English actress and producer

Trudie Styler is an English actress, director, and film producer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick McGrath (novelist)</span> British novelist (born 1950)

Patrick McGrath is a British novelist, whose work has been categorised as gothic fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Students League of New York</span> Art school in Manhattan, New York

The Art Students League of New York is an art school in the American Fine Arts Society in Manhattan, New York City. The Arts Students League is known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists.

The following is a list of recurring or notable fictional locations featured in the stories of P. G. Wodehouse, in alphabetical order by place name.

<i>The Razors Edge</i> (1984 film) 1984 romantic drama film directed by John Byrum

The Razor's Edge is a 1984 American drama film directed and co-written by John Byrum starring Bill Murray, Theresa Russell, Catherine Hicks, Denholm Elliott, Brian Doyle-Murray, and James Keach. The film is an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's 1944 novel The Razor's Edge.

Grotesque was originally a style of ornament in art, and today also means strange, fantastic, ugly, or bizarre.

<i>The Grotesque</i> (novel) 1989 novel by Patrick McGrath

The Grotesque is a 1989 gothic fiction novel by British author Patrick McGrath. It was adapted into a 1995 film starring Alan Bates, Lena Headey, Theresa Russell and Sting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Olaf Hytten</span> Scottish actor (1888–1955)

Olaf Hytten was a Scottish actor. He appeared in more than 280 films between 1921 and 1955. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and died in Los Angeles, California from a heart attack, while sitting in his car in the parking lot at 20th Century Fox Studios. His remains are interred in an unmarked crypt, located in Santa Monica's Woodlawn Cemetery.

References

  1. 1 2 Rabin, Nathan (29 March 2002). "Grave Indiscretion". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 29 May 2019.