Romanticism and Popular Culture

This evolving bibliography collects media that represent Romantic-era works and historical figures in fictional contexts. We welcome feedback and additions from the RC community.

Film

The Bride

Director:

Franc Roddam

Publication Information:

Colgems Productions Ltd., Columbia Pictures Corporation, Delphi III Productions

Date:

1985

After years of research, the doctor finally succeeds in creating the perfect woman, who gets the name "Eva".

Starring Sting, Jennifer Beals, Geraldine Page, Clancy Brown, Anthony Higgins, and David Rappaport.

--description by IMDB.com

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys

Director:

Peter Care

Publication Information:

Egg Pictures

Date:

2002

Blake's work resides in the background of Peter Care's 2002 film The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys; a copy of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell was a gift from an orphan boy's father and a central symbol in this film about boys who narrate their lives through comic book characters they create and draw. -Wikipedia

The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein

Director:

Jess Franco

Publication Information:

Comtoir Français du Film Production, Fenix-Film

Date:

1972

Dr. Frankenstein and his assistant Morpho are killed just as they bring their creation to life. The monster is taken by Cagliostro and he now controls the monster and plans to have it mate and create the perfect master race. --description from IMDb

Directed by Jess Franco, starring Denis Price, Howard Vernon, Anne Libert, Britt Nichols, Albert Dalbes, and Luis Barboo.

The Golden Compass

Director:

Chris Weitz

Date:

2007

In the film version of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass (though not in the book), Mrs. Coulter’s golden monkey daemon is named Ozymandias.

The Horror of Frankenstein

Director:

Jimmy Sangster

Publication Information:

Hammer Films

Date:

1970

The Horror of Frankenstein is a 1970 British horror film by Hammer Film Productions that is both a semi-parody and remake of the 1957 film The Curse of Frankenstein.

The Jane Austen Book Club

Director:

Robin Swicord

Publication Information:

Mockingbird Pictures, John Calley Productions

Date:

2007

"The Jane Austen Book Club is a 2007 American romantic drama film....The screenplay, adapted from the 2004 novel of the same name by Karen Joy Fowler, focuses on a book club formed specifically to discuss the six novels written by Jane Austen. As they delve into Austen's literature, the club members find themselves dealing with life experiences that parallel the themes of the books they are reading." -Wikipedia

The Lighthouse

Director:

Robert Eggers

Date:

2019

The 2019 film The Lighthouse (dir. by Robert Eggers) has elements that parallel Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" in a direct way and Percy Shelley's Prometheus Unbound in an allegorical way, due
the fact the film is set on a rock on an island and on account of the tortuous suffering of one of the protagonists who becomes effectively the slave of the lighthouse master while hoping for release. While the ending

The New Math(s)

Director:

Hal Hartley

Publication Information:

British Broadcasting Corporation

Date:

2000

Hal Hartley’s The New Math(s) (2000), in which two students fight with their teacher over the solution to a complex mathematical equation, takes as its inspiration Blake’s The Book of Thel, with music by the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen. -Wikipedia

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Director:

Jim Sharman

Publication Information:

20th Century Fox

Date:

1975

The story centers on a young engaged couple whose car breaks down in the rain near a castle where they seek a telephone to call for help. The castle is occupied by strangers in elaborate costumes celebrating an annual convention. They discover the head of the house is mad scientist (Frank N. Furter), an alien transvestite who creates a living muscle man in his laboratory. The couple is seduced separately by the mad scientist and eventually released by the servants who take control.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Director:

Ken Loach

Publication Information:

Sixteen Films

Date:

2006

Blake's poem "The Garden of Love" is quoted in a scene in The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), directed by Ken Loach. -Wikipedia

To Rome with Love

Director:

Woody Allen

Date:

2012

Woody Allen's film To Rome with Love (2012), along with Stardust Memories (1980), use the term "Ozymandias Melancholia", which Allen defines as "the realization that your works of art will not save you and will mean nothing down the line."

V for Vendetta

Director:

Jame McTeigue

Publication Information:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Date:

2006

The image of V escaping the fire at Larkhill in the The Wachowskis' V for Vendetta (2006) is very similar to Blake's images of Orc from the Illuminated Works (cf. Urizen plate 16; America plate 12), and an almost exact reproduction of plate 5 (V, had Blake used Roman numerals to number his plates) of "The Gates of Paradise," titled "Fire." [...] Alan Moore cites Blake's work in V for Vendetta (1982-5) and Watchmen (1986-7).

Victor Frankenstein

Director:

Paul McGuigan

Date:

2015

A 2015 retelling of Frankenstein starring Jessica Brown Findlay, Daniel Radcliffe, and James McAvoy.

See IMDB

Victor Frankenstein (Terror of Frankenstein)

Director:

Calvin Floyd

Publication Information:

Aspekt Film (Sweden and Ireland)

Date:

1976

This is the most faithful film adaptation of Mary Shelley's gothic tale. Young medical-school graduate Victor Frankenstein is obsessed with clandestine experiments in the rejuvenation of dead tissue. He creates a living man, assembled from parts of corpses and revived by an electrical charge of lightning. As with Shelley's novel, the film holds sympathy for the melancholy monster, whose deathly appearance, aching loneliness, and murderous quest for revenge make him the bane of Frankenstein's existence.

Watchmen

Director:

Zack Snyder

Date:

2009

This 2009 film based on the 1987 graphic novel features a character named Ozymandias.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Director:

Mel Stuart

Date:

1971

In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Wonka (Gene Wilder) quotes the opening line of John Keats's Endymion.

Xanadu

Director:

Robert Greenwald

Date:

1980

The film stars Olivia Newton-John, Michael Beck, Gene Kelly. Quotations from Kubla Khan appear in the film.

Young Frankenstein

Director:

Mel Brooks

Publication Information:

Twentieth-Century Fox

Date:

1974

This movie of 1974, one of the most successful parodies of the horror film genre, was co-written by director Mel Brooks and star Gene Wilder, who plays a brain surgeon and descendant of Victor Frankenstein, Frederick Frankenstein (pronounced Frahnkensteen).

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