Pandaemonium

Frames of Mind: Madness of the Muses
Wednesday, December 20, 2006 – 7:30pm
Great Britain 2000. Director: Julien Temple
Cast: Linus Roache, John Hannah, Samantha Morton, Emily Woof, Emma Fielding

Pandaemonium is the delirious story of passion, betrayal, madness and addiction that binds two of history’s most acclaimed poets: Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. The film opens in 1816, where Wordsworth (John Hannah), about to be named poet laureate, is throwing a lavish party. An unsteady Coleridge (Linus Roache), ravaged by an opium addiction, crashes to the floor — and we move back in time to 1795 and the first meeting of the poets. The film charts the friendship between Coleridge and his wife Sara (Samantha Morton) and Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy (Emily Woof); the creative collaboration between the men; and Coleridge’s use of opium to enhance his creative visions. When the latter’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner becomes the backbone of their hugely successful first publication, Lyrical Ballads, Wordsworth is jealous. But as Coleridge’s opium use takes its toll, Wordsworth’s ambition takes over. He turns his back on his old friend, marries prudish Mary (Emma Fielding), and engineers a new life of respectability for himself — even going so far as to calculatingly remove Coleridge’s Kubla Khan from their second collaborative book, convincing the author it lacks any merit. Bringing to mind all the drama and outrage of Mozart and Salieri (not to mention Lennon and McCartney), Pandaemonium is an iconoclastic costume drama from the director of The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle and The Filth and the Fury. Colour, DVD. 124 mins

Frames of Mind is a monthly film event utilizing film and video to promote professional and community education on issues pertaining to mental health and illness.

Post-screening discussion with Ramon Kubicek. A writer, artist, and educator, Ramon currently teaches film history as well as art and design history at Emily Carr Institute and Langara College. He has published essays, short fiction, poetry, criticism, and two books on art, including One Source: A Celebration of Spirit and Art.

Moderated by Dr. Harry Karlinsky, Director of Continuing Medical Education and Professional Development, Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia.