Not a film per se, but if television-dramas are allowed, ''The Barchester Chronicles''.
A gentle piece of nineteenth-century ecclesiastical politics and with the odd keen barb against the hypocrisy of the established denominations, an excellent cast, Donald Pleasence in one of his very rare ''good'' roles (the Revd. Septimus Harding), Angela Pleasence and Janet Maw as his daughters, Nigel Hawthorne as the apoplectic Archdeacon Grantly, Alan Rickman as the repulsive chaplain Obadiah Slope, Geraldine MacEwan as the overbearing Mrs. Proudie and Susan Hampshire as the soi-disant Signora Madeleine Vesey Neroni (real name Madeleine Stanhope!).
Charmingly old-fashioned, a glimpse at the world of those who cannot see beyond the veil into the macabre. Theirs is probably a more pleasant existence, they do not
Quote''struggle and shriek ere the daybreak, being driven to madness with fright''
My family, despite my aunt's love of the gothic, still resembled, and still does, to a great degree the quiet country middle-class round of afternoon church teas, bone-china, garden-parties and S.W.R.I. sales of work: it's an odd juxtaposition, when I am well enough to go out (not often) with my own Gigeriana. I literally have prints of Giger on the wall with doilies and silk flowers -- Mother is very understanding, although she thinks it morbid.
I would not be otherwise, for the knowledge and exploration of the subconscious and of myth and symbol that the sleepless nights and dark books bring is too precious and too fascinating for me, the more so as it is disturbing.
I am sorry for these little snippets, I am an odd and lonely chap and seem to be spilling out my life more than I meant to.
