Rowing With the Wind
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Elizabeth Hurley, Hugh Grant, José Luis Gómez, Lizzy McInnerny, Valentine PelkaBrand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-08-05
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Miramax
Movie Reviews of Rowing With the Wind
Movie Review: A Dream, Which Was Not All A Dream
Summary: 5 Stars
Confessions of the Creature
I had a dream, which was not all a dream,
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went--and came and brought no day...
"Rowing With The Wind" begins with Hugh Grant's voice-over reading of the first lines of Byron's poem "Darkness," which was written in Geneva during the summer of 1816 when he met the Shelleys. An arctic scene reminiscent of Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" follows this introduction. Mary begins the narrative aboard a small ship in a frozen sea; she scratches her memoir on paper with an inkless pen while Vaughn Williams' haunting and evocative "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" plays in the background.
The film, which depicts the meeting of the poets at the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva, and subseqent personal tragedy, mixes fact with fantasy, the real with the surreal. The creature from Mary's "Frankenstein" enters the film as a harbinger of death, born of the inner darkness described in both her novel and Byron's poem. The acting is superb, the writing intelligent and darkly humorous, the scenes of Switzerland and Venice beautiful and compelling. The musical score is a treat for classical music lovers; in addition to Vaughn Williams, there are selections from Grieg, Beethoven, Mozart and other 18th and 19th century composers.
There are two other films that deal with similiar subject matter released about the same time (mid to late 1980s)-- "Gothic" and "Haunted Summer." In my opinion, Ken Russell's version is too over the top and psychedelic. I much prefer "Haunted Summer," but of the three I think "Rowing With The Wind" is the best. The subject is of special interest to me, because my novel, "Confessions of the Creature" was inspired by Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," and includes Mary, Byron, Shelley and Polidori as characters.
Summary of Rowing With the Wind
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