Product Details

• Actors: Aidan Turner, Rafe Spall, Tom Hollander, Samuel Barnett, Zoe Tapper
• Format: Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: BBC Worldwide
• DVD Release Date: July 20, 2010
• Run Time: 349 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0026P40NU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #39,115 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Desperate Romantics" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

With a glossy look and a driving contemporary soundtrack, Desperate Romantics is a character-driven romp through the alleyways, studios, brothels and chop-houses of 19th century London. In 1851, London is in the throes of the industrial revolution. But among the dirty red bricks and smoke stacks are four young, thrill-seeking artists - steadfast William Holman Hunt (Rafe Spall, Hot Fuzz, Bram Stoker’s Dracula), naive John Millais (Samuel Barnett, John Adams, The History Boys), mischievous Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Aidan Turner, Being Human) and budding journalist Fred Walters (Sam Crane, Midsomer Murders) - otherwise known as the Brotherhood. Their quest for artistic immortality takes them into some of the lewdest, darkest and funniest corners of the city. Joining them is sassy, sexy model Lizzie Siddal (Amy Manson, Being Human, Casualty). But is she risking it all with this dangerous bunch?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll - Victorian-style, July 24, 2009

By 

Anonymous (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desperate Romantics (DVD)

Notwithstanding the louche, proto-punk appeal of the leading actors, this is more than just a romp dealing with the "alpha-fops" who founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The name reflected their rejection of Raphael's "grand manner" as they championed a more realistic style combined with symbolism (mostly Christian and mythological).

Peter Bowker's well-judged script focuses on the professional and personal lives of the charismatic Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the urbane John Everett Millais, and the manic William Holman Hunt. The dialogue blends Victorian idiom with contemporary expressions and delivery. The lush production is based on Franny Moyle's Desperate Romantics: The Private Lives of the Pre-Raphaelites. A brash, fantastically comedic glam-rock score by Daniel Pemberton accompanies scenes of artistic creation, of sex, and of the Brotherhood swaggering abreast through London asserting their brilliance.

Using a fictional narrator (the diffident but awestruck diarist Fred Walters), the dramatisation remains historically faithful. Flame-haired hat-shop girl turned model/Muse Lizzie Siddal, models for Millais's iconic ''Ophelia'' in a full bath warmed by dozens of candles; Charles Dickens pours scorn on Millais's ''Christ in the House of His Parents,'' accusing it of blasphemy; the repressed influential critic John Ruskin (Tom Hollander - wonderful) is sexually repelled by his wife Effie, leaving the way open for her to fall in love with the engaging, affable Millais.

Pacy and racy, the story follows the hungry, ambitious group through the dingy brothels and shops, on their search for Muses and models; in their studios, getting and losing inspiration - and having sex; humbled by old fogeys, while seeking sponsorship at Royal Academy exhibitions. Oozing talent and testosterone, Rossetti (Aidan Turner), emerges as the leader of the pack, although the personalities are all distinctive and beautifully acted.

For some of the Brotherhood and their models, dark outcomes lay ahead (notably not Millais - he became President of the R.A.) But that's another story. For now, this is a very watchable account of the bright young things in the prime of their inspired lives.

41 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Odious protrayal of William Morris, August 7, 2010

By 

Sebastian (OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desperate Romantics (DVD)

I cannot believe anyone who cared for the Pre-Raphaelites had anything to do with this production. After the first two episodes, I considered it passable, though I thought John Ruskin was treated shabbily. After that, it all went downhill. I finally threw up my hands and howled at the protrayals of William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones; it was evident that the script writer knew NOTHING about the two men, who were made to look like imbiciles, Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum in matching purple waistcoats. William Morris was a true polymath: father of the arts and crafts movement, socialist, medievalist, calligraphist, printer, and early environmentalist, and to dismiss him, as this travesty does, as a loutish, stammering fool, is unforgivable.

Though some critics have praised the set design, no one has pointed out the ham-fisted attempts to reproduce some of the artists' paintings used in the production. You did not need a book to hand to see how wretched Rossetti's "Bocca Baciata" was rendered. And whilst on the subject -- why on earth would you have a script that went beyond the original PRB? Jane Morris was so striking as to be impossible to cast. Only a credulous fool could suspend disbelief long enough to credit that the actress playing the role could inspire the lust Rossetti feels when they first meet. She looks NOTHING like Jane Morris.

If anyone out there wants to know a little about Rossetti, Morris, Ruskin, and Burne-Jones, they ought to read:
Oswald Doughty's and Jan Marsh's biographies of Rossetti
Fiona MacCarthy's magisterial biography of William Morris
Tim Hilton's exhaustive biography of John Ruskin
Lady Burne-Jones's Memorials of her husband (and the forthcoming biography of Burne-Jones, by Fiona MacCarthy).

"Desperate Remedies" is a desperate, rubbish treatment of these four men, in particular.

Give this a miss.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the wait, January 17, 2010

By 

A. E. Finn (Reading) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Desperate Romantics (DVD)

This is an incredibly bawdy show. I imagine it will be cut to pieces for the US tv market. If you can get hold of the uncut BBC version, go for it!
The series is a look at the life of the Pre Raphaelites and tries to show why they were do revolutionary. Today they have a very staid and boring reputation, but their art took the world by storm.
So, strap on your seatbelts and take a roller coaster ride through the lives of four young artists and their models as they drink, take drugs, whore and paint themselves into a frenzy. The device of a totally fictional "brother" as a narrator works beautifully.