Customer Reviews

Desperate Romantics

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

If you are a huge fan of the PRB, you'll find a number of flaws in Desperate Romantics -- enough that I had to summon Coleridge's "willing suspension of disbelief" in order to enjoy it -- which I actually did.

Examples:

* The series never addresses Lizzie's pregnancies -- two of them -- that also helped push her to the edge of sanity. Lizzie was pregnant twice in actuality. The fetus died iwhen she was pregnant with the first child, and she was forced -- as often happened in that day -- to carry it to term, go into labor and give birth to a corpse. This took a terrible emotional toll on Lizzie. She was already suffering with Gabriel's incessant affairs, and she felt worthless. When she became pregnant again, and the affairs accelerated, she increased her laudanum intake and died of an overdose. While many believe she committed suicide and it was covered up in order that she would be buried in hallowed ground, I'm of the school that does not discount murder by one of Rossetti's crazed mistresses. Most likely candidate from where I sit would be Fannie Cornforth, who posed for Boca Baciata and who was mad about Gabriel. There are any number of candidates.

* The infamous disinterrment. The film shows Gabriel tossing his poetry in ON TOP of the closed coffin. This is inaccurate. Not only did he bury the poems in the coffin, but the legend grew up that when they disinterred her, her famed red hair had grown to the point that it filled the coffin. The poems were riddled by worms. Fitting, if nothing else.

* The number of paintings for which she posed. The film downplayed the scores of paintings for which Lizzie posed -- she was Gabriel's primary model. Read Christina Rossetti's poem about Lizzie and her brother -- it was her face that "looked out" from every canvas he painted -- even when he painted other models. And while the posthumous painting of Lizzie is his most famous painting of her and is considered his masterpiece by many -- it's far from his only or best painting of Lizzie.

* No mention of Christina. Even though it shows Gabriel's painting of the Annunciation which featured Christina, his sister, it failed to mention her at all even in context of the painting.

* The deplorable depiction of William Morris. They somehow found it appropriate to turn the founder of the Arts and Crafts movement into little more than a buffoon.

* Minimizing Gabriel's role in the movement. Rossetti was the primary artist in the movement and the founder of the PRB. He was a most prolific painter, yet Millais and Hunt are shown painting more portraits. I think whoever scripted this series had a bias against Rossetti. Heaven knows, I have my own bias in that area -- due to his philandering and mistreatment of Lizzie -- but you can't deny the man's genius or belittle him. Look at Proserpine, The Beloved, La Ghirlandata, Astarte Syriaca.

REDEEMING QUALITIES:

The film DID do a fantastic job of its portrayal of Ruskin, of Hunt, who was given over to both his rakish ways AND his extreme religion, of Ruskin's poor virgin wife. And its portrayal of Millais is sheer genius, I felt. He was depicted precisely as I've envisioned.

Another greatly redeeming quality is its portrayal of the PRB as they were - wild young men barely out of their teens with these preposterous dreams of being the next great movement in art -- something they dreamed and then made come to pass with all the dynamic energy and bravado of their youth. They erupted through a staid and boring period of art to create a veritable volcano of human emotion and humanism -- whether you're looking at Boca Baciata or Ophelia or Millais' Blind Girl or even Hunt's Scapegoat.

I loved seeing them with their hats on lopsided, swaggering through the cobblestone streets, demanding to be seen.

So that was wonderful enough that I know I'll watch the series again. All that said, I still wait impatiently for the day when a film about the incredible story of the PRB will be made with a measure of accuracy. The truth was far more dramatic than the watered down version this became.

Irritatingly contrived w/ a lack of emotional truth (big loud external emotions and declarations are constant; range of emotions and exchanges are absent).
Not much feeling for the arts and artists depicted, so I'm unclear what the impulse to make the series was. I'd never recommend this dvd set.

I enjoyed this film but it lacks substance.It doesn't even bother to mention why the group called themselves pre Raphealites.There is surpisingly little art shown for a film about artists.

I really enjoyed this series a lot. Yes, there is a lot of sex, so you shouldn't probably not watch this with children, but it is a genuinely interesting look at the lives of these artists. The acting is superb, and the scenery and costumes beautiful and lavish. I can highly recommend this show about what was essentially a story about love and art.

I was interested in seeing this because I am a fan of one of the main actors. However, this great BBC series made me a fan of an artform so much so that I am reading the book this show was based off of, searching out museums in hopes I can see pieces in person and wanting to learn more about the movement & the other artists. I really enjoyed the entire cast; the stories behind these artists definitely keep the show rolling and still barely touch the surface of the PRB circle...

It's a wonderful show and still only a peak into those that made up the PRB.

Absolutely fascinating. The story is riveting and the acting is superb. You want to watch all six hours without stopping because you can't wait to see what happens next. The DVD makes one want to do further research on these brilliant artists. I have already watched the DVD again with two relatives who agree with my assessment.

Filled with sexual messages, scenes and relationships. This is not a movie that would be a classic in my opinion. It was almost as if the movie was made simply to desperately try and sell by making sex its selling point.