Pandaemonium
2000 · United Kingdom · 124 min
- Director
- Julien Temple
- Screenplay
- Frank Cottrell-Boyce
- Music
- Dario Marianelli
What the critics say
58 % Rotten Tomatoes positive reviewsCast
What it is about
A fictionalized account of the friendship between the Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth during their early years in late eighteenth-century England. The story follows their collaboration on the Lyrical Ballads (1798) while personal, family and financial pressures intertwine with their creative work.
How it was made
Frank Cottrell Boyce's screenplay loosely reconstructs the two poets' early lives, with the writing of Kubla Khan running through the background. Dario Marianelli composed the score and Julien Temple directed, shooting much of the film on location in the Quantock Hills in Somerset. The cast includes Linus Roache as Coleridge, John Hannah as Wordsworth and Samantha Morton as Sara Fricker.
Reception and legacy
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2000 and reached British cinemas in September 2001. Critics praised its narrative energy but stressed its status as historical fantasy: The Guardian called it rattling good stuff with the caveat that none of it ever happened, while Variety noted the effort to present these poets as up-to-the-minute, sexy bohemians.
Stills
Trivia
Filming in Somerset
Much of the film was shot on location in the Quantock Hills in Somerset, a landscape linked to the lives of Coleridge and Wordsworth.
A staggered release
The film premiered in Toronto in 2000 but did not reach British cinemas until September 2001.
More films by Julien Temple
Bullet
Earth Girls Are Easy
The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Absolute Beginners
The Filth and the Fury
AriaOriginal Cinematopedia text based on Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.