PANDAEMONIUM

Year: 2000
USA: USA Films
UK: Optimum Releasing
Cast: Linus Roache, John Hannah, Samantha Morton, Emily Woof, Emma Fielding, Andy Serkis, Samuel West, Michael N Harbour, William Scott-Masson, Clive Merrison, Dexter Fletcher, Guy Lankester
Director: Julien Temple
Country: UK
USA: 120 mins
UK: 124 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for drug content
UK Certificate: 12 contains frequent references to archaic drugs
USA Release Date: 29 June 2001 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 14 September 2001

Synopsis

PANDAEMONIUM. 1 uproar, utter confusion; 2 place of all demons in Milton's Paradise Lost: "the high capital of Satan and his peers".

Directed by Julian Temple (THE FILTH AND THE FURY) and scripted by Frank Cottrell Boyce (The Claim), PANDAEMONIUM is a passionate, pyrotechnic story of love, betrayal and the forces of creation, in which the stormy relationship between two of the world's finest poets, William Wordsworth (John Hannah - THE MUMMY) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Linus Roache - THE WINGS OF THE DOVE), threatens to turn one man's genius into madness.

Leaving London in search of a rural utopia, Coleridge and his wife Sara (Samantha Morton - SWEET AND LOWDOWN) are soon joined by Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy (Emily Woof - THIS YEAR'S LOVE), whereupon they set about creating "a new kind of poetry". The opium-fuelled result, Coleridge's epic poem The Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner, puts Wordsworth in his shadow, a blow which his fragile ego cannot take.

As Coleridge's drug use takes its toll, Wordsworth's ambition leads him to betray his former friend and mentor, sending the creator of Kubla Khan spiralling towards physical and mental illness.

Set against the background of 18th century Britain, PANDAEMONIUM is a compelling drama based on the true story of the destructive relationship, between the two renowned poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Linus Roache) and William Wordsworth (John Hannah).