Directed by Roger Michell (2017)
by Sandy DeVito

"Women want love to be a novel, men a short story." Daphne du Maurier.

Of all the genres that be, the gothic is my favorite. It's probably the most difficult to describe or pin down - it has an innate abstractness that is crucial to the form, and is based in subtle emotional cues and carefully orchestrated mis en scene rather than traditional exposition. Gothicism is related to horror in that it wonders at the miseries inherent in existence, and the mysteries that seem to be unknowable. But it's that mystery that draws me to it, that melancholy that speaks to my romantic sensibilities. Every year I hope there will be at least one or two films that understand the delicate nature of the genre; my hope is that someone else wants to keep it alive as I do. Truly gothic films are typically rare, as it takes a specific sensibility: more nuance than straight horror or romance, and a particular attention to detail.