Zastrozzi: A Romance - Channel 4 Drama [DVD]

First broadcast on Channel 4 in 1986, Zastrozzi was written and directed by champion of the avant-garde David Hopkins, and features riveting early screen roles for Tilda Swinton and Mark McGann. This atmospheric four-part drama is a contemporary retelling of Percy Bysshe Shelley's chilling gothic horror novel, a precursor in image, character and theme to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The original characters are transported from 19th-century Germany and Italy into present-day England in a vivid exploration of the wicked depths of human nature, and the failed frameworks of society, religion and romance. In a heady tale of revenge and obsession, the outlaw Zastrozzi (Geoff Francis), assisted by courtesan Matilda (Hilary Trott), abducts his half-brother Verezzi (McGann) and torments him into believing his lover Julia (Swinton) has been murdered. His campaign of vicious psychological abuse signals a grisly bloodbath of greed, envy, betrayal, retribution and eternal damnation. An imaginative, provocative and timeless examination of demonic manipulation and soul-sapping vulnerability.