Lygeia's tomb
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The grave of Lygeia / Edgar Allan Poes The grave of horror |
| Original title | The Tomb of Ligeia |
| Country of production | Great Britain |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1964 |
| length | 78 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Roger Corman |
| script | Robert Towne |
| production | Pat Green , Samuel Z. Arkoff |
| music | Kenneth V. Jones |
| camera | Arthur Grant |
| cut | Alfred Cox |
| occupation | |
| |
The Tomb of Lygeia (Original title: The Tomb of Ligeia ) is a British horror film directed by Roger Corman from 1964. It is a film adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's novella Ligeia and forms the conclusion of Corman's Poe series, which began in 1960 with The Cursed started.
action
At the beginning of the film, Lord Verden Fell buries his beloved wife Ligeia in consecrated earth , despite the priest's concerns . When a black cat jumps on the coffin, Ligeia opens her eyes briefly.
During a fox hunt , Lady Rowena Trevanion falls on Ligeia's grave because her horse is being chased by a black cat. Verden Fell finds and treats them. Rowena is fascinated by him. She continues to seek contact with the lonely lord under a pretext. When they meet again, Verden attacks her when he confuses her with his dead wife as if in a trance . After the situation has cleared up, the two get closer, but Christopher Gough appears. Rowena is left alone while Verden leads Christopher to his wife's grave. There someone had removed the date of Ligeia's death. Verden suspects that he removed it himself in a trance. At the same time, Rowena follows the black cat into a bell tower . All of a sudden the bells begin to strike and Rowena screams for help in fear. Verden saves them.
The two then marry. Verden wants to sell the abbey in which he lives in order to finally put an end to his past. But since an important document has disappeared, new problems arise. During a small celebration , Verden hypnotizes Rowena according to the method of Franz Anton Mesmer in order to clarify his position on hypnosis in front of his father-in-law, Lord Trevanion. The ghost of Ligeia drives into Rowena, making her say things she couldn't have known. In the following nights, inexplicable things happen that deeply frighten Rowena. Verden Fell also behaves strangely. Together with Christopher Rowena tries to clear up the inexplicable things.
After an interrogation of the valet , Christopher decides to open the grave. However, he only finds a wax figure there. In the abbey, the black cat chases Rowena and lets her run through a secret passage that leads her to the upper floor of Verden. There she finds Ligeia's body. When the servant and Christopher join the scene, everything clears up: Ligeia had hypnotized Verden before her death and instructed him to wait for her in the secret room. Rowena tries counter hypnosis. Verden mistakenly kills Rowena and then tries to kill the cat he believes to be the reincarnation of Ligeia. The cat scratches his eyes and he sets fire to the abbey during the fight. Rowena, brought outside by Christopher, opens her eyes. Verden perishes in the flames.
background
Roger Corman felt limited by specializing in Poe films and decided to end the cycle with this film. In contrast to the other Poe films, this was the first time that outdoor shots were made. This idea came from Vincent Price , who once wanted to shoot in a ruin. Corman eventually chose Castle Acre Priory in East Anglia as the main location. He also had a scene shot in Stonehenge . He thereby penetrates the conscious artificiality used as a stylistic element in his other films.
Criticism and reception
The film is Vincent Price's favorite Poe film for Corman. When it premiered, it received outstanding reviews in Great Britain and France, and the London Times even compared the film to Jean Cocteau's drama Orphée . The director, known as a B-Filmer , succeeded in creating a classic of Gothic horror . In Germany, the film was only released in cinemas on May 31, 1981.
“ A confusion about the identity of two women, based on Poe's novella Ligeia . Trivial and profound at the same time, narrated with ironic cross-references to numerous motifs of Poe, atmospheric and lavish in decor and photography. "
“ Corman is perhaps the only director (this can be proven in the six-part Poe series by Astruc , Juan-Luis Buñuel, Chabrol , Guerra and Ronet ...) who understood Edgar Allan Poe's stylistic contrivances. Because Poe did not describe the events in detail, but often excluded the gruesome events. His stories keep disappearing in the dark. The terrible takes place outside the narrated plot. The people involved and thus also the reader or viewer can usually only guess at the events and their background ... This is also the case with Corman ... "
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Thomas Wagner: Tales Of Terror & Technicolor: Roger Corman's Poe films
- ↑ The tomb of Lygeia. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 4, 2017 .
Web links
- The grave of Lygeia in the Internet Movie Database (English)
literature
- Robert Zion: Roger Corman. The rebellion of the immediate . 320 pp., Norderstedt 2018, ISBN 978-3-7481-0101-7 . Pp. 142-149.