Lady of Shalott Film

Not sure how I went a half year without hearing about this one! Thanks to the Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood site, I found their page about The Lady of Shalott film. It is available on DVD. The pictures are stunning and very similar to many of the paintings that portray the poem.



John William Waterhouse painting
The film closely follows her look from Waterhouse's painting

The Lady of Shalott - article
"To celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), Lincoln based WAG Screen has made a film based on Tennyson's poem, The Lady of Shalott.
The Lady of Shalott

Victoria Rigby is The Lady of Shalott
The film has been made to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Tennyson's birth and stars Victoria Rigby from Grantham as the Lady of Shalott. The Lady of Shalott film premiered at the Odeon Cinema, Lincoln.

The part of Lord Tennyson is played by Ben Poole. Ben was born in Lincoln and is a local businessman who runs a tea shop on Lincoln's Steep Hill, at 45 he is just the right age to play Tennyson in the late 1850s.

The majority of the filming was done in and around Lincoln. The filming of Ben giving Tennyson's reading of The Lady of Shalott to an after dinner audience was filmed in an oak panel room at Ashby Hall.

The lady at her loom as portrayed by John William Waterhouse on canvas, and in the short film..."there she weaves by night and day"


The Lady of Shalot Film opens at The Collection, Lincoln's museum, on May 30th 2009 and can be seen there until the end of August.
Lady of Shalott

A verse from The Lady of Shalott
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro' the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.
Tennyson

The great Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born on the 5th August, 1809 in Somersby near Horncastle. He came from a large family and had eight brothers and four sisters. His father, George Clayton Tennyson was the Rector of Somersby and Bag Enderby.

Appointed as Poet Laureate to Queen Victoria in 1850, Tennyson had a long and fruitful career. Even during his own lifetime he was considered a national institution.

Alfred began writing poetry at eight-years-old, and by the age of twelve was in the midst of a 6,000 line epic. His work was first published in a book entitled Poems by Two Brothers which, despite its name, contained work by three of the Tennyson brothers."

Buy the DVD