Savage Messiah

Running time: 103 mins

Synopsis

Ken Russell's 1972 film, showing as part of the writer Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska Centenary Celebrations taking place in Wotton.

One of many Ken Russell films to explore the lives of artists, Savage Messiah is the story of pre-World War I French sculptor Henri Gaudier and of his intimate and creative partnership with Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska, a Polish émigré 20 years his senior. Scott Antony and Dorothy Tutin play the leads, while Helen Mirren has a memorable early-career role as a flamboyant, uninhibited suffragette.

Sophie Gaudier Brzeska lived in Wotton from 1916 to 1922. She passed away in 1925 as a resident of Coney Hill Asylum in Gloucester. Henri Gaudier-Brzeska’s work became world famous, while Sophie remained unpublished. Her first and only published work, Matka and Other Writings, a collection of manuscripts, was published posthumously in 2008. Now, 100 years after her death, Sophie's writing is finally being recognised. Her story and her legacy will be celebrated in the Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska Centenary event, taking place at the end of March, and a display at the Heritage Centre from mid-March.