Rowing with the Wind

Rowing with the Wind
Directed by	Gonzalo Suárez
Written by	Gonzalo Suárez
Produced by	Andrés Vicente Gómez
Starring	Hugh Grant Lizzy McInnerny Valentine Pelka Elizabeth Hurley
Cinematography	Carlos Suárez
Edited by	José Salcedo
Music by	Alejandro Massó
Production company	Ditirambo Films
Release date	September 19, 1988 (1988-09-19) (San Sebastián International Film Festival)
Running time	2 hr 6 min (126 min) (home video) 1 hr 36 min (96 min) (Original Spanish release) 1 hr 45 min (105 min) (USA release)
Country	Spain
Language	English

Rowing with the Wind a.k.a. Remando al viento (Spanish title) is a 1988 Spanish film written and directed by Gonzalo Suárez. The film won seven Goya Awards. It concerns the English writer Mary Shelley and her circle.

Plot

In the summer of 1816, English poet Percy Shelley, his soon to be wife Mary Shelley (daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft), and Mary's stepsister and companion Claire Clairmont take a holiday with Lord Byron and his physician John William Polidori at a villa rented by Byron at Lake Leman, Switzerland.

Byron challenges each of the friends to write a horror story, and Mary begins her novel, Frankenstein. She imagines the monster becoming real, and for the next six years, as tragedy befalls those around her, she believes the creature of her imagination is the cause.

Meanwhile, Claire has Byron's baby, is estranged from him and barred from seeing her daughter. Byron and Percy continue their friendship, the one hedonistic, the other idealistic. The Shelleys move near Pisa.

Cast

• Hugh Grant as Lord Byron
• Lizzy McInnerny as Mary Shelley
• Valentine Pelka as Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Elizabeth Hurley as Claire Clairmont
• José Luis Gómez as John Polidori
• Virginia Mataix as Elisa
• Ronan Vibert as Fletcher

External links

• Rowing with the Wind at IMDb
• Rowing with the Wind at Rotten Tomatoes