The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osborne

Borowczyk's polymorphously perverse take on the Stevenson tale, carefully restored after years in the darkness.

A forgotten footnote in Walerian Borowczyk’s career thanks to legal battles with the producers, this lurid, dreamlike take on the Stevenson story boasts an appropriately woozy electronic score by Bernard Parmegiani. Opening with a party to celebrate his engagement to the virginal Miss Osbourne (Marina Pierro), Dr Jekyll (Udo Kier) is soon wallowing ecstatically in a bathtub of chemicals in order to usher in Mr Hyde – a sepulchral figure whose idea of hospitality is a long way from Victorian manners.

Having circulated in fragmentary form for some time, the efforts of Borowczyk scholar (and Flatpack friend) Daniel Bird have led to this astonishing new digital print, supervised by the film’s cinematographer Noël Véry.

This special screening will include an introduction by Daniel Bird.