Schalcken the Painter (1979)🔹

Schalcken the Painter is a 1979 British BBC 'Sheridan Le Fanu' horror drama film. It features Jeremy Clyde, Maurice Denham, Cheryl Kennedy, John Justin, and Charles Gray. The painter Godfried Schalcken sees his true love, Rose, the niece of the artist Gerrit Dou, wedded by contract for a large sum of money to Vanderhausen of Rotterdam, a strange and ghostly figure. Filled with dread, Rose begs Schalcken to run off with her to save her from the marriage, but he is cowardly and ambitious and wants to continue his studies with Dou; instead he says he will buy back the marriage contract when he is successful. The marriage goes ahead as agreed, and nothing is heard of Rose until she escapes some time later and returns home distraught and starving and begging for protection, but she is pursued by her ghostly husband and disappears. On the death of Dou a melancholy Schalcken lingers in the church after the funeral service, where a terrifying encounter with his former love leaves his senses reeling. A film restored by the BFI (British Film Institute) and included in their 'Flipside' collection. BFI Flipside is dedicated to the margins of British cinematography; forgotten films and filmmakers. It includes UK cinematic oddities, offering everything from exploitation documentaries to B-movies, countercultural curios and obscure classics.