MOVIE OF THE WEEK December 5, 2025: ADRIANNE & THE CASTLE
A tale of powerful true love with shades of Grey Gardens and Winchester, Shannon Walsh’s documentary Adrianne & the Castle introduces viewers to Alan St. George and his beloved wife, Adrianne Blue Wakefield St. George. The film shares the fascinating story of how, in their years together before her premature death, the couple transformed an Illinois home into an elaborate, 63-room sanctuary where their every artistic whim could be indulged.
Archival footage ensures that audiences get to know Adrianne, a woman who, by all appearances, lived life to the fullest in every way. Big hair, big costumes, big personality, and very big ideas: Adrianne was not someone who tried to stay out of the limelight. But she didn’t seem to need that limelight to be particularly public; once she met Alan and the two fell for each other (at first sight, according to him), his attention was all she needed to thrive. And he, in turn, wanted nothing more than to make her happy. The couple wed in 1975 and soon bought a stately but somewhat rundown estate in Savanna, Illinois, known as the Greenleaf mansion. Over the next 30 years, they renamed it Havencrest Castle and expanded it from 22 rooms to 63, designing and finishing each new addition based on Adrianne’s vision, which Alan — a talented artist — was delighted to do, supplying sculptures, paintings, and other ornate, Baroque touches. (How, you may find yourself asking, did they finance these flights of fancy? Alan founded a very successful bespoke mascot costume company called Facemakers … naturally!)
As Havencrest expanded, Alan and Adrianne proudly hosted events and fundraisers there, but overall they appear to have largely kept to themselves, dreaming up new plans for their home, writing and shooting films in which Adrianne starred, and delighting in each other’s company. Then, in 2006, Adrianne abruptly passed away, leaving Alan utterly bereft. He shares his devastation, still painfully fresh many years later, in interviews with Walsh. One of the ways he processes his grief is to re-create key moments in the couple’s life, casting them both with actors and watching the scenes from his memory play out on a stage somewhere inside the castle they built together. It’s unconventional, to say the least, but it works for him.
Walsh intercuts moments from these re-creations with Alan’s reminisces, archival film of Adrianne, and lingering shots of Havencrest itself. And it’s definitely something to behold: Every inch of the place is packed with meticulously created decor, much of it themed (connoisseurs of camp and kitsch will particularly appreciate the Doll Room and the Christmas Room). The castle certainly isn’t a place that will be to everyone’s taste, but as a living monument to the power of finding your person and being lucky enough to build the life you want together, it’s unforgettable. — Betsy Bozdech
Team #MOTW’s comments:
Loren King Shannon Walsh’s documentary is one of the oddest, most whimsical and deeply personal portraits of grief and loss ever put on film. Alan St. George has his own unique, even joyful way of mourning his beloved late wife Adrianne, a larger than life figure. Alan has reshaped their “castle” as shrine/museum/performance arts space that celebrates Adrianne’s joie de vivre. Walsh, as both director and collaborator, shows her creative acumen as she teases out Alan’s desire to honor and remember with, fittingly, recreations and campy musical numbers that pay homage to their life together. The film isn’t for everyone but originality rarely is. Like a mashup of such disparate docs as Grey Gardens, where joy and loss share space with a mother and daughter in a decaying mansion, and The Act of Killing where Indonesian gangsters recreate their criminal acts as cathartic therapy, Adrianne & the Castle is a revelation of how to survive the loss of a life as big as Adrianne’s and how to share it with an audience.
Nell Minow: Alan St. George fondly recalls the “fantasy bubble” he lived in with his adored wife, Adrianne, and the life they literally built together, an ever-expanding castle filled with ornate, fanciful designs. This sensitive, impressionistic documentary shows us St. George processing his grief after her death, the laughter, longing, and tears mingling as he recalls the first time he saw her, their early years, and being with her as she passed away and spend the night she died on the floor next to her in the funeral parlor. Director Shannon Walsh knows that no conventional talking-heads documentary featuring experts and people who knew the couple couple evoke the delicate beauty of their relationship, and so instead the film evokes memory, with archival footage and re-creations of a relationship on the border between love, servitude, obsession, isolation, and folie a deux.
Sherin Nicole He won her to his heart. Adrianne & The Castle is a filmic memorial built from love. The soulmate kind made to last, but also to inspire. In Shannon Walsh’s dreamy documentary—through narration, re-enactments, and behind-the-scenes—artist Alan St. George retells the story of the love of a lifetime alongside the extraordinary muse-made-flesh and singer, Adrianne Blue Wakefield St. George. They lived a true fantasy romance within a pink castle adorned with love and art. And just like other unforgettable fairytales, the trials are difficult, loss looms, and every step is worth the journey to “happily” because the magic is real.
Leslie Combemale For people struggling with grief who have a hard time during the holidays, Adrianne & the Castle will likely be comforting, strange as it is. The documentary is a celebration of one woman who truly let her freak flag fly and the man who loved her unconditionally, and for that, it’s really a joy. The purity of Adrianne’s life mate Alan’s love for her is inspirational. These are some very odd ducks, and the odd film that centers on them reminds us that all our lives matter.
Jennifer Merin Adrianne & the Castle is a heartwarming tribute documentary about an exquisitely eccentric woman who believed that life should be lived as art and crafted everything in her life to do just that. She wasn’t a celebrity and she didn’t crave fame, so it’s no surprise if you’ve never heard of Adrianne Blue Wakefield St. George. But after seeing director Shannon Walsh’s documentary, you will never forget her. Read full review
Sandie Angulo Chen: Adrianne & the Castle is a documentary that’s hard to categorize. It recalls The Queen of Versailles, but with far more heart, because the palatial home at its center is rooted in art, devotion, and shared imagination rather than pure excess. Canadian filmmaker Shannon Walsh follows Alan St. George, an Illinois artist and founder of a celebrated mascot-making company, and his late wife Adrianne, an extravagant aesthete and muse. For three decades they transformed their 63-room Savanna, Illinois hilltop castle into a living work of art filled with sculptures, paintings, and pieces created in homage to their love story. The film becomes a portrait of an extraordinary marriage and an architectural love letter built over a lifetime. Just watch it.
Liz Whittemore How do you do justice to such a love story? Experimental musical interludes, Adrianne’s Doll Room, quirky home movies, and the ever-expanding house that grows like a whimsical version of The Winchester House. The mansion is an explosion of color, lavish draping fabrics, sculptures, and murals, all featuring Adrianne and Alan’s likenesses. It is Versailles meets Grimm’s Fairytales, each room mirroring a slice of her exuberant persona. She was and remains Alan’s muse for all things. Alan owns a mascot company, providing characters from Smokey the Bear, Disney, and The White House to local high schools. It is how he finances the endless construction. After Adrianne passes, Alan is lost. The film is a creative catharsis. Half tribute and half coping mechanism, Adrianne & the Castle is a fascinating meditation on grief and a portrait of exemplary soulmates
Cate Marquis For some couples, there is no one else because they are a perfect match. Such was the case for Adrianne Blue Wakefield St. George and her artist husband Alan St. George. Director Shannon Walsh’s Adrianne & the Castle is a loving portrait of Adrienne, told through the eyes of the man who adored her, and still grieves her loss after her death in 2006. Alan instantly fell in love with Adrienne at age 13, when he spotted her from a bus and later met her at a party that same day. The pair married and built a life around their devotion to each other. Alan St. George built a business that designs and makes mascot masks and costumes, for companies like Disney, which funded the work to transform their Victorian mansion home into Adrienne’s dream home, Havencrest Castle, a fantasy-land of gilded Rococo frills, cupids and velvet Victorian richness, filled with fantasy portraits of the couple. Director Shannon Walsh lets Alan lead the way in this homage to his love, immersing us in a fantasy, fairy-tale celebration of colorful, creative Adrienne.
FILM DETAILS:
Title: Adrianne & the Castle
Director: Shannon Walsh
Release Date: December 5, 2025 (VOD)
Running Time: 86 minutes
Language: English
Screenwriters: Little Scream, Shannon Walsh (documentary)
Lead Performers: Alan St George
Distribution Company: Filmhub
AWFJ Movie of the Week Panel Members: Sandie Angulo Chen, Betsy Bozdech, Leslie Combemale, Loren King, Cate Marquis, Jennifer Merin, Nell Minow, Sherin Nicole, Liz Whittemore
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Edited by Jennifer Merin
