Ken Russell
(1927 - 2011), British




"Like other filmmakers such as Fellini, Werner Herzog and Emir Kusturica, Russell has a vision of life as a carnival or pageant, a brash noisy celebration of life that confronts us with the potential and with the frailty of the human body. A vision that shows us people used and mis-used as puppets, and yet still has the courage to laugh about this, and refuses to lapse into the preachy or sanctimonious."
- John A. Riley, Senses Of Cinema

"Not one word of criticism written has ever altered in any way my scripts or my next project. I believe in what I’m doing wholeheartedly, passionately, and what’s more, I simply go about my business. I suppose such a thing can be annoying to some people."
- Ken Russell


Filmography

1964 French Dressing
1967 Billion Dollar Brain
1969 Women In Love
1970 The Music Lovers
1971 The Devils
1971 The Boy Friend
1972 Savage Messiah
1974 Mahler
1975 Tommy
1975 Lisztomania
1977 Valentino
1980 Altered States
1984 Crimes Of Passion
1986 Gothic
1986 Aria ("Nessun Dorma" segment)
1988 Salome's Last Dance
1988 The Lair Of The White Worm
1989 The Rainbow
1991 Whore
2002 The Fall of the Louse of Usher: A Gothic Tale for the 21st Century

Okay, so I would have to guess that many many people would strongly dislike Ken Russell's films. However, I still think he is an immensely talented visual director with an uncanny ability to shock, disturb and please at the same time. Baroque, grotesque, camp, sublime, horrific, terrifying and just plain disgusting are all terms used to describe Ken Russell's films, and if you ask me they are all in their own way quite accurate.

I have only seen Russell's horror films so far, but apart from that and his television work, the largest bulk of his work in cinema consists of biopics. I have no idea what to expect from them. But his horror films are fucking AWESOME. So, who's seen what?

People can hate on Tommy all they want, and holy fucking shit do they. But that movie leaves an impression, love it or hate it.

It's the only movie of his I've seen, though I actually have Altered States on DVD and have seen tiny bits of it.

I highly recommend you watch it. It is quite possibly the most awesome movie ever made. Just imagine the decadent uncompromising direction of Russell, from an incredibly obsessive and wholly outrageous Paddy Chayefsky script. Watch the whole thing, I am pretty sure it will not disappoint.

Finally watched me some non-horror Russell movies as the Russell retrospective continues at the local cinematheque....


The Boy Friend was a great tribute to Warner Bros' Busby Berkeley-choreographed backstage musicals of the thirties, but was not that fantastic as a stand alone film.

Mahler was great. An entirely interesting biopic featuring some weird and wonderful imagery to accompany the standard narrative of the film.

Tommy was... wow... Tommy was fantastic.