alan45
28-11-2011, 10:16
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2011/11/28/1322471360588/Ken-Russell-008.jpg
Ken Russell the director behind the Oscar-winning Women in Love has died aged 84. Russell died on Sunday in his sleep, according to his friend, the arts writer Norman Lebrecht.
Known for a flamboyant style that was developed during his early career in television, Russell's films mixed high and low culture with unusual deftness and often courted controversy. The Devils … a religious drama that featured an infamous scene between Oliver Reed and Venessa Redgrave sexualising the crucifixion – was initially rejected by Warner Brothers. It will finally be released in its entirety in March next year, 42 years after it was made, when it will form part of the BFI's centenary celebrations.
Women in Love, released in 1969, became notorious for its nude male wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, while Tommy, his starry version of The Who's rock opera, was his biggest commercial success, beginning as a stage musical before being reimagined for the screen in 1976. But Russell fell out of the limelight in recent years, as some of his funding resources dried up and his proposed projects ever more eclectic. He returned to the public eye in 2007, when he appeared on the fifth edition of Celebrity Big Brother, before quitting the show after a disagreement with fellow contestant Jade Goody.
Russell was born in Southampton in 1927, the son of a shoe shop owner whose violent episodes led Russell and his mother to often seek refuge in the cinema. After serving in the RAF and merchant navy, Russell began his career as a photographer - a pursuit he maintained through his life - before moving into TV documentaries. He joined the BBC in 1959, where for the next 11 years he made pioneering arts documentaries for Monitor and Omnibus, the best-known of which focused on composers, including Elgar (1962), The Debussy Film (1965), Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World (1967), Song of Summer (about Frederick Delius and Eric Fenby) (1968) and Dance of the Seven Veils (1970), a film about Richard Strauss, which Russell thought his finest achievement.
His first feature, a light comedy called French Dressing (1963), was not well-received, but he scored a minor hit 1967's Billion Dollar Brain, starring Michael Caine. Two years later came the success of Women in Love, Russell's groundbreaking adaptation of the DH Lawrence novel, which won an Oscar for leading lady Glenda Jackson, as well as nominations for cinematography, screenwriting and direction (Russell's only recognition by the Academy). The film established Russell's maverick credentials, not only for its full-frontal wrestling scene, but for an approach to the source that tallied perfectly with the sexual mores of the late 1960s.
He followed Women in Love with a string of innovative adult-themed films which were often as controversial as they were successful. The Music Lovers (1970), a biopic of Tchaikovsky, starred Richard Chamberlain as a flamboyant Tchaikovsky and Glenda Jackson as his wife. The score was conducted to great acclaim by André Previn. The film was widely panned but it was successful at the box office.
The 1970s were fruitful years for Russell, who made mature movies that proved popular at the box office, whatever their reception with the critics. Tchaikovsky biopic The Music Lovers (1970), scored by André Previn, was a lucrative reunion for Russell and Glenda Jackson, while The Devils, which reunited him with another Women in Love star, Oliver Reed, topped the British box office for eight weeks. But it was widely reviled in the press, with Evening Standard film critic Alexander Walker famously damning the film as "monstrously indecent" in a TV encounter with Russell, leading the director to hit him with a rolled up copy of the Standard.
Twiggy vehicle The Boy Friend was followed by Savage Messiah, a biopic of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, then Mahler, an unlikely smash starring the young Robert Powell. Then came Tommy, followed by Lisztomania (1975), which also starred Roger Daltrey, then another biopic, 1977's Valentino.
Russell began the 1980s with more innovation: his first foray into science-fiction. Altered States was a hallucinatory fantasy that mixed religion and space to successful effect. Even critic Roger Ebert, who panned The Devils and the bulk of Russell's back catalogue, gave it his highest grade. But on set rows with the author of the novel on which Altered States was based, Paddy Chayefsky, led with Russell being socially exiled in Hollywood, and after one final US production - Crimes of Passion (1984) - Russell returned to Europe for good. Here he took a break from cinema to direct operas, until a return to horror with 1986's Gothic, and 1988's The Lair of the White Worm. Though unsuccessful on release, both helped launched the careers of acting talent such as Hugh Grant, and have been championed by horror afficionados in recent years. Jackson and Russell teamed up again in 1989 with The Rainbow, an adaptation of DH Lawrence's Women in Love prequel: one of Russell's quietest, and most acclaimed films.
Ken Russell the director behind the Oscar-winning Women in Love has died aged 84. Russell died on Sunday in his sleep, according to his friend, the arts writer Norman Lebrecht.
Known for a flamboyant style that was developed during his early career in television, Russell's films mixed high and low culture with unusual deftness and often courted controversy. The Devils … a religious drama that featured an infamous scene between Oliver Reed and Venessa Redgrave sexualising the crucifixion – was initially rejected by Warner Brothers. It will finally be released in its entirety in March next year, 42 years after it was made, when it will form part of the BFI's centenary celebrations.
Women in Love, released in 1969, became notorious for its nude male wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, while Tommy, his starry version of The Who's rock opera, was his biggest commercial success, beginning as a stage musical before being reimagined for the screen in 1976. But Russell fell out of the limelight in recent years, as some of his funding resources dried up and his proposed projects ever more eclectic. He returned to the public eye in 2007, when he appeared on the fifth edition of Celebrity Big Brother, before quitting the show after a disagreement with fellow contestant Jade Goody.
Russell was born in Southampton in 1927, the son of a shoe shop owner whose violent episodes led Russell and his mother to often seek refuge in the cinema. After serving in the RAF and merchant navy, Russell began his career as a photographer - a pursuit he maintained through his life - before moving into TV documentaries. He joined the BBC in 1959, where for the next 11 years he made pioneering arts documentaries for Monitor and Omnibus, the best-known of which focused on composers, including Elgar (1962), The Debussy Film (1965), Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World (1967), Song of Summer (about Frederick Delius and Eric Fenby) (1968) and Dance of the Seven Veils (1970), a film about Richard Strauss, which Russell thought his finest achievement.
His first feature, a light comedy called French Dressing (1963), was not well-received, but he scored a minor hit 1967's Billion Dollar Brain, starring Michael Caine. Two years later came the success of Women in Love, Russell's groundbreaking adaptation of the DH Lawrence novel, which won an Oscar for leading lady Glenda Jackson, as well as nominations for cinematography, screenwriting and direction (Russell's only recognition by the Academy). The film established Russell's maverick credentials, not only for its full-frontal wrestling scene, but for an approach to the source that tallied perfectly with the sexual mores of the late 1960s.
He followed Women in Love with a string of innovative adult-themed films which were often as controversial as they were successful. The Music Lovers (1970), a biopic of Tchaikovsky, starred Richard Chamberlain as a flamboyant Tchaikovsky and Glenda Jackson as his wife. The score was conducted to great acclaim by André Previn. The film was widely panned but it was successful at the box office.
The 1970s were fruitful years for Russell, who made mature movies that proved popular at the box office, whatever their reception with the critics. Tchaikovsky biopic The Music Lovers (1970), scored by André Previn, was a lucrative reunion for Russell and Glenda Jackson, while The Devils, which reunited him with another Women in Love star, Oliver Reed, topped the British box office for eight weeks. But it was widely reviled in the press, with Evening Standard film critic Alexander Walker famously damning the film as "monstrously indecent" in a TV encounter with Russell, leading the director to hit him with a rolled up copy of the Standard.
Twiggy vehicle The Boy Friend was followed by Savage Messiah, a biopic of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, then Mahler, an unlikely smash starring the young Robert Powell. Then came Tommy, followed by Lisztomania (1975), which also starred Roger Daltrey, then another biopic, 1977's Valentino.
Russell began the 1980s with more innovation: his first foray into science-fiction. Altered States was a hallucinatory fantasy that mixed religion and space to successful effect. Even critic Roger Ebert, who panned The Devils and the bulk of Russell's back catalogue, gave it his highest grade. But on set rows with the author of the novel on which Altered States was based, Paddy Chayefsky, led with Russell being socially exiled in Hollywood, and after one final US production - Crimes of Passion (1984) - Russell returned to Europe for good. Here he took a break from cinema to direct operas, until a return to horror with 1986's Gothic, and 1988's The Lair of the White Worm. Though unsuccessful on release, both helped launched the careers of acting talent such as Hugh Grant, and have been championed by horror afficionados in recent years. Jackson and Russell teamed up again in 1989 with The Rainbow, an adaptation of DH Lawrence's Women in Love prequel: one of Russell's quietest, and most acclaimed films.