Ken Russell | |
|---|---|
 Russell in 1971 | |
| Born | Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (1927-07-03)3 July 1927 Southampton,Hampshire, England |
| Died | 27 November 2011(2011-11-27) (aged 84) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1956–2011 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 8 |
Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011)[2][3] was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films were mainly liberal adaptations of existing texts, or biographies, notably of composers of theRomantic era. Russell began directing for theBBC, where he made creative adaptations of composers' lives which were unusual for the time. He also directed manyfeature films independently and forstudios.
Russell is best known for hisAcademy Award-winning romantic drama filmWomen in Love (1969); the historical drama horror filmThe Devils (1971); the musical fantasy filmTommy (1975), featuringthe Who; and the science fiction horror filmAltered States (1980). Russell also directed several films based on the lives of classical music composers, such asElgar,Delius,Tchaikovsky,Mahler, andLiszt.[4]
Film criticMark Kermode, speaking in 2006, and attempting to sum up the director's achievement, called Russell "somebody who proved that British cinema didn't have to be aboutkitchen-sink realism—it could be every bit as flamboyant asFellini. Later in his life he turned to making low-budget experimental films such asThe Lion's Mouth andRevenge of the Elephant Man, and they are as edgy and 'out there' as ever".[5]
Russell was born inSouthampton,Hampshire, England, on 3 July 1927,[6] the elder of two sons[7] of Ethel (née Smith) and Henry Russell, a shoeshop owner.[8] His father was distant and took out his rage on his family, so Russell spent much of his time at the cinema with his mother, who was mentally ill.[7] He cited the filmsDie Nibelungen andThe Secret of the Loch as two early influences.[9]
He was educated at private schools inWalthamstow and atPangbourne College, and studied photography at Walthamstow Technical College (now part of theUniversity of East London).[7]
He harboured a childhood ambition to be a ballet dancer but instead joined theRoyal Air Force and theBritishMerchant Navy as a teenager. On one occasion he was made to stand watch in the blazing sun for hours on end while crossing thePacific Ocean, because hismentally ill captain feared an attack byJapanese midget submarines despite thePacific War having ended. He moved into television work after short careers in dance andphotography.[10]
In 1954 Russell started work as a local-interestfreelance photographer. His series of documentary 'Teddy Girl' photographs were published inPicture Post magazine in June 1955, and he continued to work as afreelance documentary photographer until 1959.[11]
During this time, he started directing short films:Peepshow (1956),Knights on Bikes (1956), andLourdes (1959). He received a lot of acclaim for his shortAmelia and the Angel (1959), which helped secure him a job at theBBC.
Between 1959 and 1970, Russell directed arts documentaries forMonitor andOmnibus.
He madePoet's London (1959, aboutJohn Betjeman),Portrait of a Goon (1959, aboutSpike Milligan),Gordon Jacob (1959),The Guitar Craze (1959),Variations on a Mechanical Theme (1959),Scottish Painters (1959),Marie Rambert Remembers (1960),The Strange World of Hieronymus Bosch (1960),The Miners' Picnic (1960),Architecture of Entertainment (1960),A House in Bayswater (1960),Shelagh Delaney's Salford (1960),Cranks at Work (1960, aboutJohn Cranko),The Light Fantastic (1960),Journey Into a Lost World (1960),Lotte Lenya Sings Kurt Weill (1961),Old Battersea House (1961),Portrait of a Soviet Composer (1961),London Moods (1961),Antonio Gaudi (1961),Preservation Man (1962),Mr. Chesher's Traction Engines (1962),The Lonely Shore (1962) andWatch the Birdie (1962).[12]
Russell's films began to get longer:Pop Goes the Easel (1962) and the much admiredElgar (1962) about SirEdward Elgar.Elgar was the first time that a television arts programme (Monitor) was dedicated to one artistic figure, rather than having a magazine format. It was also the first time that re-enactments were used. Russell fought with the BBC over using actors to portray different ages of the same character, instead of the traditional photograph stills and documentary footage.[13]
Russell's first feature film wasFrench Dressing (1964), a comedy loosely based onRoger Vadim'sAnd God Created Woman; its critical and commercial failure led Russell to work further for the BBC. For television he made the 16-minuteLonely Shore (1964), the longerBartok (1964) (aboutBéla Bartók), andThe Dotty World of James Lloyd (1964). In 1964 he planned to make an adaptation ofAnthony Burgess'sA Clockwork Orange (1962) starringthe Rolling Stones, but abandoned the film after theBritish Board of Censors advised it would not approve it.[14]
Russell had a noted critical success with the TV movieThe Debussy Film (1965) starringOliver Reed asClaude Debussy based on a script byMelvyn Bragg. Also well received wasAlways on Sunday (1965), written by Bragg, aboutHenri Rousseau.[15]
Russell madeDon't Shoot the Composer (1966), a documentary about composerGeorges Delerue. He produced and directed the highly praisedIsadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World (1967), aboutIsadora Duncan withVivian Pickles.[16]
Russell's television work prompted producerHarry Saltzman to hire him to direct a feature film,Billion Dollar Brain (1967), the thirdHarry Palmer movie starringMichael Caine. He wanted to follow it with a biopic ofVaslav Nijinsky butBrain was a commercial disappointment.[17]
He returned to television forDante's Inferno (1967) with Reed asDante Gabriel Rossetti andSong of Summer (1968) aboutFrederick Delius andEric Fenby. He once said that the best film he ever made wasSong of Summer, and that he would not edit a single shot.[18]
In 1969, Russell directed what is considered his "signature film",Women In Love, an adaptation ofD. H. Lawrence'snovel of the same name about two artist sisters living inpost-World War I Britain. The film starredGlenda Jackson,Oliver Reed,Jennie Linden andAlan Bates. The film is notable for its nudewrestling scene, which broke the convention at the time that a mainstream movie could not showmale genitalia.Women in Love connected with thesexual revolution and bohemian politics of the late 1960s. It received fourOscar nominations, including his only nomination forBest Director.[6]
The film wasBAFTA-nominated for the costume designs of Russell's first wife,Shirley; they collaborated throughout the 1970s. The colour schemes ofLuciana Arrighi'sart direction (also BAFTA-nominated) andBilly William's cinematography, which Russell used for metaphorical effect, are also often referred to by film textbooks.
Russell returned to television withDance of the Seven Veils (1970) which sought to portrayRichard Strauss as aNazi: one scene in particular showed a Jewish man being tortured while a group ofSS men look on in delight, with Strauss's music as the score. The Strauss family was so outraged by the film that they withdrew all music rights. The film was effectively banned from being screened until Strauss's copyright expired in 2019.[19] It was shown in February 2020 at theKeswick Film Festival.[20]
He followedWomen in Love with a string of innovative adult-themed films which were often as controversial as they were successful.The Music Lovers (1971), a biopic ofTchaikovsky, starredRichard Chamberlain as a flamboyantPyotr Tchaikovsky and Glenda Jackson as his wife. The score was conducted byAndré Previn.
He followed it withThe Devils (1971), a film so provocative that the production company,Warner Bros., refused to release it, unless cuts were made.[21] Inspired byAldous Huxley's bookThe Devils of Loudun and using material fromJohn Whiting's playThe Devils, it starredOliver Reed as a priest who stands in the way of a corrupt church and state. Helped by publicity over the more sensational scenes, featuring sexuality among nuns, the film topped British box office receipts for eight weeks. In the United States, the film, which had already been cut for distribution in Britain, was further edited but never widely released theatrically in anything like its original state; the original, uncut version has only been shown in the U.S. at film festivals and art houses.[22] In 2017,AMC Networks-owned horror film streaming serviceShudder premiered the uncut version of the film for the first time on streaming.[23]
British film criticAlexander Walker described the film as "monstrously indecent" in a television confrontation with Russell, leading the director to hit him with a rolled up copy of theEvening Standard, the newspaper for which Walker worked.[24] The uncut version of the film remains censored.
Russell followedThe Devils with a reworking of the period musicalThe Boy Friend (1971), for which he cast the modelTwiggy, who won twoGolden Globe Awards for her performance: one for Best Actress in a musical comedy, and one for the best newcomer. The film was heavily cut and shorn of two musical numbers for its American release; it was not a big success.
Russell wanted to makeLittle Sparrow, a film aboutÉdith Piaf, or a biopic ofKing Ludwig of Bavaria,[25] but neither was made. Instead, he himself provided most of the financing forSavage Messiah (1972). The film is a biopic of the painter and sculptorHenri Gaudier-Brzeska, who died fighting for France at age 23, in 1915, in thetrenches of theWestern Front during theFirst World War. The film starsDorothy Tutin,Scott Antony, andHelen Mirren.
Russell announced a biopic ofSarah Bernhardt withBarbra Streisand but it was not made.[26]
He worked withDavid Puttnam onMahler (1974) starringRobert Powell asGustav Mahler.
In 1975, Russell's star-studdedfilm version ofthe Who's rock operaTommy starringRoger Daltrey,Ann-Margret,Oliver Reed,Elton John,Tina Turner,Eric Clapton andJack Nicholson, spent fourteen weeks at the No.1 spot in the UK.
Two months beforeTommy was released (in March 1975), Russell started work onLisztomania (1975), another vehicle forRoger Daltrey, and for the film scoring ofprogressive rock keyboardistRick Wakeman.[1] In the film, the music ofFranz Liszt is stolen byRichard Wagner. Wagner's operas then put forward the theme of theSuperman.Tommy andLisztomania were important in the rise of improved motion picture sound in the 1970s, as they were among the first films to be released withDolby-encoded soundtracks.Lisztomania, tagged as "the film that out-Tommys 'Tommy'", topped the British box-office for two weeks in November 1975, whenTommy was still in the list of the week's top five box-office hits.
Russell's next film, the biopicValentino (1977), starringRudolf Nureyev asRudolph Valentino, also topped the British box-office for two weeks, but was not a hit in America. After this he said "nobody in Hollywood would give me even a B movie to direct."[27]
Russell returned to television withWilliam and Dorothy (1978) a look at the life ofWilliam Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, andThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1978), aboutSamuel Taylor Coleridge.
Russell went to Hollywood to makeAltered States (1980), a departure in both genre and tone, in that it is Russell's only foray intoscience fiction. Working fromPaddy Chayefsky'sscreenplay (based upon his novel), Russell used his penchant for elaborate visual effects to translate Chayefsky's hallucinatory story to the cinema, and took the opportunity to add his trademark religious and sexual imagery. The film had an innovativeOscar-nominated score byJohn Corigliano. The film enjoyed moderate financial success, and scored with critics who had otherwise dismissed Russell's work.Roger Ebert, who had givenThe Devils "zero stars", and had panned Russell's early composer portraits (he did, however, give three stars to bothTommy andLisztomania), gave it his highest rating for Russell's work (three-and-a-half stars), praising it as "one hell of a movie!"
Although the film was a financial success, Russell had difficulty making his next film. One project,Beethoven's Secret, was about to start shooting when financing fell apart at the last minute. He was attached to do the film ofEvita for over a year, but ultimately left the project when he refused to castElaine Paige inthe lead. A biopic ofMaria Callas withSophia Loren also failed to get financing. However, Russell found himself artistically rejuvenated when offered the chance to direct some opera. He didThe Rake's Progress,Soldiers andButterfly.[28]
Russell's next film afterAltered States wasThe Planets (1983), aboutGustav Holst'sorchestral suite of the same name. This 53-minute film was made specially forThe South Bank Show, the weekly arts programme on theITV network in Britain. It is a wordlesscollage that matchesstock footage to each of the sevenmovements of the Holst suite.John Coulthart wrote "familiar Russell obsessions appear:Nazis, naked women and the inevitablecrucifixion."[29] After essentially disappearing for decades, in 2016 the film was re-released onDVD byArthaus Musik.[30]
ForThe South Bank Show, Russell also madeVaughan Williams: A Symphonic Portrait (1984) aboutRalph Vaughan Williams.
Russell returned to feature films with a sexual thriller,Crimes of Passion (1984), starringAnthony Perkins andKathleen Turner forNew World Pictures. It had moderate critical success and did not perform well at the box office, but was a big hit on video.[31]
In the eighties, Russell directed a number of operatic productions. In 1985, he directedGounod's operaFaust, loosely based onGoethe's playFaust.[32] The production was staged at theVienna State Opera, conducted byErich Binder withFrancisco Araiza,Ruggero Raimondi andGabriela Beňačková in the main roles. In 1986, he directed a production ofArrigo Boito'sMefistofele, also based on Goethe's Faust: the production was staged at Teatro Margherita inGenoa, conducted byEdoardo Müller, with Ottavio Garaventa,Paata Burchuladze and Adriana Morelli in the main roles.[33] He also directed successful productions ofPuccini'sLa bohème andMadama Butterfly.
Russell set up a company, Sitting Duck, to make music videos. "Videos are a magic new art form," he said. Among those he made were "Nikita" forElton John and "Phantom of the Opera" forAndrew Lloyd Webber.[31]
Russell had a legal fight withBob Guccione over an aborted attempt to filmMoll Flanders, which was dramatised in a movie,Your Honour, I Object! (1987).[34]
Russell directedGothic (1986) withGabriel Byrne, about the nightMary Shelley told the tale ofFrankenstein. It was a hit on video forVestron Pictures, who signed Russell to a three-picture contract.[35]
Russell did one of the segments forAria (1987), and for British TV madeKen Russell's ABC of British Music (1988) andA British Picture (1989).
For the Vestron deal, he directedSalome's Last Dance (1988), a loosely adapted esoteric tribute toOscar Wilde's controversial playSalome, which was banned on the 19th century London stage. The cult movie defines Russell's adult themed romance with theTheatre of The Poor and was also notable for the screen presence ofImogen Millais-Scott as Salome.
He made another two pictures for Vestron:The Lair of the White Worm (1988) withAmanda Donohoe andHugh Grant, based on a novella byBram Stoker, andThe Rainbow (1989), another D. H. Lawrence adaptation, which also happens to be the prequel toWomen in Love.Glenda Jackson played the mother of her character in the previous film.
Russell directed the operaMefistofele (1989).
In the 1990 filmThe Russia House, starringSean Connery andMichelle Pfeiffer, Russell made one of his first significant acting appearances, portraying Walter, an ambiguously gay BritishMI6intelligence officer who discomfits his more strait-lacedCIA counterparts. Russell thenceforth occasionally acted.
He directed a segment ofWomen and Men: Stories of Seduction (1990) and for TV didThe Strange Affliction of Anton Bruckner (1991).
In 1991, Russell directedWhore. It was highly controversial and branded with anNC-17 rating for its sexual content. The MPAA and the theatre chains also refused to release posters or advertise a film calledWhore, so for this purpose the film was re-titledIf You Can't Say It, Just See It. Russell protested his film being given such a rating whenPretty Woman got anR, on the grounds that his film showed the real hardships of being aprostitute, and the other glorified it.[citation needed]
The filmPrisoner of Honor (1991) allowed Russell a further opportunity to explore his abiding interest inanti-Semitism through a factually-based account of theDreyfus affair in theFrench Third Republic. The movie featuredRichard Dreyfuss in the central role of ColonelGeorges Picquart, theFrench Army investigator who exposed the army establishment's framing of the Jewish officer CaptainAlfred Dreyfus.
By the early 1990s, Russell had become a celebrity: his notoriety and persona attracted more attention than his recent work. He became largely reliant on his own finances to continue making films. Much of his work after 1990 was commissioned for television (e.g. his 1993 TV filmThe Mystery of Dr Martinu), and he contributed regularly toThe South Bank Show including documentaries such asClassic Widows about the widows of four leading British composers; dance sections in these were choreographed byAmir Hosseinpour.
Prisoner of Honor (1991) was Russell's final work with Oliver Reed. His final film with Glenda Jackson before she gave up acting for politics wasThe Secret Life of Arnold Bax (1992).
He directedLady Chatterley (1993),The Mystery of Dr Martinu (1993), a version ofTreasure Island (1995),Alice in Russialand (1995),Mindbender (1995) (aboutUri Geller), and an episode ofTales of Erotica.
In May 1995, he was honoured with a retrospective of his work presented in Hollywood by theAmerican Cinematheque.[36][37] TitledShock Value, it included some of Russell's most successful and controversial films and also several of his early BBC productions. Russell attended the festival and engaged in lengthy post-screening discussions of each film with audiences and moderatorMartin Lewis,[38] who had instigated and curated the retrospective.[39][40]
Later films includeDogboys (1998),The Fall of the Louse of Usher (2002), andElgar: Fantasy on a Composer on a Bicycle (2002).
Russell had a cameo in the 2006 film adaptation ofBrian Aldiss's novelBrothers of the Head by the directors ofLost in La Mancha. He also had a cameo in the 2006 filmColour Me Kubrick. He directed a segment for the horror anthologyTrapped Ashes (2007), which also included segments directed bySean S. Cunningham,Monte Hellman, andJoe Dante. Prior to his death in 2011 he was reputed to be in pre-production for two films:The Pearl of the Orient andKings X.
Efforts such asThe Lion's Mouth (2000) andThe Fall of the Louse of Usher (2002) have suffered from low production values (for example, being shot on video on Russell's estate, often featuring Russell himself) and limited distribution.
In 2003 he was a member of the jury at the25th Moscow International Film Festival.[41] He also acted in "Final Cut", an episode of theBBC Television seriesWaking the Dead,[42] playing the role of an aging director of a notorious 1960s crime drama similar toPerformance.
From 2004, Russell was visiting professor at theUniversity of Wales,Newport Film School. One of his many tasks was to advise students on the making of their graduate films. He also presented the Finest Film Awards (for graduate filmmakers of Newport) in June 2005.
Russell was appointed visiting fellow atSouthampton Solent University and later at theUniversity of Southampton in April 2007, where he acted in a similar capacity to his role at the Newport Film School, until March 2008. His arrival was celebrated with a screening of the rare director's cut ofThe Devils hosted byMark Kermode.
He began production of his first full-length film in almost five years,Moll Flanders, an adaptation ofDaniel Defoe'snovel, starringLucinda Rhodes-Flaherty andBarry Humphries, but a finished film failed to materialise.
In 2007, Russell producedA Kitten for Hitler, a short film hosted by the Comedybox.tv website. Russell commented that "Ten years ago, while working onThe South Bank Show,Melvyn Bragg and I had a heated discussion on the pros and cons of film censorship. Broadly speaking, Melvyn was against it, while I, much to his surprise, was absolutely for it. He then dared me to write a script that I thought should be banned. I accepted the challenge and a month or so later sent him a short subject entitledA Kitten for Hitler. 'Ken,' he said, 'if ever you make this film and it is shown, you will be lynched.' "[43]
Russell joined the cast of the British reality television showCelebrity Big Brother in January 2007, at the start of the series, but left voluntarily within a week after an altercation with fellow housemateJade Goody. At the age of 79, he was then the oldest person to be a contestant on the programme.[44][45]
Russell and his wife Elize "Lisi" Tribble were invited by New York film writerShade Rupe on a six-week journey across North America, beginning with a Lifetime Achievement Award given byMitch Davis at theFantasia film festival on 20 July 2010, followed by a screening of Russell's most notorious film,The Devils. The next day, a near complete 35mm print retrospective of Russell's work at theCinémathèque québécoise includingBillion Dollar Brain,Women in Love,The Music Lovers,Crimes of Passion,The Rainbow,Whore, and many more found projection along with an exhibition of several of Russell's photographs from the 1950s. The next stop was Russellmania! at theLincoln Center, a nine-film overview of Russell's work fromWomen in Love throughValentino, with Russell present at each evening screening for a nearly sold-out weeklong festival. On 30 July 2010, for the opening night, Russell was joined byVanessa Redgrave for a 40th anniversary screening ofThe Devils and the next evening sawThe Music Lovers andWomen in Love projected with Russell in attendance.Tommy Tune joined Russell the next evening forThe Boy Friend and followed the screening with a live stage dance number from the film.
TheAmerican Cinematheque inLos Angeles next hosted Russell at theAero Theatre inSanta Monica with screenings ofThe Devils andAltered States withCharles Haid andStuart Baird in attendance, andTommy andLisztomania at theEgyptian the following evening. DirectorMick Garris extended an invitation and Russell, Tribble, and Rupe joined theMasters of Horror for one of their rarified dinners. The tour wrapped up inToronto at theRue Morgue Festival of Fear and a packed screening ofThe Devils at theBloor Cinema hosted byRichard Crouse.
In 2008, he made his New York directorial debut with theOff-Broadway production ofMindgame at theSoHo Playhouse produced byMonica Tidwell, a thriller byAnthony Horowitz and starringKeith Carradine, Lee Godart and Kathleen McNenny.[citation needed]
Towards the end of his life, Russell was planning a remake of the 1976 erotic musical comedyAlice in Wonderland.[46]
Russell converted toRoman Catholicism during the 1950s; he describedThe Devils as being the "last nail in the coffin of my Catholic faith."[47][48]
He was married four times. His first marriage, to costume designerShirley Kingdon from 1956 to 1978, produced four sons and a daughter. He was married to Vivian Jolly from 1984 to 1991 (the wedding celebrant beingAnthony Perkins, who had been ordained in theUniversal Life Church);[49] the couple had a son and daughter. He was married to the actress and former ballerinaHetty Baynes from 1992 to 1997;[50] the couple had a son. His first three marriages ended in divorce. He married American actress and artist Elize "Lisi" Tribble in 2001, and the marriage lasted until his death.[7]
Ken Russell died on 27 November 2011 at the age of 84, having suffered a series of strokes; he was survived by his wife and eight children. Before his death, he left his entire estate to his wife.[4]
 | This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(November 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Besides books on film-making and the British film industry, Russell also wroteA British Picture: An Autobiography (1989; published in the US asAltered States: The Autobiography of Ken Russell, 1991). He also published six novels, including four on the sex lives of composers –Beethoven Confidential,Brahms Gets Laid,Elgar: The Erotic Variations, andDelius: A Moment with Venus.
Mike and Gaby's Space Gospel is a science-fiction rewriting ofGenesis. His last novel, also science fiction and published in 2006, is calledViolation. It is a very violent future-shock tale of an England where football has become the national religion.
At the time of his death, he had a column forThe Times in the Film section oftimes 2.
Before achieving success in the film industry, Russell was a stills photographer for a period. An exhibition displaying some of Russell's work was on display during the summer of 2007 in central London's Proud Galleries in The Strand, London. The exhibition, entitledKen Russell's Lost London Rediscovered: 1951–1957, included photos taken in and around London, with many of the pictures being taken in thePortobello Road area of London. An exhibitionKen Russell: Filmmaker, Photographer ran at several galleries in 2010.
In the late-1980s, Russell directed the music video for "It's All Coming Back to Me Now", a song written and produced byJim Steinman for hisPandora's Box project. The production featured a range of erotic imagery, including studded bras and spiked codpieces.[51][52] He had also directedElton John's video for "Nikita" which featured a scene of John wearing the same boots he wore as the Pinball Wizard in the film adaptation of the Who'sTommy.
Light-hearted references to Russell often allude to sexual and religious (frequentlyCatholic) images in his work.[53]
In his 1973 novelThe Honorary Consul, English novelistGraham Greene includes a passage in which a "ConservativeMember of Parliament had described the British entry [in theMar del Plata Film Festival inArgentina] by some man named Russell as pornographic."[54]
