Ken Russell
Jan. 28th, 2006 04:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloKen Russell, the veteran film maker, is preparing to release home made movies on the Web. He's got a project lined up called Braveheart Meets The Loch Ness Monster.
Russell made some very bad films back in the day- Tommy, Gothic, the Boyfriend. His work for the cinema was characterized by a total lack of subtlety and a failure to understand the need for pacing. Occasionally- as with the male nudity in Women in Love- he broke through barriers that needed breaking.
But before he stepped up to the big screen he did some amazing work on TV. Everyone of a certain age remembers his short film about Elgar- with the camera tracking a small boy as he rides his pony across the Malvern hills- but even better was his uncharacteristically moving film about Delius- A Song at Sunrise. And then there was his boat-burning film about Richard Strauss with it's bosomy Teutonic maidens, priapic caveman and nazi rapists. Back in his TV heyday each new Russell opus was a national event and, latterly, a national scandal.
I'm glad he hasn't mellowed and I'm glad he's back on the (very small) screen.
I don't suppose Braveheart Meets The Loch Ness Monster will be any good, but wouldn't it be fun it it was!
Russell made some very bad films back in the day- Tommy, Gothic, the Boyfriend. His work for the cinema was characterized by a total lack of subtlety and a failure to understand the need for pacing. Occasionally- as with the male nudity in Women in Love- he broke through barriers that needed breaking.
But before he stepped up to the big screen he did some amazing work on TV. Everyone of a certain age remembers his short film about Elgar- with the camera tracking a small boy as he rides his pony across the Malvern hills- but even better was his uncharacteristically moving film about Delius- A Song at Sunrise. And then there was his boat-burning film about Richard Strauss with it's bosomy Teutonic maidens, priapic caveman and nazi rapists. Back in his TV heyday each new Russell opus was a national event and, latterly, a national scandal.
I'm glad he hasn't mellowed and I'm glad he's back on the (very small) screen.
I don't suppose Braveheart Meets The Loch Ness Monster will be any good, but wouldn't it be fun it it was!
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Date: 2006-01-28 11:46 am (UTC)I'm watching one today called The Salt Man of Tibet, and I don't know what it's about, but everyone is talking in Tibetan, and their fingernails are all very dirty.
A woman sang a long song about how she lived in a blue palace and something about a man on a horse.
I love this stuff.
Last night we watched a long, slow documentary about the explosion of Mt. St. Helens, but it took so long to explode that we got bored and watched Star Trek instead.
I've ordered a documentary about people who live underground in New York City. I can't wait till it gets here.
I LOVE DELIUS.
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Date: 2006-01-29 11:22 am (UTC)I've probably seen that documentary about Mt St Helens. I think volcanoes, though spectacular, are essentially undramatic.