Filmmaker Ken Russell has died. I have never seen a Ken Russell film (weird, true), so I don’t really know what we lost today. But Stranger film intern Amy Scott is a fan and today she is sad and when I asked her to explain why this is what she wrote.
The first Ken Russell film I saw and fell in love with was Altered States (1980), which is apparently his only science-fiction film, which I later found out almost everyone hates. The film stars a really young William Hurt as a doctor trying to re-experience “the first human thought,” and through a series of drug-induced hallucinations and sensory-deprivation experiments, his body physically de-evolves and he actually turns into an Ape-man; holy shit, it’s cool! Quasi-religious sexual imagery gets me every time, and this movie combines the two beautifully, with insane hallucinations about the book of Revelations. The film felt like a modernized surrealist film from the heyday of Salvador Dali and Luis Buñuel: all about the visuals, but the story didn’t totally suck, either. He also does camp, and kink extraordinarily well, somehow universalizing it and making it look pretty (a young Hugh Grant stars in Lair of the White Worm). It was my dream to meet him and sit-in on one of his classes at Newport Film School in Wales, and like so many other dreams, this one will never materialize. I’m at least happy he’ll finally get his 1971 film The Devils (featuring Vanessa Redgrave) released in Britain for this first time next March (minus the rape of Christ scene, unfortunately).
And here’s a fun fact from the NYT obit:
[H]e managed one final provocation with “Whore” (1991). A drama about a Los Angeles prostitute, it was the last of his films to get a theatrical release in the United States, where it received an NC-17 rating and was released on video under the alternate title “If You Can’t Say It, Just See It.”
RIP Ken Russell.
Geez, you haven’t even seen Tommy? Some critic you are.
Amy, I’m with you on Altered States – I fucking love that movie. The heat lamp sex trip, mmmmmm.
Russell was a cartoon even in his best moments, but “Lair of the White Worm” is hysterically funny. “Whore” is sad and crazy and a little funny, too. I especially liked the obnoxious Indian man who kept pestering Theresa Russell to do it without a condom.
“Altered States” was awful. “Tommy” was ridiculous, though the scene with Ann-Margret swimming in baked beans has its appeal. “Lizstomania” was just ridiculous.
I like Altered States, too. AT THE TIME. In comparison to the others, it’s the model of restraint.
@3, Altered States was the best B picture of the eighties, and I have the lingering crush on Blair Brown to prove it.
Accidentally watched Altered States when I was about seven, mainly because it was always on KCPQ. Scared the shit out of me, but I love it. Still won’t go into a sensory deprivation tank because of that film, unfortunately.
I also liked Altered States at the time. I suspect it hasn’t aged well, though.
No love for “The Boy Friend”?
On a rather sad side note, Ken Russell’s last few years were dominated by collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber. But he lends his trademark flamboyance to the music video for the original “Phantom of the Opera” single, performed by Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley. Ms. Brightman hams it up in a manner that only Miss Piggy could rival.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny5H9GiVP…
Check out “Women In Love”…great movie, and considered by many to be his best.
Lisztomania is my current favorite Ken Russell film. I mean, its surreal, and it has a full song dedicated to Franz Lizst’s gigantic penis (which also makes an appearance). Ridiculous doesn’t begin to cover it.
Whore is quite fun too. Not the steamy sex-filled thriller romp that most people wanted after Basic Instinct, but instead a gritty one-woman monologue.
Though, I think Crimes of Passion is the movie people were kind of expecting from Whore. Crimes of Passion is one of the most exquisitely weird movies while being both over-the-top and under-the-top. And, its so terrible but I can’t get it out of my head.
Also, Whore was the last full movie of Ken Russell to get a theatrical release..but not the last piece of his work. He also did the first story of Trapped Ashes, which got a midnight run around the country. The Girl with the Golden Breasts…about a girl with cannibalistic magic implants.
Tommy is a must, Lizstomania more of the same if you like Tommy. Anyone into modern cinema disturbia; Todd Haynes, Greg Araki, Cronenberg, should see Tommy. Altered States is awesome, William Hurt’s adorable. Ken Russell pushed limits I didn’t even know were there, sometimes a bit awkwardly, but always entertaining.
Also anyone into 70s rock stars acting out on massively coked up movie sets = Tommy. Beans and weenies will never be the same.
Roger Daltrey as Tommy Walker
Oliver Reed as Frank Hobbs
Ann-Margret as Nora Walker
Elton John as The Pinball Wizard
Eric Clapton as The Preacher
John Entwistle as Himself
Keith Moon as Uncle Ernie
Jack Nicholson as A. Quackson
Pete Townshend as Himself
Tina Turner as The Acid Queen
Arthur Brown as The Priest
“Lair of the White Worm” is hilarious (on purpose).
“Lisztomania” is spectacularly hallucinogen-induced: Franz Liszt (Roger Daltrey)’s 8-foot-tall dong and Ringo Starr as the Pope? Richard Wagner as a vampire with a sailor’s cap from the good ship “Nietzsche”?
Russell made Fellini look tame at times. “Crimes of Passion” is particularly, uh…well, where else can you see Anthony Perkins jacking off to Kathleen Turner set to the beat of an electronica version of the “New World Symphony” (all 4 movements)?
…And several truly great films with Glenda Jackson: “Women in Love” is a classic.
Pretty much every one of his movies has scenes that sear themselves into your brain, and explore, in original ways, the role of sex, art, and music in our unconscious. You may not like them, but you’ll remember them.
My bar shows movies with the sound off, and recently they showed Altered States. Gawd, what a dumb movie. I can’t believe I actually liked it when it came out.
Still love Lair of the White Worm, though.
The movie Altered States would have better had they just made the movie and didn’t attempt to capture the essence of John Lilly’s hillusinations.
Here is an interview with Lilly from Omni mag, 1983.
http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters…
Making a movie out of that is just nuts.
“Hillusinations?” Fail. Especially since it’s spelled correctly in the original post.
#1
My Dad, a devout Catholic, took my sister and I to see Tommy when we were into our music phase (13, 11). Safe to say, this has to be Russell’s most extreme movie. The Acid Queen. The crucifixes on pinballs. Luckily Dad was also a hipster. Mock turtlenecks and all.
David,
“Altered States” and “Lair of the White Worm” are the only Ken Russell films I’ve seen with the former being excellent. I believe he directed “Gothic” too.
Ken Russell really went on a tear in the 70’s. He was deliriously, disturbingly over-the-top..
Tommy was memorable to me. I was a big fan of Pete Townshend’s melodies, soaring ambitions, and very strange “rock opera” ( a deaf, dumb and blind “pinball wizard”???).. I remember Russell’s take on this as a withering visual/aural assault..
In the light of revelations about Townshend’s childhood abuse, Russell seemed to get it right.
You either loved or hated Russell. I can’t imagine watching any of his movies today either his 70’s classics or his later, tamed down material so I guess I hated him. But he made too much of an impression on me and I’ll never forget his work..
RIP..
I didn’t read the previous posts, but TOMMY was unforgettable.
“That deaf dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball”! Movie and song classics. Plus the baked beans bath.
Ahhh,the 70’s.
@17, fuck you
Did I spell “fuck you” correctly?
Hey, if you want to look like a moron, it’s no skin off my back.
I will forgive him many lapses in judgement for Lady Chatterley. Full frontal Sean Bean, mmmmm!