Ken Russell
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was an English film director known for his controversial style. He was criticised as being over-obsessed with sexuality and the church. His subject matter was often about famous composers, or based on other works of art which he adapts loosely. Russell began directing for the BBC, where he did creative adaptations of composers' lives which were unusual for the time. He also directed many feature films independently and for studios.
He is best known for his Oscar-winning film Women in Love (1969), The Devils (1971), The Who's Tommy (1975), and the science fiction film Altered States (1980).
One noted admirer, the British film critic Mark Kermode, attempting to sum up the director's achievement, called Russell; "somebody who proved that British cinema didn't have to be about kitchen-sink realism—it could be every bit as flamboyant as Fellini. He now makes very strange experimental films like Lion's Mouth and Revenge of the Elephant Man, and they are as edgy and out there as the work he made in the 1970s."
Filmography
- Elgar (1962)
- French Dressing (1964)
- Billion-Dollar Brain (1967)
- Women in Love (1969)
- The Music Lovers (1970)
- The Boy Friend (1971)
- The Devils (1971)
- Savage Messiah (1972)
- Mahler (1974)
- Tommy (1975)
- Lisztomania (1977)
- Valentino (1977)
- Altered States (1980)
- Crimes of Passion (1984)
- Gothic (1986)
- Aria (short segment) (1987)
- The Lair of the White Worm (1988)
- Salome's Last Dance (1988)
- The Rainbow (1989)
- Whore (a.k.a. If you Can't Say It, Just See It) (1991)
- Prisoner of Honor (HBO television movie) (1991)
- Mindbender (1996)
- Tracked (a.k.a. Dogboys) (1998)
- The Lion's Mouth (2000)
- The Fall of the Louse of Usher (2002)
- Invasion of the Not Quite Dead (2008)
The films produced for the BBC arts programme Monitor should also be noted - see above
