Ken Russell dies aged 84

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/nov/28/ken-russell-dies-aged-84


Ken Russell photographed earlier this year. Photograph: Sam Frost

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 developed during his early career in television, Russell's films mixed high and low culture with rare deftness and often courted high 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 be released in its entirety in March next year, 42 years after it was made, when it will form part of the British Board of Film Classification'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 dried up and his proposed projects became 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 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 shows 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 himself thought his finest achievement.

[The Straight Story]

1. k&r (nt)

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. RIP

[malaise]

3. K & R n/t

[dipsydoodle]

4. K & R

The Boy Friend (1971) Theatrical Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GcdLVpQ5V0

[xchrom]

5. I loved that movie. Nt

[dipsydoodle]

7. I'm a softy anyway - I like all musicals

When I was 8 years old, early fifties , I knew the entire lib to Oklahoma from listening constantly to a set of 12" 78's of the Broadway production. :)

[closeupready]

6. I'll never forget that nude wrestling scene in Women In Love, lol.

I was just going through puberty, and couldn't watch that scene enough. :D

[bengalherder]

8. Thank Dog they are finally releasing The Devils!

Getting past the sensationalism, the movie is quite eloquent about the power of religion and superstition and the abuse of that power on a temporal level.

Besides my European bootleg copy I got several years ago skips during the orgy scene. Too bad Reed isn't around anymore to provide commentary.