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Looking
for a budget
Ken
Russell made a series of very low budget films. They
demonstrate the depth of his imagery and vision, and also
the desperation of making money by sensation. At times
the best and the worst are side by side, as in Gothic.
This period includes a short film, Aria, which is a
classic.
| 1986 |
Gothic
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Ken Russell was attracted to the
Shelley and Byron story of incest and debauchery. It
starts with tourists paying to look through telescopes to
the Byron residence across the water. Just as Russell did
with Liszt, Shelley and Byron are treated as pop stars
with adoring groupies.
Under the effect of drugs, nightmares start to
take over as each character searches for an illusory
gratification. Natasha however does not need drugs to
confront her nightmares.
The poster was banned in London, despite being
based on a classical painting.
 
The film is enjoyable and the first half is
vintage Russell but it does deteriorate a bit towards the
end. Ken Russell says "I'd fallen into the
trap which has been the undoing of many a... pop-video
director- punchy, roller-coaster cutting, short sequences
and non-stop action... well nigh unbearable over a
hundred minutes or so".
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Gabriel Byrne
as Lord Byron and Julian Sands as Percy Bysshe
Shelley. Natasha Richardson, daughter of The
Devil's Vanessa Redgrave, plays Mary Shelley. |
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Music by Thomas Dolby
(not Russell's choice).
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| best image |
The girl
sleeping as the shadow moves by.
| The fish drowning in a bowl
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| best scene
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The girl
in the room surrounded by the doors. |
| themes |
The moving
doll sequence is very similar to Fellini in Casanova. The dead baby in the water.
The knight in armour is
similar to the Tina Turner hypodermic knight in Tommy.
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The scene on
the roof in the lightning is similar to Roger
Daltry on the roof in Tommy. |
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Snakes on
skulls, phallic symbols, leeches abound. Left
from Gothic, right from Tommy. |
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| films |
Other films released in the same year include Children of a
Lesser God, Aliens and Platoon. |
| 1987 |
Aria
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A number of directors were each
given 50,000 pounds to make a short film based on an
opera.
Ken Russell chose an excerpt from Turandot. Linzi Drew, the
star, says "Nessum Dorma... from Turandot translates as ´None Shall
Sleep´, and Ken's idea was to portray an accident victim who is
comatose... His inspiration came from losing someone close to him in a
car crash".
The film is one of Russell's best and is
highly recommended.
Ken's segment was filmed in a studio in Battersea.
Other directors at their peak in the Aria
films include Altman and Jean Luc Goddard. Disappointing
are Roeg and especially Derek Jarman.
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| people |
Linzi Drew stars. She is a porn star, and has
appeared in minor roles in Russell's Lair and Salome and the television
ABC of British Music. The music is from
Puccini's
Turandot.
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| best image |
 The dummy parts swaying
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| best scene
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The servants carefully placing rubies on the
arms of the girl |
| themes |
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The film pays
homage to Lang's Metropolis (left). |
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The burning car
is similar to the car in the war scene in Tommy
(left), and again to Metropolis (right). |
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The wand is
similar to the cross in Tommy (left), and the
same image as well as the same clouds appear in Mefistofoles. |
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|
| films |
Other films released in the same year include Wall Street and
Good Morning Vietnam. |
| 1988 |
Salome's
Last Dance
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Ken Russell filming Oscar
Wilde´s Salome.
Like The Boyfriend Russell films
the staging of a play, Wilde´s biblical story of Salome
who dances the seven veils and demands as a price the
head of John. And like The Boyfriend an unknown becomes
the star of the show. Russell has Wilde watching the
privately staged performance and interacting throughout.
The story takes place in real-time.
An erotic film packed with imagery. I hated it
the first time I saw it, now I love
it. The acting is good throughout with Glenda Jackson on
form, and Stratford Johns giving his best performance
ever.
To save money the music was made up of
out-of-copyright compositions. It was filmed at the Cannon
Studio in Barnet. The schedule was three weeks.
Linzi Drew, one of the slave girls says "When
Salome premiered in the West End, Ken thought it would be a gas to turn
up in an open-topped limousine accompanied by his topless slave girls.
We travelled through central London, our gold-tipped bosoms bared, and
we were even given a police escort on the way".
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| People |
Imogen Millais Scott is
really good as the young maid who takes on the role of
the erotic Salome.
It is her first acting
role.
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Glenda Jackson
plays Lady Alice and Herod´s wife. A subtle
performance. Television actor
Stratford Johns has appeared in two Russell
films, Lair of the White Worm is the other.
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Nickolas Grace is good
as Oscar Wilde watching the performance of his play. Russell regular Imogen
Claire has a small role, as does Linzi Drew from Aria and
Lair. Cinematography is by
Harvey Harrison, the editor is Timothy Gee.
| Russell himself
makes an appearance as the bearded cameraman
Kenneth. The beard is so deliberately false it
looks like shaving cream or something. He is
credited as Alfred Russell. |
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Russell also
wrote the screenplay which includes Wilde´s
play, translated from the original French by
Vivian Russell. |
Costume designer is
Michael Arrals, with the set designed by Christopher
Hobbs.
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| best image |
The
scenery of the play with the artificial moon and clouds.
It is similar to the scenery in the 19th century films of Meliés.
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| best scene
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The
initial scene of the play.
The seven veils
dance.
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| themes |
The play
within a play.
The incestuous relationship.
|
| films |
Other films released in the same year include Rainman, A Fish
Called Wanda and The Last Temptation of Christ and Russell's Lair of
the White Worm. |
| 1988 |
The
Lair of the White Worm
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A filming of Bram Stoker's
badly written novel. Strange considering Ken found
Stoker's most famous book Dracula to be boring.
The worm is actually a snake, and a snake
woman searches out sacrifices. Her car, moving through
the night with green headlamps looks like a snake
("I change my cars like a snake sheds its
skin"). With her make-up she looks sexy but not
frightening, but it doesn't matter as the film becomes a
horror-comedy.
Hugh Grant is the lord of the manor, who slays
a symbolic snake at a party (in a scene based on Lang's
Siegfried) and later kills the snake woman in the same
way. But the snake woman is only the servant to the god.
Because Oxenberg refused to appear
nude we have the unique sacrificial scene where
the executioner is naked but the victim, tied and
bound and waiting to be sacrificed to a giant
worm, still wears her knickers.
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| people |
Unknown
Sammi Davis is good in the role of helpless female.
Catherine Oxenberg of Dynasty is not especially good.
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Amanda Donohue
is superb as the Snake Woman. Hugh Grant plays a
grinning Englishman with a cute hairstyle. |
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Ken Russell's daughter
appears briefly in a film within the film.
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| best image |
The
hose-pipe writhing like a snake. The hands of the watch turned
into snakes.
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"I
would like to suggest another best image for Lair
of the White Worm. You
feature a picture of Amanda Donohoe hissing on
the crucifix. When she draws back there is a
shadow on the wall from a spider plant. It forms
a man's head with a starburst for an eye. It's a
neat image. And quite low budget" (thanks
Francesca)
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| best scene
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The folk
band performing and the ceremonial worm being cut in
half. |
| themes |
The party
sequence with the ceremonial worm is a homage to Fritz
Lang's Siegfried. There is a lame Rosebud joke.
Lots of snakes, the game
of snakes and ladders. A nunnery and a dream sequence
featuring nuns, rape, crucifixion and snakes.
The caves
and lighting are similar to the caves in Altered States.
|
| films |
Other films released in the same year include Rainman, A Fish
Called Wanda and The Last Temptation of Christ and Russell's Salome´s
Last Dance. |
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