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Ken Russell hot news





Last update 28 Feb 2024



Tommy in Macedonia

Ken Russell film of The Who Tommy

Tommy is on at the Cinematheque in Macedonia on 29 Feb 2024.

For details see the Cinematheque site click here.

For more on Tommy click here.


The Dance of the Seven Veils coming on Blu-ray

Ken Russell Dance of the Seven Veils

The copyright on Richard Strauss' music has expired, so there is no legal obstruction to presenting The Dance of the Seven Veils.  The BFI are looking at issuing a Blu-ray.  More details when known.

Thanks to Alex for the information.

YouTube tribute to Ken Russell

 

A tribute to the visual imagery of Ken Russell's films set to the Sparks song This Town Ain't Big Enough For the Both of Us.

 The link is here.


Elton John pinball machine signed by Ken Russell

Ken Russell Elton John pinball machine 

You can buy an Elton John pinball machine signed by Ken Russell for only £19,900 !!!!

"This is a piece of Pinball history. Capt Fantastic pinball was made to clebrate the Tommy film produced by the legendary Ken Russell.  The art depicts the Kngs Theatre PINBALL WIZARD showdown with Elton John playing his custom pinball in big red boots and glasses.  The machine available was used in a Portsmouth Film Festival event where Ken signed his name on the backglass art".

The pinball machine is on sale here.

For more on Tommy click here.

 

Gothic on Blu-ray

Ken Russell Gothic

The British Film Institute (BFI) have issued Gothic on Blu-ray.  It has tons of extras including two extra films:

  • Feature commentary by film historian Matthew Melia and Lisi Russell (2018)

  • The Fall of the Louse of Usher (2002, 83 mins): Ken Russell returns to gothic themes in this legendarily lurid late video work featuring an all-star cast

  • A Haunted Evening (2023, 35 mins): Stephen Volk, the writer of Gothic, revisits his earliest feature script

  • The Sound of Shelley with Julian Sands (2017, 18 mins): the actor reflects upon the making of Gothic

  • Amelia and the Angel (1958, 27 mins): in this charming early Russell short, a young girl, cast as an angel in the school play, is distraught when her brother damages her treasured wings. Pocket money in hand, Amelia traverses London on the hunt for a new pair in time for the play

  • The Guardian Lecture: Ken Russell in conversation with Derek Malcolm (1987, 87 mins, audio only): the director reflects upon his career, at the time of Gothic.




Georgina Hale passes away

Ken Russell - The Devils - Georgina Hale

Sadly Georgina Hale has passed away.  For me her most memorable performance were in Maher (wife Alma Mahler) and The Devils (Philippe).  More soon.





Ken Russell Book launch and Symposium

ReFocus - the films of Ken Russell

A new book Refocus: the Films of Ken Russell, part of ReFocus: The International Directors Series, edited by Matthew Melia.




Shoddy Wikipedia article on The Music Lovers

To give an example of biased criticism of Ken Russell see the Wikipedia entry.  It quotes Time Out New York on The Music Lovers "vulgar, excessive, melodramatic and self-indulgent . . . " (Wikipedia, accessed 3 May 2023, click here).

Ken Russell - The Music Lovers - Wikipedia shoddy quote

The "..." cuts out some words.  The original reads "vulgar, excessive, melodramatic and self-indulgent: Tchaikovsky's music is indeed all of these things, yet gloriously so, and the same goes for Ken Russell at his freewheeling best" (TJ, Time Out, 10 September 2012, click here).

This is shoddy misrepresentation of the review by TJ, of Tchaikovsky and of Ken Russell.

Too late- you missed it


Altered States and Lair of the White Worm in Los Angeles

Catherine Oxenberg in Ken Russell The Lair of the White Worm

New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles present Altered States and Lair of the White Worm. They are on 3, 4 Feb 2024.

For the cinema website click here
For more on Altered States click here
For more on Lair of the White Worm click here



Whore in New York

Theresa Russell in Ken Russell Whore

The IFC Centre in New York are showing Whore from 19- 27 Jan 2024.

"This searing melodrama investigates the life of a prostitute in a pseudo-documentary style. The life of a hooker isn’t easy…".

It is on at the IFC Centre, for the website click here.

For more on Whore click here.

Gothic in Christchurch, UK

Ken Russell Gothic

Dirt In The Gate Movies present Gothic in the Regent in Christchurch, UK. It is on 20 Jan 2024.

For details click on the Regent website here.

For more on Gothic click here.

Ken Russell season on the Criterion Channel

Ken Russell Shocking Rhapsodies 

In Jan 2024 the Criterion Channel present Ken Russell's Shocking Rhapsodies, showing ten of his films.

"Passionate, transgressive, over-the-top, and unforgettable: the films of British iconoclast Ken Russell have rarely been surpassed in their feverish visual imagination and sheer audaciousness. Courting controversy after controversy with provocations like The Devils, Mahler, and Altered States, Russell explored the extremes of sexuality, violence, religion, and creativity through elaborate, often eye-popping mise-en-scène and performances of hysterical excess. The result is a cinema that still feels daring and fresh, with unbridled romanticism and surreal flights of fancy woven into his boundary-pushing narratives.

FEATURING: The Boy Friend (1971), The Devils (1971), Savage Messiah (1972), Mahler (1974), Altered States (1980), Gothic (1986), The Lair of the White Worm (1988), Salome’s Last Dance (1988), The Rainbow (1989), Whore (1991)".

 The link to Criterion is here.

 

Tommy in Australia

Tina Turner in Ken Russell film of The Who Tommy

The British Film Festival 2023 in Australia includes Tommy in its lineup.  The festival is at various venues from 1-29 Nov 2023.

The programme is here.

For more on Tommy click here.

 

The Music Lovers in Chichester, UK

Richard Chamberlaine

The Music Lovers, Ken Russell's film about Tchaikovsky, will be shown at the Chichester Film Festival on 12 and 22 Aug 2023.  The festival guide is pretty grudging "However rife with inaccuracies... Unless you are seeking the whole truth".  Is it less accurate than Bernard Rose's The Beethoven Secret or Milos Foreman's Amadeus?   I have quoted from Barbara von Meck's 1893 letter to show how closely the script follows her account of her relationship with Tchaikovsky.

The festival website is here and for more on the film click here.


Glenda Jackson passes away

Glenda Jackson in Ken Russell Women in Love

Sadly Glenda Jackson has passed away.  More soon.



Ken Westbury, cinematographer, passes away

Ken Russell The Debussy Film

Ken Westbury, cinematographer on Ken Russell's The Debussy Film and The Diary of a Nobody, and camera on The Debussy Film, has passed away.

His other work included The Singing Detective, To The Lighthouse and Dr Fischer of Geneva.
According to imdb.com his first film role was clipper loader on The Bells Go Down with James Mason in 1943 and his last film before retirement was Unknown Things from 2007.

The imdb.com entry is here.
There is an interview with him here though his work with Russell is not covered.



Updates to The Mystery of Dr. Martinu

Ken Russell - The Mystery of Doctor Martinu - Paris


A major update to Ken Russell's television film on the Czech composer Martinu.  "The Mystery of Dr. Martinu subtitled A Revelation by Ken Russell from 1993.  This is Freud meets Buñuel´s Een Chien Andalou meets Hitchcock (Spellbound and Vertigo)".

For the update click here (bottom of page).




Clouds of Glory in London

Ken Russell The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The British Film Institute (BFI) in London will show the two Clouds of Glory films about the poets Wordsworth and Coleridge.  They will be shown on 11 June 2023.  More details soon.

For more on Clouds of Glory see here.




Murray Melvin passes away

Murray Melvin in Ken Russell's The Devils

Sadly Russell regular Murray Melvin has passed away.  He was a loyal  supporter of Ken's works and would attend screenings of his films.

Melvin started acting on stage and was part of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in London.  With the company his work included roles in Oh! What a Lovely War and Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey.

Murray Melvin in The Avengers, Hot Snow

His 104 film and television roles include Hot Snow (above), the first episode of The Avengers which would run for 161 episodes.

Murray Melvin in A Taste of Honey

Melvin was iconic reviving his role in A Taste of Honey on film opposite Rita Tushingham, directed by Tony Richardson in 1961.  The film "broke new ground with its adult themes, interracial kiss and its commitment to filming on the streets… And although the Dirk Bogarde-starring Victim (1961), released just a few months earlier, was also groundbreaking in its empathetic portrayal of homosexuality, Murray Melvin reported that when he met him at an awards ceremony, Bogarde said of Melvin’s performance as Geoff, 'You did more for the cause in one scene than the whole of bloody Victim put together'” (Chloe Walker, British Film Institute, 14 Sept 2021, click here).

Ken Russell Diary of a Nobody Murray Melvin

His first role for Ken was 1964's The Diary of a Nobody (above).  Further roles for Ken were in  Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World, The Devils (first photo), The Boyfriend, Lizstomania, Clouds of Glory and Prisoner of Honor from 1991.

Melvin also worked with Kubrick in Barry Lyndon (above) and on 103 other films.

What I have only just discovered was that after The Devils, with music by Peter Maxwell Davies, Melvin directed two work by Maxwell Davies, Miss Donnithorne's Maggot and the opera The Martyrdom of St Magnus.

I was fortunate enough to meet and talk with Melvin, a friendly, open and intelligent person.  Someone asked him how old he was- he said 29 and he said he would continue to say that until he decided to move to 30.


Updates to Tommy

Tina Turner the acid queen in Ken Russell Tommy

Quotes from Tina Turner's autobiography added to Tommy, including "I brought my own clothes to the set, just in case I didn't like the costumes.  Thank God!  You should have seen how they would have dressed me... The costume designer, Russell's wife Shirley, said that I could wear them, although she came up with the Acid Queen's clunky platform shoes.  Ken Russell loved the way I looked"- click here.


Updates to The Music Lovers

Richard Chamberlaine

Details of music added to The Music Lovers- click here.




Updates to the play Weill and Lenya

Weill and Lenya - Big City - Otto Dix

Updates about the play on Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya by Judith Paris and Ken Russell, directed by Russell.  Click here.




ClClick here for the news archive


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