1970 The Dance of the Seven Veils

Ken Russell at his best and most kitsch, a foretaste of energy and excitement of The Music Lovers. It is his first television film in colour.  The film is about composer Richard Strauss, who Russell seems to hate violently. The comic strip approach and appearance of Hitler alienated his audience.  A couple make love on the bed and just behind the bed is an orchestra (a chamber orchestra!!) with Ken Russell himself conducting both the orchestra and the couple.  When the Strauss family withdrew permission to use the music after the initial broadcast, Russell substituted Johan Strauss when excerpts from the film were broadcast (as in A British Picture).  It was time for Ken to move on from the BBC and back into films.

In The Times of 17 Feb 1970 says "The films was remarkable, if in nothing else, for showing such items as rape, violence, copulation and nudity to an extent probably never seen on television before."  Ken is quotes as saying on Strauss "I love his music and would not waste my time if I considered him to be artistically worthless."

Click title for film Picture Stories (Charlotte Bronte) * Peepshow * Knights on Bikes * Amelia and the Angel, Lourdes * Poet's London * Gordon Jacob * Guitar Crazy * Variations on a mechanical theme, Two Painters * portrait of a Goon * Marie Rambert remembers * Architecture and entertainment * Cranks at Work * The miner's picnic * Shelagh Delaney's Salford * A house in Bayswater * The light fantastic * London Moods * Antonio Gaudi * Lotte Lenya sings Kurt Weill * Old Battersea House * Portrait of a Soviet Composer * Pop goes the easel * Preservation man * Mr Chesher´s traction engines * Elgar * Watch the birdie * The lonely shore * Bartok * The dotty world of James Lloyd * Diary of a nobody * The Debussy Film * Always on a Sunday * Don't shoot the composer * Isadora * Dante's Inferno * Song of Summer * Dance of the Seven Veils * William and Dorothy * The Rime of the Ancient Mariner * ABC of British Music * A British Picture * The Planets * Vaughan Williams * The Strange Affliction of Anton Bruckner * The Secret Life of Sir Arnold Bax * The Mystery of Doctor Martinu * Classic Widows * In Search of the English Folk Song * Stories of Seduction * Prisoners of Honor * Lady Chatterley * Alice in Russialand * Ken Russell's Treasure Island * Tales of Erotica * Dogboys, Brighton Belles * Elgar A Portrait of the Composer on a Bicycle * Lion's Mouth * The Fall of the Louse of Usher * Revenge of the Elephant Man (Hot Pants 1) * the Mystery of Mata Hari (Hot Pants 2) * The Goodship Venus (Hot Pants 3) * Advertisements * Trial of the Century * She's So Beautiful * Phantom of the Opera * Nikita, Cry for Heaven * Diana * Its all coming back to me now * Teenager in Love * The Death of Scriabin