Ken Russell

Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell, known as Ken Russell (born July 3 1927) is a controversial British film director, particularly known for his films about famous composers.

1980s

Russell's 1980 effort, Altered States was a departure in both genre and tone, such that it is Russell's only foray into serious science fiction and contains few overt elements of satire and caricature. Working from Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay (based upon a novel of the same name), Russell used his penchant for elaborate visual effects to translate Chayefsky's hallucinatory story to the cinema and gave him the opportunity to add his trademark religious and sexual imagery. The film itself was a mild success financially, scored with critics who had otherwise dismissed Russell's work, and has since been reclassified, along with ' as a classic "head-film." Nevertheless, any praise the film received was dampened by Chayefsky's vocal dissatisfaction with the project, having dropped out shortly after filming began. A litigious man known for his intractibility, Chayefsky had previously fired Arthur Penn from the project and, prior to its release, requested the screenplay credit substitute "Sidney Aaron" for his Chayefsky's own name. The move was designed to emphasize Chayefsky's vitriol. This, and Chayefsky's subsequent death from stress-related illnesses has clouded Russell's attempt at a comeback. Russell's last American film was Crimes of Passion (1984), and returns to his major themes, sex and religion, contrasting the prostitute with the "priest" and benefits from the performances of Kathleen Turner and Anthony Perkins.

Related Topics:
Altered States - Science fiction - Satire - Caricature - Paddy Chayefsky - Screenplay - Novel - Arthur Penn - Crimes of Passion - Kathleen Turner - Anthony Perkins

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Unable to comply with the conservatism of Hollywood, Russell returned to Europe and mostly found financing in independent and fly-by-night companies like Vestron. Gothic (1986) was a suitably hysterical treatment of Lord Byron and the creation of the story that became Frankenstein.

Related Topics:
Vestron - Gothic - Lord Byron - Frankenstein

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In 1988 he released two films: the Hammer spoof The Lair of the White Worm and Salome's Last Dance that reunited him with his Women in Love star Glenda Jackson. Worm, which often plays like self-parody, was accepted in many quarters as a trashy lark, while Salome received grudging praise. Russell returned to Lawrence for what, so far, has been his last personal project for the cinema, an adaptation of The Rainbow.

Related Topics:
1988 - Hammer - The Lair of the White Worm - Salome's Last Dance - Women in Love - Glenda Jackson - The Rainbow

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He directed the music video for Pandora's Box's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" in 1989.

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