Ken Russell | Offscreen
British iconoclast Ken Russell (°1927- †2011) directed some of the most audacious, controversial and stylish films ever. The visionary cineaste owes much to his attention to detail, his flamboyant style and his baroque photography. He began his career in the 60s, directing deliberately irreverent artist biographies for television. His great innovation was inserting sequences played by actors into the documentaries. In his later full-length features he would continue to make artist portraits which, due to their subjective nature, were considered highly contentious. In Russell’s non-biographical films he adroitly juggles different genres and styles, forever walking the lines between great art and popular culture, high camp and low trash, pure beauty and vulgar kitsch, and dreams (or nightmares) and reality. He left behind a filmography which sends us back to a past illuminated by the present, and vice-versa. With nearly 90 documentaries and films on his belt, Ken Russell made a name for himself as a rebel, remaining faithful to the sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll motto throughout his career.
Tommy
The musical odyssey of a deaf, dumb and blind kid that makes it to pinball champion, rock star and the new Messiah of a religious cult. Ken Russell transforms The Who's classic concept album to a purely sensory experience which can best be described as an LSD version of Jesus Christ Superstar.
The Music Lovers
Russian composer Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) struggles against his homosexuality. He marries in order to obtain social acceptance, but unfortunately chooses a nymphomaniac (Glenda Jackson) whom he cannot satisfy. A lavish film filled with brilliant music moments.
The Boy Friend
Fashion icon Twiggy makes her screen debut in this colourful tale of theater hopefuls with stars in their eyes. An affectionate screen adaptation of Sandy Wilson’s London/Broadway stage hit, which director Russell turns into an extravagant homage to the kaleidoscopic stagings of Busby Berkeley.
Valentino
Ballet-dancer-turned actor Rudolf Nureyev stars as Rudolf Valentino, the adored silent screen actor of early Hollywood. The film begins at his funeral in 1926 and backtracks to his glory-days when the former ballroom dancer used his good-looks and charm to become one of the first male screen idols.
The Devils - The Original "X" Version
In 17th-century France, Father Grandier uses his powers to protect the city of Loudun from destruction at the hands of the establishment. Soon, he stands accused of the demonic possession of Sister Jeanne, whose erotic obsession with him fuels the hysterical fervour that sweeps through the convent.
Savage Messiah
Henri Gaudier is a young Parisian sculptor of enormous talent but prone to rash, exuberant behavior. He begins a platonic but emotionally intense relationship with Sophie Brzeska, a cultured Polish woman 20 years his senior, whose air of intelligent refinement positively impacts his life and work.
Conference: Imagining the Past - Day One
The international conference Imagining the Past: Ken Russell, Biography and the Art of Making History seeks to show how Russell’s work helps us to understand how cinema (re)constructs narratives about ourselves and the past.
Lisztomania
One of Russell’s most outrageous films: an audacious, vulgar, freewheeling fantasy about the life of pianist Franz Liszt, rock star, circa 1840. Featuring Roger Daltrey as the composer, a cryogenic Viking and machine-gun wielding robot Nazis, a finale out of Flash Gordon and Ringo Starr as the pope.
Crimes of Passion
By day, Joanna (Kathleen Turner) is a prim fashion designer. At night she becomes China Blue, a kinky hooker on the streets of LA. But when she finds herself being stalked by a fanatical preacher (a truly over-the-top performance by Anthony Perkins), her depraved double life threatens to explode.
Conference: Imagining the Past - Day Two
The international conference Imagining the Past: Ken Russell, Biography and the Art of Making History seeks to show how Russell’s work helps us to understand how cinema (re)constructs narratives about ourselves and the past.
Clouds of Glory
An idiosyncratic two-part mini-series on the relationship between poet William Wordsworth and his beloved sister Dorothy, and the battle with laudanum faced by his friend and fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Long considered lost, (re)discover this TV drama for the first time on the big screen.
The Big Small Screen - Years 1962-1965
Ken Russell made a name for himself during 1960s by directing a series of iconoclastic TV dramatizations of the lives of famous composers and dancers. On Friday March 21 at Cinema Rits we present a small selection of his early work, which set new standards in documentary filmmaking.
The Big Small Screen - Years 1965-1966
Ken Russell made a name for himself during 1960s by directing a series of iconoclastic TV dramatizations of the lives of famous composers and dancers. On Friday March 21 at Cinema Rits we present a small selection of his early work, which set new standards in documentary filmmaking.
Mahler
Robert Powell stars as Mahler, the great Jewish romantic from 19th-century Vienna, drafting enormous symphonic works in the midst of rising antisemitism. An excursion into the cinema of pantheism, mixing lyrical tableaux and comic fantasy that adds up to a stirring, dream-like experience.
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Offscreen photostream
