Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ucla-cs.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!trwrb!cepu!ucla-cs!reiher From: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: The films of Ken Russell Message-ID: <1983@ucla-cs.ARPA> Date: Sun, 4-Nov-84 05:16:50 EST Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.1983 Posted: Sun Nov 4 05:16:50 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 6-Nov-84 06:25:01 EST Organization: UCLA CS Dept. Lines: 22 Russell certainly is lively, if not exactly refined. I recommend "Mahler", "The Devils", and "The Music Lovers" as really good films, and "Lisztomania" and "Valentino" as guilty pleasures. "Tommy" was OK, "Altered States" was disappointingly routine. I haven't seen "Savage Messiah", "Women in Love", or "The Boy Friend"; all three have excellent critical reputations. (Those who laughed when Russell gave Twiggy the lead in "The Boy Friend" should eat every chuckle now that she is a legitimate Broadway musical star.) I also haven't seen Russell's first two feature films. I strongly recommend some of Ken Russell's early BBC work. He did about ten films (each 1hr-1&1/2 hrs.) on famous composers (mostly), poets, and other artists. I've seen the Isadora Duncan one (so-so), the Delius one (very good, and not at all like most of Russell's work), and "Dante's Inferno", about Dante Gabriel Rossetti, with a terrific performance by Oliver Reed. The latter film gave Russell a historically accurate chance to preside over a disembtombment, as Rossetti recovers the poems he impulsively buried with his dead wife. -- Peter Reiher reiher@ucla-cs.arpa {...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher