In the 1970s he was considered one of the most original as well as controversial British directors who with his (too) abundant visual exhibitions and deviation from all possible norms (from dramaturgical to moral) managed to divide critics and audiences into camps of either enchanted fans or bitter detractors



Even though Ken Russell was still directing when he was over eighty, those were mainly short, video and TV films. He directed his last feature film Whore in 1991, so it seems that this director, inclined to expressive directorial attractions, was unjustly forgotten after his peak in the first half of the 1970s. At that time he was considered one of the most original as well as controversial British directors who, with his (too) abundant visual exhibitions and deviation from all possible norms (from dramaturgical to moral), managed to divide critics and audiences into camps of either enchanted fans or bitter detractors. It was then that he made his films The Devils (1971), Savage Messiah (1972) and Tommy (1975), shown in this program, which is undoubtedly a representative selection that shows just how much Russell (even though already approaching middle age) was the true voice of the dominant rebellious youth in opposition to the existing social system.

As a young man, Russell was a navy cadet and a ballet dancer, as well as a successful fashion photographer. He made several films as an amateur filmmaker and first began working on films professionally with a series of documentaries about famous music artists for the BBC. In those, he used many unexpected stylistic elements showing his artistic originality as well as youthful rejection of the dominant system of values. His third feature film, Women in Love (1969) based on D. H. Lawrence’s novel, brought him wider acceptance.

However, his next film The Devils showed Russell’s fascination with visual effects and after it many film critics referred to his baroque style. He wrote the screenplay for it based on Aldous Huxley’s novel and John Waiting’s play and showed that he draws a very personal interpretation from famous literary works in a completely original manner and that he cares more about corresponding with his own vision of contemporary problems. So The Devils is, besides its visual beauty, brilliant costumes and set designs, as well as drama that arises because of religious rebellion and conflicts in the first half of the 17th century, in fact a contemporary film that directly and very clearly shows the dogmatism and political processes of the 20th century.

Savage Messiah is a biography of the French avant-garde sculptor Henri Godier-Brzeski who died in WW I at the age of twenty three. In this film he successfully personified the popular saying of the rebellious youth of the 1960 and 1970’s “die young and leave a good-looking corpse“, while his private life, with his weird love affairs and constant rebelling against social conventions, made him into a hero of the new generation that Russell portrayed in this visually rich and dramaturgically well thought-out film vision.

Tommy is one of the most impressive rock operas ever filmed because of the fact that Russell stopped trying to keep up some kind of a dramaturgically coherent whole but rather let his film and life obsessions run wild, thus creating a series of impressive and effective sequences that gradually build a mosaic that, in its own way, portrays the spirit and mentality of the 1970’s. However, as young rebels grow old (at least those that have not died chasing their dreams) and gradually adapt to the ruling social norms, the changing Russell ceased to be an original interpreter of the mentality of an important social group. Instead, gradually, from an original filmmaker in the eyes of most critics and audiences, he became merely a weirdo.

In a way, he experienced a similar fate to the protagonist of his (I believe underrated) biographical film Valentino (1977), about the biggest star of silent film. When making this film Russell did not much care for historical facts. He did not portray the poor Italian immigrant who became synonymous with the term “Latin lover” and the cinema of the country who did not like his fellow-countrymen, in the usual manner of a man who has reached the top because of his own accomplishments but as an individual in constant conflict with social conventions that he refuses to accept. This is what drove Valentino to death and Russel to (partial) oblivion. This selection of three films that represent the very peak of his career is a good opportunity to check whether he really deserved to be forgotten. (Tomislav Kurelec)