Content area
Full Text
The name Ken Russell appears to evoke more controversy than that of any other established filmmaker now at work. The string of adjectives ("excessive." "outrageous." "bizarre") usually associated with his films1 goes back to the days when he was considered the "Wild Man of Telly Biopics"2 at the BBC. and this fact is not without significance. Roger Manvell, in his fine little book New Cinema In Britain, discusses the patterns of change in British cinema of the 60s and sees the impact of experimental filmmaking for television as the most important force establishing new trends in the cinema. Certainly the film industry recruited many of its new directors (Ken Hughes, Ted Kotcheff. Philip Saville, Peter Collinson, Peter Watkins. Kenneth Loach, and Russell) from television, and it is no secret that the techniques employed in feature films of many of these directors, especially Watkins. Loach, and Russell, grew out of their television films. Thus, any serious consideration of these directors must not neglect the films made for the Telly.
It was during his years at the BBC that Russell established a kind of stock company, consisting of Oliver Reed. Max Adrian. Murray Melvin. Christopher Logue (the one-time socialist poet). Iza Teller, and Judith Paris among others, whose names are frequently found in the cast listings of the feature films. It was also during this period that Russell began his experiments with music, his peculiar manipulation of anachronism, and his achievement of the rich visual, almost baroque, splendor which so frequently punctuate his films. Still, it should be clearly understood that Russell's BBC films are not merely apprenticeship pieces of a budding film director. They are full-blown works of artistic integrity, as most Americans who have seen Isadora. A Song of Summer and Dante's Inferno on the NET Biography series can verify.
The 90-minute film biography of Dante Gabriel Rossetti entitled Dante's Inferno (1967) is probably the most daring of the three films seen on American TV, and, unlike the others, it is available in this country in 16 mm distribution.3 Film societies and college film groups especially interested in presenting recent but rarely seen quality films should take note, and anyone seriously interested in Russell should certainly consider this film, which seems to contain the essence...