Ken Russell
Date of Birth: 03 Jul 1927
Country: UK
Biography: Henry Kenneth Alfred "Ken" Russell is an English film director. He is known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his controversial style. He has been criticized as being over-obsessed with sexuality and the church. His subject matter is often about famous composers, or based on other works of art which he adapts loosely. Russell began directing for the BBC, where he did creative adaptations of composers' lives which were unusual for the time... (Wikipedia)
Total Credits at Criticker: 22 (Actor), 50 (Director), 26 (Writer)
Biography last updated by hellboy76, and picture by driscarpin
Find more information about Ken Russell at The Internet Movie Database
Titles you haven't rated - Actor (22) | Director (50) | Writer (26)
- The Debussy Film (1965)
- The Miner's Picnic (1960)
- Lotte Lenya Sings Kurt Weill (1961)
- Pop Goes the Easel (1962)
- Elgar (1962)
- Always on Sunday (1965)
- Dante's Inferno (1967) - S1 E8
- Dance of the Seven Veils (1970) - S3 E22
- Song of Summer: Frederick Delius (1968) - S2 E1
A deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religious cult because of that.
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Cardinal Richelieu and his power-hungry entourage seek to take control of pre-rennaisance France, but need to destroy Father Grandier... (imdb)
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Story of the night that Mary Shelley gave birth to the horror classic "Frankenstein." (imdb)
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A Harvard scientist conducts experiments on himself with a hallucinatory drug and an isolation chamber that may be causing him to regress genetically. (imdb)
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This is an exploration of the relationships, personalities, and philosophies of two men and two women in the high society of the early 1900s... (imdb)
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Scottish archaelogist Angus Flint discovers an odd skull amid the ruins of a convent which he is excavating... (imdb)
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A sportswear designer leads a double life as a hooker named China Blue. One of her clients, a divorced man, decides he loves her and figures out who she is. He then begins wooing her, which she fights against since he was a client. (imdb)
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A former British spy stumbles into in a plot to overthrow Communism with the help of a supercomputer. But who is working for whom? (imdb)
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This choppy melodrama investigates the life of a prostitute in a pseudo-documentary style. The bottom line of the film is that a life of a hooker isn't easy... (imdb)
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Lady Chatterley (1993) - TV Mini-Series
Lady Constance Chatterley is married to the handicapped Sir Clifford Chatterley, who was wounded in the First World War. When they move to his family's estate, Constance (Connie) meets their tough-yet-quiet groundskeeper, Oliver Mellors. Soon, she discovers that the source of her unhappiness is from not being fulfilled in love, and in turning to the arms of Mellors, she has a sexual awakening that will change her thoughts forever. (imdb)
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Women and Men: Stories of Seduction (1990) - TV Movie
Three short stories come to the screen, each focused on a man and a woman. The first is set in the 1940s, the other two in the 1920s. In "The Man in a Brooks Brothers Suit," a businessman of about 40 plies a younger Leftist women with liquor aboard a train... (imdb)
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The compelling and bizarre story of Tchaikovsky's life and music. In Ken Russell's own words: "It's the story of the marriage between a homosexual and a nymphomaniac." (imdb)
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A wild and imaginitive send-up of the bawdy life of Romantic composer/piano virtuoso Franz Liszt (played by The Who's Roger Daltrey)... (imdb)
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The assistant stage manager of a small-time theatrical company (Polly Browne) is forced to understudy for the leading lady (Rita) at a matinee performance at which an illustrious Hollywood director (Cecil B. DeThrill) is in the audience scouting for actors to be in his latest "all-talking, all-dancing, all-singing" extravaganza.(imdb)
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Ken Russell's rather loose adaptation of the last part of D.H. Lawrence's "The Rainbow" sees impulsive young Ursula coming of age in pastoral England around the time of the Boer War... (imdb)
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In 1926 the tragic and untimely death of a silent screen actor caused female moviegoers to riot in the streets and in some cases to commit suicide - that actor was Rudolph Valentino. Ballroom dancer Valentino manipulated his good looks and animal-like grace into a Hollywood career. His smouldering love making, tinged with a touch of masterful cruelty, expressed a sexuality which was at once both shocking and sensual. (imdb)
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Seven strangers on a Hollywood movie studio tour are trapped inside an infamous House of Horror and forced to tell their most terrifying stories to get out alive.
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The Planets (1983) - TV Movie
Based on the famous Gustav Holst musical suite, this musical film takes watchers on a magnificent journey of the planets of the Solar System. (imdb)
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The story is then recounted in a series of flashbacks, taking one through Mahler's turbulent childhood, his brother's suicide, his experience with anti-semitism, his conversion from Judaism to Catholicism, and his marital problems.
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Ten short pieces directed by ten different directors, including Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, and Nicolas Roeg. Each short uses an aria as soundtrack/sound (Vivaldi, Bach, Wagner), and is an interpretation of the particular aria. (imdb)
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In 1892, Oscar Wilde (Nickolas Grace) arrives at a high-class brothel where a surprise awaits - the brothel keeper (Stratford Johns) is staging his play "Salome," with parts played by prostitutes. (Hulu.com)
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Prisoner of Honor (1991) - TV Movie
Set in turn-of-the-century France about an anti-Semitic army officer who challenges the massive government coverup in the imprisonment of Alfred Dreyfus for espionage.
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Dog Boys (1998) - TV Movie
Capt. Brown (Bryan Brown) is a loathsome prison guard who calls Julian (Dean Cain), an ex-Marine serving time, "dogboy," locking him up in the "doghouse." Willy, a fellow inmate, finds out the captain uses attack dogs to hunt prisoners for fun. Armed with the evidence to expose the corrupt guard, Willy suffers an untimely death before he can tell anyone. Now it's up to Julian and DA Jennifer Dern (Tia Carrere) to stop Capt. Brown for good.
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The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch (1993) - Short Film
A writer taking a rest in a country hotel is obsessed with a strange woman in the same hotel. The woman seems to observe him in provocative ways, but he does not dare to approach her. One day he follows her to her room and listen to strange "erotic" sounds from inside, and begins to have erotic thoughts. (imdb)
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A deckchair attendant in the run-down seaside resort of Gormleigh-on-Sea is promoted to publicity officer. In an effort to drum up interest in the town he organises a film festival and invites a major French film star. The event is soon thrown into chaos by the machinations of jealous mayors from rival towns.
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A BBC TV film based on the life of the American dancer Isadora Duncan
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Peepshow (1956) - Short Film
A parable made in the manner of an old silent comedy about artistry and illusion. (imdb)
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Amelia and the Angel (1957) - Short Film
A young girl (Amelia) is distressed and feeling guilty about losing the wings she was to wear in her school play. Then she notices an angel and follows the angel into a dark building. Upstairs in the attic, bathed in heavenly light, is an artist's model - the ANGEL. The painter ascends a ladder until he is out of shot - supposedly to heaven-and reappears to restore Amelia's joy with a pair of wings (imdb)
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Shelagh Delaney's Salford (1960) - TV Movie
Shelagh Delaney, the author of A Taste of Honey, looks at Salford, where she grew up and where the action of her plays takes place.
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London Moods (1961) - TV Movie
Three musical treatments (Edward Elgar, Christopher Whelen, Ralph Vaughan Williams) of London.
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Monitor (1958) - TV Series
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Omnibus (1967) - TV Series
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Dramatisation of the life of composer Anton Bruckner. (BFI)
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Mindbender (1996) - TV Movie
Mindbender is the story of Uri Geller, probably the world's most famous psychic. The film shows his rise to fame from small shows in the middle east where he amazed audiences with his parapsychological feats of spoon-bending and clock-fixing. Terence Stamp plays a scientist who brings him to America. (imdb)
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Ken Russell revisits the life of Elgar, with musical background provided by the composer's works. (imdb)
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Rock star Roddy Usher's wife is murdered and Rod is sent to a lunatic asylum in this gothic-comedy-horror-musical. (imdb)
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Méphistophélès (1989) - TV Movie
In Ken Russell's modern interpretation of Arrigo Borito's Il Mefestefele, Faust is an ageing hippy. He smokes marijuana and is tormented by his lost youth. Mephisto makes a bet with God that he can turn anyone to pagan life, even someone as innocent as Faust. From then on it is a battle of good against evil in a flamboyant, surreal display of primary colours, PVC costumes, nurses with swastikas, rocket trips, love and even characters dressed as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.
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A House in Bayswater (1960) - Short Film
A personal and nostalgic film about an apartment building in Bayswater, where Russell once lived, and about the residents who inhabited it. The building is demolished to make way for an unattractive and bland office. (imdb)
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Faust (1985) - TV Movie
The philosopher Faust is profoundly depressed by his inaptitude to reach fulfillment through knowledge and thinks of committing suicide. He damns happiness, science and faith and calls on Satan to guide him. Méphistophélès agrees to fulfill the wishes of the philosopher, in exchange for his services in the infernal regions. Faust signs then the document and is transformed into a noble young person.
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The Mystery of Dr Martinu (1993) - TV Movie
Film about the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu, charting his influences and obsessions and his search for a true voice, through a dramatic analysis of Martinu's dreams.
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Treasure Island (1995) - TV Movie
Ken Russell's micro-budget version of R. L. Stevenson's "Treasure Island", where Long John Silver becomes Long Jane Silver, featuring his then-wife Hetty Baynes, and a cast of singing and dancing pirates. (Timon88)
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This documentary begins with Ken Russell posing the question: "What is a true English folk song, if there is such a thing?" After receiving an indifferent response from his dog, Ken journeys around the countryside of England searching for an answer. He bumps into and interviews such famous artists as; Donovan, Fairport Convention, Osibisa, Eliza Carthy, So What, Edward II and The Albion Band among others. (imdb)
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