Ken Russell at the BBC
by Ken Russell
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DVD details
Actor: Alexei Jawdokimov, Jeanne Le Bars, Murray Melvin, Peter Bowles, Vivian PicklesDirector: Ken Russell
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Ken Russell
Writer: Ken Russell
Writer: Melvyn Bragg
Producer: Humphrey Burton
Writer: Eric Fenby
Writer: Huw Wheldon
Writer: Sewell Stokes
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 409 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-09-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Warner
Product features:
- The iconic award-winning English director, Ken Russell, is best known for his flamboyant style, his attention to detail and for being a controversial and visionary artist. Russells approach was determined by a desire to knock the dust off the biofilm genre: ?The whole idea had degenerated into a series of third-rate clich?s. I wanted to dress people in old clothes and do it in a totally unreal way
DVD Reviews of Ken Russell at the BBC
DVD Review: Marvellous Stuff - but what happened to the start of "Song of Summer"?
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a wonderful set! The superb Elgar and Delius films have long been favourites of mine and are undoubted television classics. I had missed the Debussy film previously but it was worth the wait; Oliver Reed is superb as the composer.
The visual quality is generally fine while the sound is adequate though obviously limited as far as the music is concerned. There is one major irritant. Why on earth was the decision taken to remove the charming Laurel and Hardy introduction to "Song of Summer"? This sequence, very typical of Russell, features Eric Fenby improvising on the cinema organ to a silent film of the comedians doing a dance routine!
DVD Review: The kind of documentaries that make you love documentaries
Summary: 5 Stars
A great DVD collection to buy for someone who knows about Ken Russell's movies and who wishes to learn more about his television work for the BBC. Although made for a television documentary program called Omnibus, Ken Russell's work show both documentaries on famous musician composers, but also pioneering biopics.
Though I loved all of these documentaries, the most fascinating is The Debussy song for various reasons. For one, it is made like two films within a film, both on the composer and on the crew filming the documentary which seems to have the same traits and stories than the characters they play. For the other part, it also made me impressed by Oliver Reed's incredible acting talent and persona. For in the two documentaries that he played, Dante Rosetti and Debussy, traits of his real-life personality emerged on the screen.
An excellent choice to buy for those who want to see more of Ken Russell, a great way to discover that director, and a great way to fall in awe with the amazing artists covered on those dvds.
DVD Review: Excellent Set---But don't sell your BFI versions
Summary: 5 Stars
It's lovely to see these BBC films FINALLY available in America, but for those of you who may have already purchased the Region 2 PAL Elgar & Delius films which the British Film Institute released a few years ago don't be too hasty to get rid of the duplications: The BFI releases both contain DIRECTOR COMMENTARIES which (sadly) this new BBC set does not. STILL--don't hesitate getting this new set as your friends who don't have all region players will finally understand the fuss you've been making over these gems!DVD Review: Sublime Ken Russell
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this collection in order to get my hands on the "Debussy" production starring a rather dreamy Oliver Reed. The benefit of getting the collection is the other BBC films from Russell, which are terrific. His telebios on Delius and Rousseau are fantastic. Great buy!DVD Review: Astonishing!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an astonishing collection and the only shame of it, is that it barely scratches the surface of Ken Russell's BBC output. And furthermore when watching a movie like "Elgar" (which is probably the most "period" of the movies) one is struck by the fact that Ken has been making the same movie all along! That is to say, that if one flash-forwards to his 1970's movies and beyond, one sees the same camera work, metaphors, motifs, symbols, energy, verve, and brilliance. Artists elevated to great heights amongst mountain-tops? Zany, irreverent sketch-pieces with dizzying camera-work? Slow motion passages with beautiful sunsets and dense landscapes? Fire, water and dance? And naturally, sex? Yep, Ken has been making the same movie all these years and THAT is why it is such a treat to behold these movies with DVD quality. We Yanks have always felt cheated by being state-side and not able to catch up with Ken's BBC work. This is a great beginning and we can only wish for further adventures.
Description of Ken Russell at the BBC
The iconic award-winning English director Ken Russell is best known for his flamboyant style his attention to detail and for being a controversial and visionary artist. Russells approach was determined by a desire to knock the dust off the biofilm genre: The whole idea had degenerated into a series of third-rate clich s. I wanted to dress people in old clothes and do it in a totally unreal way and thus make it more real than ever and in the process send up this new civil service/academic way of doing films. This collection includes two early films starring Oliver Reed The Debussy Film and Dantes Inferno about Dante Gabriel Rossetti as well as Always on Sunday about Henri Rousseau Isadora: The Biggest Dancer in the World A Song of Summer about Frederick Delius and Dance of the Seven Veils about Richard Strauss. These early films paved the way for his brilliant carrier that has spanned six decades.System Requirements:Running Time: 477 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre:?TELEVISION/BBC Rating:?NR UPC:?883929019694 Manufacturer No:?1000038761Many American fans, like myself, who have seen most of Ken Russell's films, probably don't even know these biopics he did for the BBC prior to his feature film career exist. And these six hour-long documentaries collected on Ken Russell at the BBC may be his finest works. Russell is well known for narrative features with revolutionary undertow such as Women in Love, The Devils, and Tommy, a rock opera about the Who. The films included on this three-disc set, all shot in black and white, are clearly those in which Russell established his affinity for portraying iconoclastic eccentrics, and each has its own experimental merit, stylistically and conceptually. Though it is unfortunate that there is a proliferation of cheesy re-enactments in today's film and television, one will be surprised to see how brilliantly this pioneer did it. Each documentary, here, enlists actors to portray the artistic luminaries of various historical periods. But the films so keenly observe their characters' behaviors, factually and poetically, that one learns about Russell's subjects on the sly, being entertained all the while. Occasionally narrators tease their subjects by pointing out absurd moments, reminding the viewer of documentary's subjective nature, and of the humorous potential in many historical tales.
The documentaries heighten their subjects' flair for drama, and take interpretive liberties to recount the lives of those on screen. Impassioned explosions, nervous breakdowns, and tragic calamities are the norm. Always on Sunday (1965) studies how genius is manifest at great cost in Henri Rousseau, after the death of his wife and a friendship with Surrealist colleague, Alfred Jarry. Dante's Inferno (1967) depicts the Pre-Raphaelite set, focusing on Dante Rosetti's fiery persona and its negative effects on his muse, Elizabeth Siddal. In Isadora Duncan: Biggest Dancer in the World (1966), the arts and crafts-era mistress of movement maniacally travels the world in search of funding for her dancing schools. Though the characters depicted are wildly different, they share blinding passions and melodramatic means of achieving their ambitions. Many of these films are narrated in the third person, but occasionally their subjects share dialogue, elaborating the dramatic sense. Song of Summer (1968) is the breakthrough, starring young composer, Eric Fenby (Christopher Gable), who moves in with blind, paralyzed elder musician, Frederick Delius, to help finish his scores. Third-person narration fizzles out early on to allow the characters to speak about the need to create, even when handicapped. Delius and Fenby's relationship strengthens as the two develop their music together, and gorgeous landscape scenes, or scenes depicting high human emotions, roll as soundtrack to the composer's works as the film progresses. Heavily dramatized, the only documentary aspect to this film seems to be Russell's dedication to tying film to music, by showing how Delius visualized his music. Ken Russell at the BBC says as much about the quality of BBC programming during the era as the director's unhinged imagination, and it's a wonder to view these films as precedents to what the BBC also pioneered a decade later in the 1970s, namely the much more fact-based documentaries, hosted by scientists and scholars like nature man, David Attenborough. -Trinie Dalton
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