Every movie forum needs a Ken Russell thread...

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Mondo Digital reports on an English friendly Japanese release of Mahler - which I didn't even know existed. Rad.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

Watched Altered States last night via the new Blu-ray, it looks and sounds very good. No extras aside from a trailer, but I kind of expected that.

The movie holds up well, though it ends so abruptly that it does hurt it. The build up is great though. William Hurt is great in the lead and the effects, if dated, are still very, very cool. Just a trippy, weird, smart sci-fi horror mix up, really. Russell's made better films but this is still very solid.

Altered States was controversial when it was new. No one had ever seen anything like it before. It shocked people as much as The Devils had.

I saw a test screening of Altered States at Cinema 21 in San Diego in April or May 1980. It was for adults only and was nearly three hours long. The audience reaction was loud and enthusiastic if somewhat stunned. Ken Russell was there and many industry insiders including Blair Brown's agent. When the film was released in December we went to see it again and were surprised at how much had been cut. It had been cut to get an R rating. Some of it was just tightening things up but many scenes had been shortened and entire scenes were cut. Most of Blair Brown's nudity, all the full-frontal nudity, and an explicit sex scene between William Hurt and his young medical student had been cut. An intermediate transformation scene vitally important to the story was gone. Heated debates in long dialogue scenes were sorely missing; they were both funny and dramatically important. Elaborate f/x shots involving religious imagery and sex during the drug trips had been cut. The film had been made less provocative. I had posted about this on another forum several years ago. I was very disappointed that Warner Brothers didn't reach into their vault and pull this version out for a hi-def scan when they were preparing the blu-ray. It was a finished film, not a rough cut.

I've come to love the Altered States that got released but the test screening was a very different and much better film. Intellectually and dramatically it just towered over most films at the time. It still does.

Ken Russell is dead. Long live Ken Russell.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

That's interesting Richard. I'd love to see that excised footage surface some day.

[Richard--W a straight arrow Find all posts View Profile Close Richard--W]

Instead of excised footage in a supplement I wish WB would simply release the longer director's cut. Let everybody see the director's original vision. Since it was a finished film, which survives in the vaults, why not? They'd get more sales out of a longer director's cut anyhow.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

The Devils was voted favorite BFI release in a recent poll of 6500 people.

Sadly, it still doesn't look like there's a Blu-ray in the works.

[paul h. woly boly Find all posts View Profile Close paul h.]

Instead of excised footage in a supplement I wish WB would simply release the longer director's cut. Let everybody see the director's original vision. Since it was a finished film, which survives in the vaults, why not? They'd get more sales out of a longer director's cut anyhow.

I'd really love to see that longer ALTERED STATES cut. I'd buy it right away, and I might even buy two copies. Seems like there's enough controversy surrounding the entire production to justify a special edition with interviews and documentaries. That would be nice. I wonder if the surviving principal actors would be game?

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Coming to Blu-ray from Kino 10/7/14...

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Interesting video from Mark Kermode:

More on del Toro's comments mentioned in the video: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...-warner-752240

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

From Kino's FB page:

"Coming Soon on Blu-ray!

Ken Russell's VALENTINO (1977) Starring Rudolf Nureyev, Leslie Caron, Michelle Phillips, Carol Kane and Seymour Cassel - Co-written and Directed by Ken Russell."

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

From the BFI's latest newsletter:

Two Dual Format Edition box sets will showcase Ken Russell's brilliant television films from the Sixties.

· Ken Russell: The Great Composers brings together his career-defining work for the award-winning arts documentary shows Monitor and Omnibus: Elgar (1962), The Debussy Film (1965) and Delius: Song of Summer (1968).

· The second box set, Ken Russell: The Great Passions, collects together three great works about iconic artists: Always on Sunday (1965) about Henri Rousseau; Isadora: the Biggest Dancer in the World (1966) about dancer Isadora Duncan; and Dante's Inferno (1967) about Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his model Elizabeth Siddal.

· Complementing these BBC TV sets is the UK High Definition premiere of Valentino (1977). Released in a Dual Format Edition, this flamboyant and sexually-charged film explores the life of one of the silver screen's greatest legends.

[Randy G Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Randy G]

What would you say is Russell's best film, besides The Devils?

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

I don't much like The Devils. Big fan of Lair Of The White Worm though. Nutty price of craps though it may be. And Gothic. Gothics terrible but kind of compulsive viewing.

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

What would you say is Russell's best film, besides The Devils?

My personal favorites:

Lair of the White Worm
Gothic
Crimes of Passion
Altered States
Lisztomania
Whore
Tommy
Mahler

If your feeling extra adventurous there's always his last feature Fall of the Louse of Usher which he basically shot in his backyard with a camcorder.

[Matt H. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt H.]

My favourite is CRIMES OF PASSION

[Matt H. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt H.]

His segment in the otherwise awful TRAPPED ASHES is great, as well. It has some really disturbing images.