My favorite movie director died last night. The list of adjectives that were typically trotted out to accompany his often hostile reviews included: "vulgar," "tasteless," "shrill," "camp," "trashy," "exploitative," "lurid," "overheated," and "self-indulgent."
These are not, strictly speaking, inaccurate impressions. But if these are vices, then he made a unique virtue of them, and he never committed the far more common and far more damning sin of churning out work that was boring, trite, safe, and thoroughly respectable. I can't think of anything else to say right now that gets across the impact-- the lyrical, brain-shattering jolt this man's work has had on me, so I'll shut up for now and let the work speak for itself.
NOTE: Some of the following video clips would probably not go over well in an office environment, a day care, or a convent. Please exercise discretion.
Ken Russel died on my birthday. That is some suck. Lair of the White Worm had some goofy moments but it made up with sheer pulpy camp.
ReplyDelete@ckutalik: I was going to post a clip of that one, but unfortunately one of my favorite scenes (where Lady Sylvia is interrupted by a doorbell in the middle of a rapturous tirade of villainy) has embedding disabled.
ReplyDeleteThat's rough, RIP Ken Russell. Glad he lived a long and successful life.
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