Author Topic: His 10 Most Difficult  (Read 4691 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline BoyScoutKevin

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 520
Re: His 10 Most Difficult
« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2015, 08:45:21 PM »
Continuing . . .

Lair of the White Worm (1988)

All the scenes between the Lady and the underage boy scout
Amanda Donohoe . . . Lady Sylvia Marsh
Chris Pitt . . . Kevin

1st. The age of the actor playing Kevin. Now, it'd be unlikely to have an actor that young play the character. Though, his age does give an verisimilitude to the role, that an older actor could not give it.

2nd. While Amanda seemed to have no problem kissing her young co-star, some actresses will not kiss an actor that young. Somehow thinking such kissing is perverted and perverse.

3rd. Whether the actor did appear nude in the tub, as he said he would, when auditioning for the role of Kevin, or kept his underpants on, while in the tub, Russell should have known that an actor that young would have had issues about appearing nude in front of strangers.

The Rainbow (1989)

The teacher chastisement of her student
Sammi Davis . . .Ursula Brangwan
Paul Reynolds . . .Schoolboy (uncredited)

Sammi has said the most difficult scene for her to do in the film was not any of her nude scenes, but her chastisement of the schoolboy, as she said she could just not stop apologizing to the boy for what she was doing to him.

Concluded

Next time: talking about movies

Offline BoyScoutKevin

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 520
Re: His 10 Most Difficult
« Reply #4 on: November 24, 2015, 09:42:42 PM »
Continuing . . .

Crimes of Passion (1984)

The rape scene, featuring the policeman being raped by his nightstick.
Kathleen Turner . . . China Blue

A scene so difficult to watch, it is seldom shown unedited, which is unfortunate, because the unedited scene creates greater sympathy for Turner's character.

Salome's Last Dance (1988)

The whipping scene.

Ken thought this would be a difficult scene to do, but . . .?! It turned out that the woman hired to wield the whip was a dominatrix in London and thus knew how to wield a whip.

To be continued . . .

Offline BoyScoutKevin

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 520
Re: His 10 Most Difficult
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2015, 05:33:03 PM »
Continuing . . .

05.  Mahler (1974)
Again two scenes.

The near-drowning in the lake
Gary Rich . . . Young Mahler

Knowing that Gary Rich could not swim, Ken Russell pushed the young actor into the lake anyway. If the actor had actually drowned, there would not only have been a possible civil suit, but . . .?! It is possible Ken could have faced criminal charges.

The "conversion" scene
Robert Powell . . . Gustav Mahler

Ken Russell always asks a lot of his actors, but . . .?! Except for nude scenes, no one but . . .?! Robert Powell seems to have undergone more for the scene than this.

06. Tommy (1975)
Again two scenes

The "exploding TV' scene
Ann Margaret . . . Nora

When the baked beans, chocolate sauce, and soap bubbles burst out of the TV, in homage to Ken Russell's days as a director of TV ads, Ann-Margaret was actually injured by broken glass from the exploding TV screen.

The "sexual molestation" scene
Roger Daltry . . . Tommy
Keith Moon . . . Uncle Ernie

After Uncle Ernie molests Tommy, off screen, he sits down in front of the camera and begins to read the "Gay Times." While maybe not difficult for the actors involved, it was difficult for some audience members to watch, as they thought Ken Russell was equating child sexual molestation with being gay, and there was some talk of legal action being taken against Ken.

To be continued . . .

Offline BoyScoutKevin

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 520
Re: His 10 Most Difficult
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2015, 09:49:22 PM »
Continuing . . .

03. The Devils
"The Rape of Christ" scene

The female extras, who played the nuns in the scene, or, at least, some of them, felt so abused, that there was some talk of them or someone for them suing Ken for the abuse, they felt, they had received in the scene.

04. Savage Messiah
Helen Mirren's (Gosh Boyle's) nude scene

She has stated in the past, that when she stepped out of her trailer to do the nude scene in the film, she wished that she had fallen and broken her leg. Of course, she did not fall stepping out of her trailer. She did not break her leg, and a difficult scene or not to do, she carried it off magnificently.

To be continued . . .

Offline BoyScoutKevin

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 520
His 10 Most Difficult
« Reply #1 on: October 25, 2015, 08:32:18 PM »
Ken, in his theatrical films, asks a lot of himself, his audience, his actors. Thus, here is a list of his most difficult scenes to shoot. We know they were difficult, because he has said so, his audience, including myself, has said so, and/or his actors have said so.

01. Women in Love
The nude wrestling scene.

Maybe because they checked each other out one night behind the pub, and saw that neither one was larger nor smaller than the other, the two actors in the scene agreed to do it, but . . .?! Up to the moment the scene was shot, Ken thought they weren't going to do it, and thus he had a fallback plan of having the two main actresses in the film doing a nude wrestling scene.

02. The Music Lovers
2 scenes: Tchaikovsky's mother receiving a cure for typhoid and one of the scenes set in the asylum.

Former: the scene of Tchaikovsky's mother receiving a hot water cure for typhoid is I have found, one of the most difficult scenes to watch in any of Ken's films.

Latter: not so difficult to watch, but . . .?! the sounds! The scene where Tchaikovsky's wife receives oral sex from the inmates of the asylum, where she is located. The sounds grate against my ears like little else I have heard in any of Ken's films.

To be continued . . .