Savage Messiah: Ken Russell > Savage Messiah: Ken Russell
Ken Russell in today's New York Post
Iain Fisher:
I had forgotten Carradine was in Nashville, one of my favourite films.
I first saw it and loved it, then had to wait 10 years before I could see it again- as good as I remembered, but the opening credits were changed, more professional but less good. Now it is on DVD, superb.
To continue the six degrees of separation, as well as Carradine, Ken and Robert Altman contributed to Aria, and Glenda Jackson worked for Ken (lots of times) and for Altman in Beyond Therapy, plus Donald Sutherland in Billion Dollar Brain and M*A*S*H.
Iain
John Gargo:
Imagine my surprise (and feeling of deja-vu) when I opened the New York Post this Sunday and I saw more Mindgame related business in the "In My Library" column, this time with Keith Carradine. They must have done this interview at the same time as the Ken one. Cool picks with Kazantzakis and Vonnegut. Russell is of course mentioned...
In My Library: Keith Carradine
Never mind what he sang in "Nashville": Figuring out Keith Carradine's literary tastes is anything but "easy."
"I have very catholic tastes - they go all over the place," he tells The Post's Barbara Hoffman. "I have in my possession right now a copy of 'Psychodrama, Surplus Reality and the Art of Healing,' because I'm doing this play I like to call a 'psychodrama about psychodrama.' Since [director] Ken Russell got involved, I now refer to it as a 'psycho-comedy.' "
That play is "Mindgame," and Carradine is so busy that he had to wait for "Pal Joey" to play a Wednesday matinee so he could see his daughter, Martha Plimpton, in it.
In between all that, finally, he finds time to read - here's what's on his bookshelf:
Einstein: His Life and the Universe by Walter Isaacson
You can't really write about Einstein without writing about the theory of relativity, and Isaacson's done it in a way that's comprehensible to the non-nuclear physicist. And he's quite thorough in his depiction of the man. Here you have one of the great minds of the 20th century, and the personal life and traits to go along with it.
The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch
It's a wonderful distillation of our individual and national character. Whether we're conscious of it or not, we've all adopted personas, partly of our own design . . . As I was reading it, I hoped it would help me do a little self-analysis and represent a more honest character to the world. It certainly was enlightening!
The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
My brother David's then-girlfriend, Barbara Hershey, gave Marty Scorsese the book and Marty decided right then to make a film of it. The movie had its detractors, but I quite liked it. [The book] had a profound effect on me.
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
I'm a huge Vonnegut fan - I get it! I get his sense of humor, his skewed way of looking at things. There was a phrase, "Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God," that went into me like a bullet, and I've lived by it ever since. Shortly after, an old friend said, "Hey, Keith, wanna go to China?" And I took my now ex-wife and Martha and her mother along and had a remarkable experience.
BoyScoutKevin:
I'd like to see Russell's film version of "Alice in Wonderland," but I guess we'll have to make do with Tim Burton's version, with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter.
John Gargo:
It was indeed a shock to flip the page of the newspaper and then see Ken Russell staring me in the face! Glad you enjoyed the article. I will say that this is one of the better columns that I can remember... usually they will pick a current "fashionable" celebrity, and their choices are often mundane Bestseller trash, although occasionally you'll be surprised and see a recommendation for something like James Joyce's Ulysses, but again that is rare. Glad to see Russell be that exception with his good reading list.
Iain Fisher:
An interesting article. I like the Louse of Russia error- a nice mishearing. And a small error, the statue of Queen Boudica isn't outside the gates of Parliament, it is close to parliament, on Westminster Bridge.
Baron in the Trees is an unexpected choice, it is also by coincidence one of the books I am reading at the moment. It is as good as Ken indicates, though I think Invisible Cities is Calvino's best novel.
In an interview with Melvyn Bragg (I forget where I read or saw it) I remember Ken saying when he did Women in Love he had hardly read any novels at all. Amazing that he did such a good adaptation, and he has become very literate, including publishing nine (I think) books- three non fiction and six novels.
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