Savage Messiah: Ken Russell > Savage Messiah: Ken Russell
Ken Russell in today's New York Post
John Gargo:
The Sunday edition of the New York Post always has a column entitled "In My Library," where they ask a celebrity (usually an author, actor or musician) what books they are currently reading. Ken Russell was featured in today's paper.
In My Library: Ken Russell
If you went to the movies in the late '60s and '70s, you know Ken Russell's work. There was no escaping it: "Women in Love," "The Rainbow," "The Devils," "The Music Lovers"... there was even an over-the-top take on The Who's "Tommy," with Tina Turner, in the grip of what looked like epilepsy, as the Acid Queen.
Today you'll find the 81-year-old Brit off-Broadway directing Keith Caradine in "Mindgame," which opens next month. It's a thriller. Russell's long had a taste for the macabre. "When I'm not reading scripts, I'm reading the Bible - it's full of good stories - and history," he tells The Post's Barbara Hoffman.
"I've just finished an historical script with my wife (Lisa Tribble) about Queen Boudica. The Romans raped her daughters, and she gave them a bloody nose. There's a statue of her outside the gates of Parliament.
"She was played by my wife in the film, 'Boudica Bites Back,' which will be on a Web site near you soon. She was a hell of a woman, and so is my wife!" We don't doubt it. Here's what's in his library.
Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
It's my favorite Lawrence book, really - it encapsulates the best of him, as far as I'm concerned. What I like is the relationship between the two men. It's not exactly homosexual, but sparks fly between them. They're rivals, and they need each other.
Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino
It's about a 12-year-old boy who decides to leave home after they make him eat boiled snails for dinner. He climbs a tree in his garden and that's where he remained for the rest of his life. A very full life. It's sort of my story. I used to go to my horse-chestnut tree to act out movies.
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
It's very much part of my psyche. I like surrealism... I can remember my mum reading it to me. It had vivid illustrations - once seen, those images are never forgotten. I can still see the one of Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allen Poe
I made a film called "The Fall of the Louse of Russia," [sic] because the hero was a real louse... There's one story set in a madhouse, so it's an inspiration for this very bizarre tale ["Mindgame"], which is as horrific as anything Poe wrote.
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