Author Topic: Ken Russell in The Times on Tuesday 2008  (Read 24641 times)

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Offline Iain Fisher

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a lifetime's obsessive record collection
« Reply #4 on: June 18, 2008, 01:08:58 AM »
Last week Ken wrote in The Times (10 June 2008) about "a lifetime's obsessive record collection died in a fiery blaze, but who needed it anyway".

A sad article, Ken writes of his record collection, 5000 LPs, which were destroyed when Ken's house went up in flames.  But I think even sadder is that Ken writes "I have not bought a single record since that terrible couple of hours when a collection lovingly built up over half a century went up in smoke".

Offline BoyScoutKevin

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Re: Ken Russell in The Times on Tuesday
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2008, 01:23:47 AM »
There again I have not read the book, but I have seen the author's website ,and the interview he has given about writing the book.  Both of which I have found interesting.

If one of Ken Hanke's favorite films is "Lisztomania," then one of Lanza's favorite films is "Valentino." Which would then, like Hanke, put him opposite most of Ken's other fans. And one of Lanza's favorite scenes im the film, is the jailhouse "rape" of Valentino. As for myself, if any scene in any of Ken's films can be described as superfluous, I would describe it as being that scene.

Lanza also points out that one of the defining momsnets in Russell's life, which influenced his films, was Ken, at 12, sitting in the cinema, watching "Pinocchio" and being sexually molested by the man sitting next to him.

There again, I think Lanza makes both too much and too little of this incident. Too much, and Lanza may make this point, as I think there are more defining moments in Russell's life, which influenced his films, such as Ken's conversion to Catholicism.

Too little, because while Lanza relates the story of Ken's sexual molestation, he does not, as Ken did, point out, that the man who molested him, was a scout leader. The knobby knees and the shorts, you know. Which has always made me wonder, whether Ken's making the character of Kevin, played by Chris Pitt, in "Lair of the White Worm," a scout or boy scout, was a way to get back at the man who sexually molested him so long ago.

Offline Iain Fisher

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Can it really be me who lived that life?
« Reply #2 on: June 03, 2008, 11:44:24 AM »
In today's Times Ken writes about Phallic Frenzy, the biography by Joseph Lanza which has its official British release on Monday.

Ken writes "…I must say, Lanza has done his homework. He knows more about my life than I do. It's a little unsettling to read such intimate details about yourself by someone you've never met.

Phallic Frenzy reads like an overblown, outrageous biographical film script by Ken Russell, full of myth masquerading as fact. And as usual the finished product is bright, irreverent, camp and cacophonous. Lanza has managed to disguise his masterful research as a near-neo-novel with gothic and surreal overtones. I have to applaud the man, having done the same with my own biographies on composers. It makes for a thrilling read - it vibrates, shimmies, pounds down the pavement of every page. And it's full of admirable detail, insightful conclusions and what, for me, are painful remonstrances - a celebration and something of a telling-off at the same time."

Ken gives some anecdotes about his films (Liza Minelli his choice for Evita) and concludes

"… I believe in what I'm doing wholeheartedly, passionately, and what's more, I simply go about my business. I suppose such a thing can be annoying to some people.".

Iain



Offline Iain Fisher

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Ken Russell in The Times on Tuesday 2008
« Reply #1 on: June 03, 2008, 11:35:33 AM »
Ken's articles in The Times are now on Tuesdays instead of Thursdays.
« Last Edit: January 06, 2009, 12:28:24 PM by Iain Fisher »