Film parodies of Ken

[richmond74]

Whoops! Just noticed this clip was the start of the thread, but probably worth another look if only to remember how big a 'household name' Ken was at the time.

[richmond74]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBcQsm56Jtk&feature=feedrec_grec_index

Another parody of Russell I came across on You Tube, this time from a 1972 episode of Monty Python entitled Ken Russell's Gardening Club. Not quite as accurate as The Goodies but still with plenty of the expected elements - nuns, nudes et al!

This short sequence interrupts a jungle expedition culminating in a fight with a gorilla, so hence some of the costumes featured! Other subjects in this edition included Elizabeth L (a nod to Glenda) and a police arrest for impersonating Visconti...

[Iain Fisher]

I think the parodies are so good because they are affectionate, as you say.  So they make fun, but they make fun of something that they think is worthwhile.

"It's easy for subsequent generations to forget Ken was very much a household name at the time."

Yes, both from television and film.  Successful commercially as well as critically taken seriously.  Critics didn't always agree, but he was always worth assessing.

[richmond74]

Yes, the Goodies’ parody was a neat, if rather affectionate, snatch of something apparently directed by Russell (“Jayne, Bertrand or Ken?”) called The Life of Pablo Casals where the titular cellist is seated in a Pinewood-esque woodland scratching away so intensely, he sets himself and instrument on fire – all intercut to the rhythmic strip-tease of a handy nun discarding her garments to reveal a Pierrot clown...

The sequence was capped by an extra – shot from behind - dressed a la Ken in a blue safari suit topped by flowing white locks. References to then current The Boyfriend and The Devils were thrown in too. An additional mock-up of Death in Venice was thrown in for good measure (an old dodderer dying – at great length – on Bognor Beach).

It's easy for subsequent generations to forget Ken was very much a household name at the time.

[BoyScoutKevin]

I saw and loved both of them, but having parodied past musical biographies in his own musical biographies and Hammer horror films in his "Lair of the White Worm," Ken himself becomes an easy target for a parody. Not the least because of his distinctive style of filmmaking. Less than thirty seconds into either one, you know that you are now entering Russelland.

And less us not forget that he was also parodied by the Goodies in an episode of their TV series, which they called "Movies."

[Iain Fisher]

Monty Python and Ken Russell's Gardening Club
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBcQsm56Jtk

Pommy
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS0ssnZcO4o

Both excellent.