OFF: Ken Russel ( was: OFF: Alice Cooper)

[Christian000Mumford]

> >ObFilm: Altered States - wiping out so many braincells tripping that one
> turns into a monkey.

da ghost sez:

> Loved this flick.  One of only two William Hurt films I can sit through.
>  Other being Kiss of the Spider Woman.
>
> Ghost in the Ruins


Well, I'll make a case here against Ken Russel, as Altered States is the
only film of his I rate highly, along with Lair Of The White Worm, having
also (only) seen the dreadful Gothic and the ridiculous Tommy
(appealingly/appalingly ridiculous as it may be). His, for the lack of a
better descriptive, "symphonic-psychedelic" tendencies are pretty darn
tacky/over the top, tho I do think he's done some interesting things from
time to time. What other flicks other than the above has he done? The scene
in Altered States where William Hurt trips in the cave in cracked me
up/made me weep, with the fireworks going off left and right, IMO being
increbily sleazy "drug FX" that would have been done much better with cheap
video FX at the time. Not to mention the bizarre "symphonic" fixation in
the music (or the nutty visual flashes) in all his films (again, not wholly
without merit but sometimes gruesomely laughable). I am just more curious
about what else Russel has done as his style so idiosyncratic, and thus
probably worth further investigation nonetheless. Maybe the BOC-L
Siskel-n-Ebert-in-one Andy Gilham has something to say on the subject... :)

Yah, Altered States is a really cool flick tho it could have done without
the luvvy-duvvy bit at the end - I don't know if that was part of the
original novel or not tho.

Chr.



"Rope 'em and ride 'em!"
   - Robert Crumb

"Catch a falling star, put it in your pocket"
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