Ken Russell — Director (46)
Elgar (1962) [Movie] IMDb TMDB
Elgar
director: Ken Russell actor: Huw Wheldon / Peter Brett
An astonishing documentary of the life of classical composer Sir Edward Elgar. This partly dramatised account is remarkable for its sensitive portrayal of the rise of a young musician from an underprivileged background to international fame.
Amelia and the Angel (1958) [Movie] IMDb TMDB
Amelia and the Angel
A young girl (Amelia) is distressed and feeling guilty about losing the wings she was to wear in her school play. Then she notices an angel and follows the angel into a dark building. Upstairs in the attic, bathed in heavenly light, is an artist's model - the ANGEL. The painter ascends a ladder until he is out of shot - supposedly to heaven-and reappears to restore Amelia's joy with a pair of wings.
Prisoner of Honor (1991) [Movie] IMDb WikiData TMDB
Prisoner of Honor
director: Ken Russell actor: Richard Dreyfuss / Oliver Reed
other title: Prigionieri dell'onore / Prisioneiros da Honra
France, 1897: Colonel Georges Picquart challenges the government when he discovers the obscure political maneuvers that leads to the imprisonment of the Jewish Captain Alfred Dreyfus after being convicted of espionage three years earlier.
Treasure Island (1995) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
Treasure Island
director: Ken Russell actor: Hetty Baynes / Gregory Hall
Enchanted by the idea of locating treasure buried by Captain Flint, Squire Trelawney, Dr Livesey and young Jim Hawkins charter a sailing voyage to a Caribbean island. Unfortunately, a large number of Flint's old pirate crew are aboard the ship, including the deviously vivacious Long Jane Silver.
The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch (1995) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch
director: Ken Russell actor: Hetty Baynes / Ken Russell
A writer taking a rest in a country hotel is obsessed with a strange woman in the same hotel. The woman seems to observe him in provocative ways, but he does not dare to approach her. One day he follows her to her room and listens to strange “erotic” sounds from inside, and begins to have erotic thoughts.
In Search of the English Folk Song (1997) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
In Search of the English Folk Song
director: Ken Russell actor: Ken Russell / Donovan
Filmmaker Ken Russell poses the question: "What is a true English folk song, if there is such a thing?" After recieving an indifferent response from his dog, Russell journeys around the English countryside seeking for an answer. He encounters and interviews such famous artists as Donovan, Fairport Convention, Osibisa, Eliza Carthy, So What, Edward II and The Albion Band, among others.
The Lonely Shore (1962) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
The Lonely Shore
director: Ken Russell actor: Tony Church
One of the most conceptually original of all the films that Ken Russell made for Monitor, this imagines an expedition of alien archaeologists (represented only by the soundtrack commentary) examining various artefacts strewn along a stretch of Britain's coastline and musing on their possible significance.
Il Mefistofele (1989) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
Il Mefistofele
director: Ken Russell actor: Paata Burchuladze / Ottavio Garaventa
Arrigo Boito's Il Mefestefele was first performed in 1868 and his most known work. In Ken Russell's modern interpretation presented by the Genoese Opera, it has Faust as an ageing hippy. He smokes marijuana and is tormented by his lost youth. Mephisto makes a bet with God that he can turn anyone to pagan life, even someone as innocent as Faust. From then on it is a battle of good against evil in a flamboyant, surreal display of primary colours, PVC costumes, nurses with swastikas, rocket trips, love and even characters dressed as Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. Ken Russell said because the devil is always with us is his reason for the contemporary setting.
A Bedlington Miners' Picnic (1960) [Movie] TMDB
A Bedlington Miners' Picnic
director: Ken Russell
In 1960, Ken Russell visited Bedlington Colliery, Northumberland to make one of his first documentary films, following life in the mining community.
The Light Fantastic (1960) [Movie] TMDB IMDb
The Light Fantastic
director: Ken Russell actor: Ron Hitchins / Anneke Wills
While most of Ken Russell's documentaries for the BBC's Monitor arts strand focused on a single creative figure, he would also occasionally make more wide-ranging surveys of the state of a particular art. The Light Fantastic (BBC, tx. 18/12/1960) was written and presented by Ron Hitchins, a Cockney barrow boy who has long been interested in a great many dance forms, and who has recently taken up Spanish dancing. Hitchins participates in some of the dance sequences, but his main contribution is an enthusiastic commentary that helps personalise what could have been simply a disparate collection of dance footage. He's not shy about expressing likes and dislikes, being none too keen on ballroom dancing (too choreographed), rock'n'roll (too monotonous) and Morris dancing (just doesn't like it), though anything genuinely spontaneous gets a thumbs up, even if it's a room full of people dressed in black swaying to the sound of a gong.
Pop Goes the Easel (1962) [Movie] TMDB IMDb WikiData
Pop Goes the Easel
director: Ken Russell actor: Peter Blake / Derek Boshier
Pop Goes the Easel was Ken Russell’s first full-length documentary for the BBC’s arts series Monitor. It focused on 4 British Pop Artists - Peter Blake, Peter Philips, Pauline Boty and Derek Boshier.
Alice in Russialand (1995) [Movie] WikiData IMDb TMDB
Alice in Russialand
director: Ken Russell actor: Hetty Baynes / Amanda Ray-King
Documentary by Ken Russell that shows Alice traveling through a century of Russian's history, from the period of Tsarism, through Socialism and Glasnost. Alice's original characters embody ideological conflicts crossing politics, art and cultural movements.
Song of Summer (1968) [Movie] IMDb WikiData TMDB
Song of Summer
director: Ken Russell actor: Max Adrian / Christopher Gable
An immensely moving story of sacrifice, idealism and musical genius which charts the last five years of Frederick Delius's life through the eyes of a young composer and aide, Eric Fenby.