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| Title: | Phallic Frenzy
: Ken Russell & His Films |
| Author: | Joseph Lanza |
| ISBN: | 1556526695 : 9781556526695 |
| Illustrations: | b/w photos |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Size: | 155x230mm |
| Pages: | 378 |
| Weight: | .706 Kg. |
| Published: | IPG (Chicago Review Press) - August 2007 |
| List Price: | 17.99 Pounds Sterling |
| Availability: | In Print |
| Subjects: | Individual film directors; film-makers |
A biography of director Ken Russell that details the wild ideas, surreal moments, personal faith, and cavalcade of colourful personalities surrounding this eccentric filmmaker -- on and off the set. Best known for the acclaimed movies Altered States, The Devils, Gothic, The Music Lovers, Tommy, and Women in Love, Russell redefined cinema in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, working with magnetic actors like Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, Ann-Margret, William Hurt, Gabriel Byrne, and Vanessa Redgrave. Moments of Russell's career are highlighted in this intimate biography, including how creative differences between Russell and producer Robert Stigwood stopped production of a movie version of Evita, how he creatively staged the love duet between Faust and Helen over a bowl of pasta in the opera Mephistopheles, and how Alan Bates and Oliver Reed compared their penis size for the nude wrestling scene in Women in Love.
"It seems inevitable that any conversation about Ken Russell is going to involve penises, and Phallic Frenzy: Ken Russell and his Films by Joseph Lanza (Chicago £16.95) gets to the point, as it were, from the outset. Russell's film life has been a bacchanal in which burlesque is used to shape serious cinematic ideas. To enjoy him is to surrender to a voluptuary and not worry about the end-of-the-pier acting, so it's no wonder that critic Pauline Kael thought the man was mad. Had Russell been Italian he would be as revered as Fellini. Instead, it's still impossible to see many of his films. At least we have the next best thing in an enjoyable biography of a frustrating visionary who could create haunting scenes of passion and decay, but could do nothing to help a bad actor." -- Independent on Sunday, 16th December 2007.
