Description
Book SynopsisThis book is the first anthology of essays that focuses solely on Ken Russell in over 30 years, and it seeks to reflect a newly revived interest in his films. The essays re-contextualize Russell's work in light of new approaches to film studies and work to correct, nuance, or amend previous scholarship.
Trade ReviewThis is a worthy study of a director who moved too far toward the margins to endure.... Recommended. * CHOICE, May 2010 *
Tom Wallis's essay on Tommy (1975) finds that both Russell and Townshend wish to 'transcend and parody' their respective genres, and treats the film in question with a sensitivity rare in writing on rock music which often oscillates between poles of enthusiastic fandom and Adornite misanthropy....In this book, Russell emerges, variously, as a profoundly aesthetic maker of lush costume drama, a gore maestro, pop artist, dogged amateur and commentator on the vagaries of Thatcherism....To say that a 'definitive' Russel does not emerge from this book of essays is far from a criticism— it is a testament to one of Britain's most visionary, contrary and multi-faceted film-makers. * Journal Of British Cinema and Television *
