Ken Russell
Henry Kenneth Alfred "Ken" Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was an English film director. He is known for his pioneering work in television and film, and for his controversial style. He has been criticized as being over-obsessed with sexuality and the church. His subject matter is often about famous composers, or based on other works of art which he adapts loosely. Russell began directing for the BBC, where he did creative adaptations of composers' lives which were unusual for the time. He also directed many feature films independently and for studios.
He is best known for his Oscar-winning romantic drama Women in Love (1969), the notoriously controversial The Devils (1971), the rock musical Tommy (1975), and the science fiction film Altered States (1980).
One noted admirer, British film critic Mark Kermode, attempting to sum up the director's achievement, called Russell; "somebody who proved that British cinema didn't have to be about kitchen-sink realism – it could be every bit as flamboyant as Fellini. He now makes very strange experimental films like Lion's Mouth and Revenge of the Elephant Man, and they are as edgy and out there as the work he made in the 1970s."
| Known For | Directing |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 1.0491 |
| Birthday | 1927-07-03 |
| Place of Birth | Southampton, Hampshire, England, UK |
| Also Known As | Alfred Russell, Alf Russell, |
1991
Whore
5.259/116
This melodrama investigates the life of a sex worker, in a pseudo-documentary style.
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Whore
1984
Vaughan Williams: A Symphonic Portrait
6/1
Ken Russell's engrossing examination of the great 20th-century composer tells Williams' story through the eyes of his widow, Ursula, with personal rem...
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Vaughan Williams: A Symphonic Portrait
1987
Gothic
5.7/199
Living on an estate on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lord Byron is visited by Percy and Mary Shelley. Together with Byron's lover Claire Clairmont, and a...
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Gothic
2006
The Real Blue Nuns
4.5/6
An investigation into nunsploitation, and why men find images of nuns involved in sexual situations erotic. The programme also controversially covers...
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The Real Blue Nuns
1975
Tommy
6.47/383
After a series of traumatic childhood events, a psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind boy becomes a master pinball player and the object of a religio...
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Tommy
2006
Trapped Ashes
5.111/54
Trapped in a house of horror, seven people discover that the only way they'll get out alive is to tell their scariest stories.
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Trapped Ashes
1977
Valentino
5.8/49
The untimely death of silent screen star Rudolph Valentino prompts the many women in his past to reminisce about his troubled rise to superstardom.
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Valentino
1966
Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World
5.375/8
The outrageous life of the American dancer of the 1920s, Isadora Duncan, whom Ken Russell described as "part genius and part charlatan".
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Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World
1988
Salome's Last Dance
6.115/39
London, England, November 5th, 1892, Guy Fawkes Night. The famous playwright Oscar Wilde and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas discreetly go to a luxury b...
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Salome's Last Dance
2000
The Real Oliver Reed
0/0
A documentary portrait about the life and times of the infamous hellraiser, who died in May 1999, having starred in more than 100 films.
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The Real Oliver Reed
2002
The Fall of the Louse of Usher
5.1/10
Rock star Roddy Usher is confined to an insane asylum after murdering his wife. There, he is given various shock treatments by Nurse Smith and Dr Cala...
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The Fall of the Louse of Usher
2007
A Kitten for Hitler
4.6/10
A plucky young Jewish boy traverses the globe on a quest to warm the Führer's heart with the gift of a cuddly feline. (The result of a challenge from...
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A Kitten for Hitler
2002
Hell on Earth: The Desecration & Resurrection of The Devils
6.4/10
Hell on Earth is a documentary about Ken Russell's 1971 film, The Devils. Film critic Mark Kermode chats to Russell as well as two of the film’s stars...
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Hell on Earth: The Desecration & Resurrection of The Devils
1995
Music for the Movies: Georges Delerue
7/1
Documentary covering the career of French composer Georges Delerue, famous for film scores for such films as Platoon, Contempt, Shoot the Piano Player...
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Music for the Movies: Georges Delerue
2009
Boudica Bites Back
0/0
A cine-opera retelling of the legend of Boudica, warrior queen and her uprising against the Roman occupiers of Britain.
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Boudica Bites Back
1972
Savage Messiah
6.288/26
In the Paris of the 1910s, brash young sculptor Henri Gaudier begins a creative partnership with an older writer, Sophie Brzeska. Though the couple is...
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Savage Messiah
1995
The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch
4.75/8
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...
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The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch
2004
Revenge of the Elephant Man
0/0
A short directed by Ken Russell.
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Revenge of the Elephant Man
2010
Mr. Nice
6.075/169
Biopic about 1970s Welsh marijuana trafficker Howard Marks, whose inventive smuggling schemes made him a huge success in the drug trade, as well as le...
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Mr. Nice
2000
Lion's Mouth
9/1
A short musical directed by Ken Russell.
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Lion's Mouth
2022
The Who: One Band's Explosive Story
7/2
The story of Roger Daltrey (vocals), Pete Townshend (guitar), John Entwistle (bass) and Keith Moon (drums): The Who, one of the most original, creativ...
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The Who: One Band's Explosive Story
1987
Your Honour, I Object! Guccione V Russell
0/0
A courtroom 'drama' featuring Bob Guccione versus Ken Russell in a breach of contract case regarding disagreements over a script for a film version of...
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Your Honour, I Object! Guccione V Russell
1966
Don’t Shoot the Composer
8/1
Far from an ordinary profile of Georges Delerue; it also serves as a calling card for Russell, whose work would define the 1970s as Delerue’s did in t...
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Don’t Shoot the Composer
2006
Brothers of the Head
5.538/26
In the 1970s a music promoter plucks Siamese twins from obscurity and grooms them into a freakish rock'n'roll act. A dark tale of sex, strangeness and...
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Brothers of the Head
1988
Ken Russell's ABC of British Music
10/1
A feat that fully matches its title, an alphabetical trawl through both the history of British music and Russell's own likes and dislikes, the latter...
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Ken Russell's ABC of British Music
2012
Director of Devils
0/0
Behind the scenes of the making of Ken Russell's 1971 film 'The Devils. Shown are the construction of the sets, filming of the courtroom scene, the pe...
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Director of Devils
1986
A Turnip Head's Guide To The British Cinema
0/0
Documentary presenting Alan Parker’s view of British cinema with comments from Richard Lester and others and location report from King’s Lynn on the m...
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A Turnip Head's Guide To The British Cinema
2007
10 Best Elgar
0/0
A line up of star performers celebrate the very best of Edward Elgar's music in the 150th anniversary year of his birth.
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10 Best Elgar
1990
The Russia House
6.065/339
Barley Scott Blair, a Lisbon-based editor of Russian literature who unexpectedly begins working for British intelligence, is commissioned to investiga...
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The Russia House
1995
Empire of the Censors
5.333/3
The history of film and video censorship in Great Britain.
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Empire of the Censors
2012
Ken Russell: A Bit of a Devil
8/1
Following the recent death of Ken Russell, Alan Yentob looks back over the career of the flamboyant film director responsible for Women In Love, Tommy...
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Ken Russell: A Bit of a Devil
1968
Song of Summer
6.333/9
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...
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Song of Summer
2005
Colour Me Kubrick
5.71/88
The true story of a man who posed as director Stanley Kubrick during the production of Kubrick's last film, Eyes Wide Shut, despite knowing very littl...
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Colour Me Kubrick
1988
The Lair of the White Worm
5.946/325
When an archaeologist uncovers a strange skull in a foreign land, the residents of a nearby town begin to disappear, leading to further inexplicable o...
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The Lair of the White Worm
1961
Walk With The Damned
0/0
Gangsters run rampant until they encounter a gutsy minister.
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Walk With The Damned
1966
Russell at Work
0/0
Documentary shows Ken Russell at work on various BBC TV documentaries, with clips from Diary of a Nobody, The Debussy Film, Always on Sunday, Don't Sh...
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Russell at Work
1992
The Secret Life of Arnold Bax
6.3/3
Utilising the music of eminent composer Arnold Bax, this biographical docudrama focuses on Bax's complex relationships with pianist Harriet Cohen and...
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The Secret Life of Arnold Bax
1989
A British Picture: Portrait of an Enfant Terrible
6.5/8
Moving with astonishing assurance through time and space, Russell recreates his life in a series of unconventional interconnected episodes – his thirt...
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A British Picture: Portrait of an Enfant Terrible
2012
The Devils Original on-set footage
0/0
On-set footage of the film The Devils (1971) with commentary by editor Mike Bradsell
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The Devils Original on-set footage
PuzzleFace
0/0
PUZZLEFACE - 18min short film (CAN) Episode #7 from Spookey Ruben's Dizzy Playground TV series starring: Denis 'SNAKE' Belanger & VOIVOD, Ken Russel...
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PuzzleFace
1997
In Search of the English Folk Song
7.5/4
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 h...
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In Search of the English Folk Song
1979
The Who: The Kids Are Alright
7.272/46
Through concert performances and interviews, this film offers us a comprehensive look at the British pioneer rock group, The Who. It captures their za...
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The Who: The Kids Are Alright
2025
Twiggy
7.7/5
Twiggy takes a comprehensive look at the life story of UK model and cultural icon Twiggy, real name Lesley Lawson, whose career kickstarted in the 196...
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Twiggy
2002
Elgar: Fantasy on a Composer on a Bicycle
7.3/3
Russell revisits the life of composer Edward Elgar, using his own music as the score and featuring evocative, visually rich scenes, often set in the M...
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Elgar: Fantasy on a Composer on a Bicycle
1995
Alice in Russialand
8/3
A young girl named Alice travels through a century of Russian history, from Tsarism, through Socialism and Glasnost. Alice's original characters embod...
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Alice in Russialand
2003
100 Greatest Sexy Moments
3.5/2
Documentary, based on a British poll, listing the 100 sexiest movie and TV moments. Supplemented by new interviews with performers, filmmakers, and au...
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100 Greatest Sexy Moments
1996
Tales of Erotica
3.9/10
Four erotic short films, all with similar unexpected endings: 'The Dutch Master': a woman who enters a living painting; 'The Insatiable Mrs. Kirsch':...
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Tales of Erotica
2003
Celebrity Naked Ambition
5.333/3
Documentary looking at how nudity has been used in the movies, sometimes shrewdly and other times without thought.
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Celebrity Naked Ambition
1991
Road to Mandalay
0/0
In his hometown of Southampton, Ken Russell takes his young son and his aunts out to dinner, but the new traffic restrictions mean he can't get near t...
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