The ageing enfant terrible of the British cinema, Ken Russell has done
more than any other director to open up controversy and anger among
those who rarely go near their local screen. In Women
in Love (1969) he introduced a nude wrestling scene, The Music Lovers
(1971) over-reached itself in portraying bizarre and impossible events
in Tchaikovsky's life, The
Devils (1971) had every excess that has yet found its way to the
screen.
In spite of his propensity to shock Russell is a serious director of
distinction, whose grounding in television, where he made a number of
excellent, imaginative biographies of composers (Elgar, Sibelius, Strauss
etc), has given him a command of cinematic language of astonishing fluency.
Russells films have continued to be eccentric and outrageous taking
in The Who's rock opera Tommy (1975), Gothic (1986) and Lair of the
White Worm (1988).
