Ken Russell
The flamboyant British film director, 80 this year (2007), has attracted outrage, critical acclaim and derision in equal measures in his long career.
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Headline-grabbing nudity
With his adaptation of DH Lawrence's Women in Love (1969), featuring full frontal male nudity for the first time in British cinema, and his nightmarish screenplay The Devils (1971) starring Oliver Reed as a priest surrounded by possessed naked nuns having orgies, Russell was never far from the showbiz headlines in the early part of his film career.
Highs and lows
Women in Love, Russell's third feature film, broke taboos but it put him on the road to major box office success and earned him Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. It also launched Glenda Jackson, who won an Oscar.
Russell's first two feature films, French Dressing (1963) and Billion Dollar Brain (1967), had been panned by the critics.
Early days
Russell was a late starter in film. He had spells as a seaman in the Merchant Navy, a dancer and a photographer before starting to make short films for BBC TV. Many of these had composers as their subjects.
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Watch clips 1 to 5
Ken Russell talks about The Devils, Women in Love, Crimes of Passion and Glenda Jackson |
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Watch clips 6 to 10
Ken Russell talks about Oliver Reed, censorship, naked directing and Big Brother |
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