Cool News
Ken Russell to make a new film entitled, "THE FALL OF THE LOUSE OF USHER"'
Heh... Hhehehe... I like this news. Ken Russell is one of those guys that makes me tilt my head and look at a film from a bit of an askewed angle. Of course... that might just be me. Take a look... and if this news doesn't set you to giggling... Well... Sorry.
Dear Harry,
Here's some gossip for you. The director Ken Russell is now in pre-production for a new feature film - 'The Fall of the Louse of Usher' - based on several of the stories of Edgar Allen Poe. He is making it as an underground film as he is tired of trying to get funding from an unresponsive and unimaginative British Film Industry. It is to star Roger Daltrey as Roddy Usher and Ken himself as mad Doctor Cali-Hari. It will be a gothic-comedy-horror-musical including musical contributions from The Mediaeval Baebes amongst others. Watch this space for more details.
Emma Millions
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While anything related to Edgar Allen Poe strikes a chord with me, this does not inspire me with hope; this has "BAD MOVIE" written all over it. I always remain optimistic about all movie projects though. I think Poe deserves to have one of his great works to be made into a decent movie for once.
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Didn't Parker and Stone already do a comedy/musical/horror film with CANNIBAL: THE MUSICAL? Just curious.... although it sounds like it might be campy enough to be a hit on the midnight movie circuit....
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Arent those Poe movies with Vincent Price already camp classics?
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Ken has been pretty quiet lately. It's nice to hear he's working. He's definitely a hit or miss director, but never boring. This is going to be a musical?
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It's a musical/comedy...I think they're going for a ROCKY HORROR type of thing.
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Feb 14, 2000 2:50:44 AM CST
As long as it has a supercool, campy, mondo-bondage climax featu
by alexandra dupont
.... You can count on SSZero showing up with his eight bucks. In a raincoat. Seriously, though -- this sounds promising.
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Come ON, 'Louse of Usher', Ken Russell, Roger Daltrey? Somebody out there is laughing their ass off. But while we're on the topic, Ken Russell has made some of the strangest abominations ever to hit a silver screen. His film of the Who album (since Broadway musical) 'Tommy' has Jack Nicholson singing (! - he's actually got quite a nice voice) and the late, great Oliver Reed. 'Lair of the White Worm' has to be the most appalling film Hugh Grant's ever been in (and this is from someone who thought 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' sucked dick). But by far the strangest of this man's lumbering films is 'Lisztomania', starring the Who's Roger Daltrey as the famous composer Franz Liszt. The score consists of Liszt music adapted by Rick Wakeman, the keboardist from Yes. And in one part of the film a giant version of Franz Liszt's penis is dragged through Hell. I am not shitting you. If you're wondering what Roger Daltrey's up to these days (apart from doing reunion tours with The Who and running a trout farm in England), I recently saw him in an episode of the 'Highlander' TV spin-off. He played a pipe-smoking immortal with a Dick van Dyke cockney accent. God, there's some strange shit out there...
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...of the White Worm is one hell of a good movie! It will never ever be recognised as such because it fails so miserably on all the standard criteria - the characters are 1-dimensional, the plot only seems logical if you are doped up to the eyeballs, and the acting is wooden and stiff, etc etc. But it's got what I love about movies in spades: what i can only describe as an incredible *sensibility*. You know, like Terry Gilliam films, or some of Tim Burton's stuff. You get the sense that the idea came to them in a dream, like Kubla Khan or something. the only difference is that Ken didn't bother to edit this once he had woken up properly, he just shot it. It only seems right that Hugh Grant sleepwalks his way through the role ;)
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Feacal cerebral.... wasn't that a Henry Rollins album? In the meantime, I found this about the trainspotting/beach guys boyle, hodge, and macdonald, from the empireonline.co.uk website (always worth a look)....... I figured no-one would still be reading the 'beach' story from a few days back, so I'll stick it here.
'Boyle denied the rumour that the Trainspotting troika's next project was to centre on the Manchester club scene, but hinted that it was a subject that he has toyed with.
"It's been a long-held fascination for me. Not just the club scene in Manchester, but the music Manchester as a city has produced. I come from there, so I'm biased. Any city that produces Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Oasis is a pretty amazing city."
While resident Figment Films scribe John Hodge confirmed that the trio have yet to decide upon their next outing, he did confirm that he is planning to work outside of their Holy trinity.
"I hope that Danny and I will be working on a film before too long. I've actually written a script that Andrew McDonald has a company who will act as Executive Producers. It's called The Final Curtain, and it's with a first-time feature director, who I've made a couple of short films with, called Pat Harkins. We hoping to make that later this year. That's what I was doing while they were on the beach in Thailand, filming." '
So..... does anyone know anything about Pat Harkins?? Or the plot of The Final Curtain?
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The guy who fits that description the best (apart from Ken Russell) is Michael Winner, the guy who made Death Wish with Charles Bronson (which admittedly was fun) and gradually descended to making films like Dirty Weekend (which you have to see just so you know what it must be like being made to fuck a lardass). Michael Winner now writes a restaurant column in a British newspaper, and he hangs around the same places as Ken Russell - in fact, they look more and more like one anothjer from year to year.
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Russell's THE DEVILS is one of the most enjoyably bad movies that I have seen. Oliver Reed burned alive at the stake, Vanessa Redgrave getting a hot boiling douche, mastubating nuns, horny priests, maggot-eaten skulls, transvestite heads-of-state, and a sacrelegious crucifixion scene. Not to mention hammy acting, shitty direction, piss-poor cinematography, sloppy editing, and a music score that sounds like chalk scraping against a blackboard. If they can get Michael Jackson to play Edgar Allen Poe, this sure as hell would make an interesting companion piece.
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They are the best Poe adaptions ever done. Sure they stray from the stories a little...
but go check out that Pit and the Pendelum from 1994, not a bad movie but had NOTHING to do with the orignal story.
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Daltry and Russell back together again? Did anyone see Lizstomania? I hope not . . . Has Ken Russell ever made a good movie not based on a D.H. Lawrence novel? Please, "Altered States" fans, don't attack me.
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Russell's films always make me feel like I turned a corner and stepped into the wrong universe, except for Altered States which was way too commercial (I copnsider it his Blue Velvet). Listzomania is just too freaking bizarre to be believed. Wagner is portrayed as some sort of nazi vampire guy who unleashed a rock 'n' roll Frankenstein's monster on an unsuspecting populace, or something, by that part of the movie my brain hurt and my guts were still aching with laughter from watching Roger Daltrey ride around on a twenty foot penis. And what about Gothic? The fictional account of what happened the night Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein, if she and Percy Shelley and Byron were all even crazier than they actually were in real life and couldn't act their way out of a high school production of Oliver. Ken Russell is to Peter Greenaway what Brian Lumley is to Thomas Ligotti, or what Tom Green is to Andy Kaufman, except that Russell is at least amusing. I hope to Goddess he's in on the joke.
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C'mon, Lizstomania was a complete hoot! As was Tommy, and Lair of the White Worm.
Ken Russell can be fun when he's campy, and plays to his sexual obsessions. And especially when there's good prog-rock involved. -
I think THE DEVILS is the only video rental that I have ever turned off and returned without finishing. By the way, didn't Vanessa Redgrave get an enema rather than a douche?
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I'm not quite sure what to think about this. "The House of Usher" could either be a camp noir classic or a horrible modern adaptaion. It's all or nothing with Mr. Poe's work agian. I'm just hoping for a good script to come up soon.--Saulot--
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I think I'm the only person here who doesn't recognize Ken Russel's name when I see it. Now I'm going to have to go out and rent some of these movies you guys are talking about. (Though, most likely I won't for a long time.)
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Nice inside joke/reference to Dr.Caligari. Wonder if the movie will have the same kind of twist ending.
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Lair.. didn't hold up entirely, but the sense of inescapable danger when the worm(Donahoe?) is in the basket...clever and Harrowing..far scarrier than Elm Street. Mahler is in fact my favourite. a bizzare little film about a stereotypical composer..frustrating and funny..the coffin scene is fantastic..Mahler's compositions are interesting, particularly the 3rd, he reminds me of a bridger between avant garde and more traditional sounds..? Fragile is a classic,(the rythm change at end of Heart of the Sunrise!) but Close to the Edge is the bolder and sonically satisfying of the two.....Anton? did you see Greenaway's 8 1|2 Women? I recall your being at Toronto Fest, but not this film
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try Mahler and Crimes of Passion first...also Lair of the White Worm. Salome's Last Dance is a wild one..Altered States has an interesting concept..dealing with the effects sensory deprivation..youve probably seen Whore, but don't remember
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I think it will be one of these incredibly camp and creaky films that only I seem to like.And why not.Is Ken Russell the guy who used to direct Oliver Reed a lot (and almost killed him incidentally while they were playing with swords)Hes cool
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"The Fall of the House of Usher" isn't a comedy! I mean, how could you turn one of Poe's most deep and philosophical works into a farce! Honestly, does anyone expect this to do _any_ good? Huh?--Saulot--
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When they were making THE DEVILS, Russell tried to get Reed to pierce his tounge for a torture scene. Fortunately, Reed was able to convince him that as an actor, his tounge would probably come in handy. ****BTW, did anyone else see the (fully) nude wrestling scene between Reed and Alan Bates in WOMEN IN LOVE?
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I've heard of "Whore" (didn't it come out right after "Pretty Woman" and used a tagline like "the REAL pretty woman" or something?), but I've never seen it. Although, I do know a couple of gals from my old high school who come close to qualifying as it.
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How are TOPSY TURVY and SECRETS AND LIES rehashes of THE GLASS MANAGERIE? There are layers to NAKED that confound a comparison between Johnny and a certain gentleman caller. That statement is ridiculous. It is also bizarre to think Peter Greenaway would concede that his work is inferior to THE DEVILS. THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, AND HER LOVER may not benefit from the insanity of Vanessa Redgrave, but visually, I cannot think of a more striking film. Such comparisons are unnecessary.
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Thought I'd drop in and defend old Ken Russell. It's sad most of you kids out there are not familiar with his work. I've only seen four or five of his films, and he's definitely one of a kind.Believe it or not, there was a time (i.e. before the '80's) when he was considered cutting edge. He's a provocateur. The Devils, The Who's Tommy, Crimes of Passion, Altered States, and especially Women in Love are classics. BTW the Altered States DVD has the BLADE RUNNER trailer!
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If the 1970s are thought of as some kind of golden age for moviemaking, then Ken Russell was certainly a major player back then. Too bad everyone on this discussion only remembers his 19980s and 1990s stuff... Before he did "Tommy" he was considered a great filmmaker and a true genius. I still think "The Devils" is about as shocking as a film can be, especially since there is so much true historical detail scattered throughout. Then there's his other output from that time: "Women In Love." "The Music Lovers." "The Savage Messiah." Oh, well, I guess that's what happens when overindulgence overtakes good taste... "He coulda been somebody!"... But that's no excuse for the ignorance of he man's work exhibited in this discussion board.
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It would be great if Russell worked with some of his old regulars on his new film, especially Georgina Hale from Mahler (which she won a BAFTA for) The Devil's and The Boyfriend. She has appeared in Preaching to the Perverted and an Elisabeth Hurley movie in the last couple of years so I am sure she would be up for anything!
It would be great to also see: Robert Powell, Antonia Ellis or Sammi Davis again (if they are not dead.)
P.S: Mahler is Russells best film by far.
Strangeboy76. -
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