Showing posts with label ken russell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ken russell. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

A loss of one of Britain's under-appreciated film directors

It’s a sign I’m getting old when the authors and filmmakers that inspired me as a youth are exiting this world. Last week we lost the Grand Dragon-lady of Pern, Anne McCaffrey. This week one of Britain’s more flamboyant and iconoclastic film directors, Ken Russell, died at the age of 84. Sadly, his vision and talent never really found a home in either Hollywood or the British film industry, and he struggled to find funding in his later years.

While best known for The Devils and the Oscar-winning Woman in Love, which earned Russell a nomination for Best Director, I’ll always have a soft spot for his campy cult horror classics Gothic and The Lair of the White Worm. Here’s a clip of the delectable Amanda Donohoe vamping it up as Lady Sylvia Marsh in the latter film (won't allow me to embed unfortunately):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK61O6H3E9s

If you ever wondered how the characters in my stories "Naga Special Massage" and "Naga Massage Review" got their names, now you know.