Okay, admittedly this is a pretty useless list for anyone who doesn’t know me…
Maybe I should have worked up to him instead of putting him this early in the series.
First off, I had the opportunity to see a screening with Anna Eriksson, the director, introducing the film and having a Q&A session afterwards. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I did struggle through a horrific need to piss to hear her out, because she knew her shit. Also, I have been to such events previously and what was (gladly) missing from this one was the ego some of those people have regarding their work.
I think I might be emphasizing directors here a little too much, but they are an easy place to start.
Who the fuck is Ken Russell? I know the name and I’ve seen some of his huge filmography, but he has also always remained an elusive figure to me. I have never seen that many of his films and there doesn’t seem to be a real throughline in the ones that I have seen. Except that they are all weird.
I will start with an admission: I have seen quite a few of his movies, but I remember them in a weird haze where I’m not sure what is from what movie, so I won’t discuss specific movies very much.
This is something I have been thinking about for a while now, so instead of planning this any further, I just decided to do this. The point being that I am going to write a series of posts about movies, directors and related concepts that might be considered guilty pleasures.
Roughly eight years ago, I wrote about the opposite of this. While I still find that idea compelling, let’s look at this from the other side. Back then the message was not to set everything in stone, but if you have an interesting character concept, just research it. There is someone in history who’s life applies to what you are doing.
…although the novel was published in 1979.
Spoilers, but I’ll warn you before I get there. There’s actually so much I want to talk about there, but I’m hoping not to be too long-winded.