Ken Russell

"It is a pity when one, either through force of circumstance or because one is afraid of being ridiculed by others, won't produce and expose to everyone that little spark of something special which is unique to him alone." -- Ken Russell

Film director -- via the New York Times. One of the strangest and most controversial of the "great directors," his most popular works include "Women in Love," "Tommy" and "Altered States." Most people don't like his work -- it is over-the-top, vulgar, graphic, sexually obsessive, blasphemous, deliberately and gratuitously controversial. Even for those who count themselves as fans, his films are extremely problematic, hit-and-miss.

However, his movies are passionate and beautiful, and contain brilliant insights. It's largely forgotten that he reinvented the documentary film in the late 1950s and early 1960s, using devices such as dramatic reenactments and nonobjective passages set to music. He could do commercial, genre film -- "Billion Dollar Brain" and "Lair of the White Worm" -- but his best good-crazy stuff were hallucinogenic runs at the barriers of good taste and consensual reality. My faves: "Mahler" and "Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World."

Here is a link to a good general introduction to his work on video -- it is neither family-friendly nor safe for work! Of course, how could it be -- it's Ken Russell!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpZagdBC8v8