The 30+ Best Movies & TV Shows Directed by Ken Russell
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1Film (1971)In 17th-century France, Father Grandier (Oliver Reed) is a priest whose unorthodox views on sex and religion influence a passionate following of nuns, including the sexually obsessed Sister Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave). When the power-hungry Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) realizes he must eliminate Grandier to gain control of France, Richelieu portrays Grandier as a satanist and spearheads a public outcry to destroy the once-loved priest's reputation.Moreย The Devils
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2Film (1969)Close friends Rupert Birkin (Alan Bates) and Gerald Crich (Oliver Reed) begin romances with siblings Ursula (Jennie Linden) and Gudrun Brangwen (Glenda Jackson). After the couples wed, they take a joint honeymoon to Switzerland, where things begin happily -- but they become increasingly complicated as the trip continues. Rupert and Ursula are determined to stay faithful to one another, while the aloof Gerald and the eccentric Gudrun turn to infidelity and sexual exploration.
3Film (1974)After time away spent conducting at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Gustav Mahler (Robert Powell) is returning to Austria by train with his wife, Alma (Georgina Hale). Over the course of the journey, he has occasion to reflect upon the significant moments of his life. Among others, Mahler dwells on memories of his overbearing father, of his once buoyant but now failing relationship with Alma and of the anti-Semitism that dogged him so much that he converted to Catholicism.
4Film (1975)Composers Franz Liszt (Roger Daltrey) and Richard Wagner (Paul Nicholas) live wildly, surrounded by groupies and mistresses.
5Film (1984)Bobby (John Laughlin) owns a gadget store by day and takes surveillance jobs by night. A businessman hires him to spy on Joanna (Kathleen Turner), a fashion designer suspected of committing white-collar crimes. But Bobby finds that Joanna's transgressions aren't business-related; instead, she spends her evenings as a prostitute specializing in fetishes. Intrigued, Bobby begins to woo her, but their relationship is complicated by Shayne (Anthony Perkins), a deviant priest who's stalking Joanna.
6Film (1980)Edward Jessup (William Hurt) is a research scientist, consumed by the enigmatic question of human consciousness in Altered States. Plunging into uncharted territory, he employs hallucinatory substances and sensory deprivation tanks to explore the depths of the human mind. His experiments spiral into physical manifestations, transforming his body in bizarre and alarming ways. This unique blend of science fiction and horror, directed by Ken Russell, pushes the boundaries of reality and perception. A relentless quest for truth morphs into a thrilling journey through altered states of existence, with profound consequences.Moreย Altered States- #287 of 399 onThe Best Movies Of The 1980s, Ranked
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7FilmThe Music Lovers is a 1970 British drama film directed by Ken Russell. The screenplay by Melvyn Bragg, based on Beloved Friend, a collection of personal correspondence edited by Catherine Drinker Bowen and Barbara von Meck, focuses on the life and career of 19th century Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It was one of the director's biographical films about classical composers, which include Elgar, Delius: Song of Summer, Mahler and Lisztomania, made from an often idiosyncratic standpoint.
8Film (1975)After seeing his stepfather murder his father during an argument over his mother, young Tommy goes into shock, suddenly becoming psychosomatically deaf, dumb and blind. As a teenager, Tommy stumbles upon a pinball machine and discovers he is a natural prodigy at the game. Fame and fortune follow for Tommy, as he becomes a pinball champion and later the messiah of a religious cult, which views his pinball skills as a miraculous sign of divine intervention.Moreย Tommy- #101 of 204 onMusical Movies With The Best Songs
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9Salome's Last Dance is a 1988 film by British film director, Ken Russell. Although most of the action is a verbatim performance of Oscar Wilde's 1893 play Salome, which is itself based on a story from the New Testament, there is also a framing narrative written by Russell himself. Wilde and his lover Lord Alfred Douglas arrive late on Guy Fawkes Day at their friend's brothel, where they are treated to a surprise staging of Wilde's play, public performances of which have just been banned in England by the Lord Chamberlain's office.
10Film (1971)When the leading lady of a traveling theatrical troupe injures herself, the group's shy and demure stage manager, Polly (Twiggy), is suddenly thrust into the spotlight to take her place. As luck would have it, she makes her debut on the same day that famous movie director De Thrill (Vladek Sheybal) attends the performance. Eager to make the jump to motion pictures, all of the actors play to De Thrill, compounding Polly problems. Only the leading man, Tony (Christopher Gable), is sympathetic.
11FilmSong of Summer is a 1968 black-and-white television film written, produced and directed by Ken Russell for the BBC's Omnibus series which was first broadcast on 15 September 1968. It portrays the final six years of the life of Frederick Delius, when he was blind and paralysed, and when Eric Fenby lived with the composer and his wife Jelka as Delius's amanuensis. The title is borrowed from the Delius tone poem A Song of Summer, which is heard along with other Delius works in the film. It stars Max Adrian as Delius, Christopher Gable as Fenby, and Maureen Pryor as Delius's wife Jelka, with director Russell in a cameo role as a philandering priest. The cinematography was by Dick Bush, and the editing was by Roger Crittenden. It was shot on black-and-white 35mm film. It has received wide praise since its first screening, and Ken Russell himself said it was the best film he ever made and he would not have done a single shot differently.- 12FilmThe Boy Friend is a 1971 British-American musical comedy film directed by Ken Russell, based on the 1953 musical The Boy Friend by Sandy Wilson. When the leading lady of a low-budget musical revue sprains her ankle, the assistant stage manager is forced to understudy and perform in her place, becoming a star and finding love in the process.
13Film (1972)In the Paris of the 1910s, brash young sculptor Henri Gaudier (Scott Antony) begins a creative partnership with an older writer, Sophie Brzeska (Dorothy Tutin). Though the couple is 20 years apart in age, Gaudier finds that his untamed work is complemented by the older woman's cultural refinement. He then moves to London with Brzeska, where he falls in with a group of avant-garde artists. There, Gaudier encounters yet another artistic muse in passionate suffragette Gosh Boyle (Helen Mirren).
14Film (1986)On a warm summer night in 1816 at the Swiss lakeside chateau of Lord Byron (Gabriel Byrne), the poet and his guests -- Percy Bysshe Shelley (Julian Sands) ; his fiancรฉe, Mary Wollstonecraft (Natasha Richardson) ; her half-sister, Claire (Myriam Cyr) ; and his private doctor John Polidori (Timothy Spall) -- spend the evening sharing ghost stories while under the influence of experimental compounds provided by the doctor. As the night goes on, reality and the horrific tales begin to commingle.
15FilmWhore is a 1991 British-American drama film directed by Ken Russell and starring Theresa Russell. The screenplay by Russell is based on David Hines's prize-winning monologue, Bondage. While not a financial success grossing a little over $1 million, the film did attract some positive notices, and generated an unrelated sequel, a 1994 film Whore II.
16TV ProgramElgar is a drama documentary made in 1962 by the British director Ken Russell. Made for BBC Television's long-running Monitor programme, it dramatised in vigorous style the life of the archetypically English composer Sir Edward Elgar. The film had the effect of establishing Russell as a major directorial talent, and spawned a series of dramatised biographies of composers by Russell, both for cinema and television. Elgar became "one of the most popular films of its kind ever shown on TV, and contributed to a marked revival of interest in the composer's music." The film was narrated by Huw Wheldon. It was selected by the British Film Institute as one of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes.
17Film (1977)In this highly fictionalized take on the Hollywood legend, immigrant Rudolph Valentino (Rudolf Nureyev) begins his stay in the United States humbly, working for minimum wage before becoming a New York City gigolo. He then makes his way to California, where his good looks allow him to seduce respected actresses. Eventually, his famous lovers help him become a leading man, and he quickly ascends to stardom. But he cannot escape the media's questions about his past and his sexuality.
18Film (1967)Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) is a former British secret agent who has taken up work as a private detective. An anonymous party hires him to deliver a seemingly normal package to Helsinki. However, he learns that he has been deceived into working for the Secret Service again, and is actually returning stolen virus-infected eggs to a government lab. Palmer is then persuaded to thwart a manic Texas oil baron (Ed Begley) who is planning to attack the Soviet Union with a supercomputer.
19Film (1988)On a farm owned by Eve Trent (Catherine Oxenberg) and her sister Mary (Sammi Davis), young archaeologist Angus Flint (Peter Capaldi) discovers a large and inexplicable skull, which he soon deduces belonged to the D'Ampton Worm, a mythical beast supposedly slain generations ago by the ancestor of the current Lord D'Ampton (Hugh Grant). The predatory Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe) soon takes an interest in both Flint and the virginal Eve, hinting that the vicious D'Ampton Worm may still live.- #7 of 15 onVampire Movies That Aren't Actually About Vampires
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20Film (1987)In this opera-based anthology, 10 directors interpret 10 popular arias. Among others, Robert Altman imagines the opening night of Jean-Philippe Rameau's "Les Borรฉades" in 1734 Paris; Jean-Luc Godard envisions Jean-Bapiste Lully's "Armide" as the story of French maids desperately trying to seduce burly bodybuilders lifting weights at the gym; and Julien Temple stages Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto" with synchronous infidelities occurring at the same hotel.
21Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World
FilmIsadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World is a BBC TV film based on the life of the American dancer Isadora Duncan first broadcast on 22 September 1966. The film was written by Sewell Stokes and the director Ken Russell and starred Vivian Pickles and Peter Bowles. Sewell Stokes became friendly with the dancer towards the very end of her life when she was penniless and alone. In 1928 he wrote a memoir of his conversations with her, shortly after her death, entitled Isadora, an Intimate Portrait. Two years after the first broadcast of the TV film, Vanessa Redgrave played the role of Isadora Duncan in the big-screen biopic Isadora. Russell's biographer Joseph Lanza believes that "of all his television work, Isadora is his most accomplished". It explores his "ongoing theme of art being a thing of both glory and vulgarity"
22Film (1989)Born to a rich landowner in the waning days of the Victorian era, Ursula Brangwen (Sammi Davis) grows into a beautiful young woman full of imagination and ambition. The free-spirited Ursula begins to feel trapped by her prim surroundings, but her life changes when she has an erotic experience with Winifred (Amanda Donohoe), a bisexual teacher. From then on, Ursula puts all of her passion and creativity into the pursuit of sexual fulfillment. But her insatiable quest becomes a source of anguish.- The Fall of the Louse of Usher is a 2002 British horror film directed by Ken Russell. The film is loosely based on several Edgar Allan Poe stories, notably "The Fall of the House of Usher".
24Amelia and the Angel
Short FilmAmelia and the Angel is a 1957 short film directed by Ken Russell.- Clouds of Glory: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a 1978 television film directed by Ken Russell.
26Watch The Birdie
Short FilmWatch The Birdie is a 1963 short film directed by Ken Russell.
27Film
28Prisoner of Honour is a 1991 British dramatic television film made by Warner Bros. Television and distributed by HBO about the Dreyfus Affair. It was directed by Ken Russell and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Oliver Reed and Peter Firth. Dreyfuss co-produced the film with Judith James, from a screenplay by Ron Hutchinson.
29TV ProgramLady Chatterley is a 1993 BBC television serial starring Sean Bean and Joely Richardson. It is an adaption of D. H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, first broadcast on BBC One in four 55-minute episodes between 6 and 27 June 1993. A young woman's husband returns wounded after the First World War. Facing a life with a husband now incapable of sexual activity she begins an affair with the groundskeeper. The film reflect's Lawrence's focus not only on casting away sexual taboos but also the examination of the class system prevalent in early-twentieth-century Britain. The opening credits state it is based on the "novels" by D.H. Lawrence. As the novel existed in three separate complete versions, this may mean the screenplay borrows material from all three versions of the novel. The first two versions are entitled The First Lady Chatterley and John Thomas and Lady Jane. There are significant differences in plot and characterization between the three versions.
30In Search of the English Folk Song
Film
