ReFocus: The Films of Ken Russell

by Matthew Melia (Editor)

Overview

Ken Russell was among the most provocative, creative, original and important directors in British film and television history but his career and legacy have long suffered under the media clichés of ‘Madman’ or ‘Enfant Terrible’ of British cinema – nicknames which have tended to delegitimise his status and pioneering role in post-war film and television culture.   This scholarly edited collection refuses these terms and aims to not only  reflect and further current critical research into Russell’s work but to see Russell as the Renaissance man of British cinema. It brings together the work of new and established scholars as well as the reflections of those who knew and worked with Russell. ReFocus: The Films of Ken Russell offers new perspectives across the breadth of Russell’s extensive career in television, film and other mediums, and seeks to better understand not only his reception, but the importance of collaboration to his practice, and the legacy of the man himself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474477666
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	08/31/2024
Series:	ReFocus: The International Directors Series
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	752,258
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Matthew Melia is a Senior Lecturer in Literature, Film and Media at Kingston University, UK. His research focuses on both the work of Ken Russell and Stanley Kubrick. He is particularly interested in Russell’s unmade and abandoned projects. He is co-editor of The Jaws Book (2020) as well as co-editor and editor of the forthcoming books,  Anthony Burgess, Stanley Kubrick and A Clockwork Orange (2022) and The Jurassic Park Book: 30 years of Spielberg’s Dinosaurs (2023). He has contributed to a variety of publications including a chapter on Russell’s umade BBC films for Shadow Cinema: The Historical and Production Contexts of Unmade Films (2021) as well the The Bloomsbury Companion to Stanley Kubrick (2021) and Reframing Cult Westerns (2020). In 2017 he convened the conference Ken Russell: Perspectives, Reception and Legacy (Kingston University) and in 2018 he co-convened the conference A Clockwork Symposium: A Clockwork Orange – New Perspectives.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Notes on ContributorsAcknowledgements

Foreword by Bernard Rose

Introduction

Part 1. Contextualising Ken Russell

1. Ken Russell: The Boy Behind The Man - Elize Russell

2. Performed Masculinities: Oliver Reed in Ken Russell’s Films of the ‘Long 1960s’ - Caroline Langhorst

3. Ken Russell’s Gothic Modernism - Matthew Melia

Part 2. Ken Russell and Television

4. Ken Russell and Television Advertising - Richard Farmer

5. Quartet: Ken Russell’s Painter Biopics and how they Anticipate the Later Cinematic Work - Paul Davies

6. Ken Russell and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood - Jo George

Part 3. Design, Staging and Stardom

7. Shirley Russell and The Role of The Boyfriend in 1970s Retro - NJ Stevenson

8. "There was no better director to learn from": Ken Russell’s Collaboration with Derek Jarman - Brian Hoyle-George

9. The Hermeneutics of Noise: The Sounds of Salvation in Ken Russell’s Tommy - K.A. Laity

10. Mythologising Valentino: Stardom, Biography and Performance in Ken Russell’s Valentino - Jade Evans

Part 4. Transgression and the Russell Legacy

11. The Extraordinary Parallel – Ken Russell & Dennis Potter Side by Side - Mateja Đedović

12. Ken Russell and the sexual dimension of the outsider artist: an exploration of Elgar: The Erotic Variations　and Delius: A Moment with Venus - Kevin Fullerton

13. The Short History of Ken Russell Films in Japan - Sawako Omori

14. Nicolas Winding Refn and the Russell Style - Adam Powell

Part 5: A word from the editor...

15. Ken Russell’s Song of Summer and the Virtue of Restraint - Roger Crittenden

Editorial Reviews

In this wide-ranging collection, Matt Melia et al. shed light on the prolific career of Ken Russell, successfully rescuing him from the labels of the ‘Enfant terrible’ and ‘Wild Man’ of British cinema.

Nathan Abrams

Covering the totality of Ken Russell’s career, ReFocus: The Films of Ken Russell uncovers new perspectives about his directing, writing, and biography, and features case studies of some of his most celebrated collaborations – not least with actor Oliver Reed – an essential collection about one of Britain’s most innovative filmmakers.

James Fenwick

Matthew Melia’s volume in the Refocus series [...] represents a renewed attempt to think about Russell in the context of not only British cinema but as a major innovator in television and in several genres, and it does so both with a scholarly acumen that nicely fills in prior gaps or blind spots while also offering the insider’s view and a sense of the working life of a major talent.

Journal of British Cinema and Television - Kevin M. Flanagan