Ken Russell, the British director whose daring and sometimes outrageous films often tested the patience of audiences and critics, has died at age 84. Russell died in a hospital on Sunday following a series of strokes, his son Alex Verney-Elliott said Monday. One of Russell’s biggest successes came in 1969 with Women in Love, based on the book by D.H. Lawrence, which earned Academy Award nominations for the director and for writer Larry Kramer, and an Oscar for the star, Glenda Jackson. Music played a central role in many of Russell’s films including The Music Lovers in 1970, and Lisztomania and Tommy in 1975. “My father died peacefully,” Verney-Elliott said. “He had had a series of strokes. He died with a smile on his face." (excerpt)There is only two of Ken Russell's movies that I have watched so far: Tommy (1975) and Altered States (1980). I could tell between the two movies that Ken Russell was not a fan of keeping his work with a minimalism amount of presentation. It was a big presentation within both films. Between the two of them I would list Altered States as my favorite film, while I considered Tommy to be an average musical film. I usually would lean over to enjoying a movie filled with dark thematic elements over a musical film based upon the works of a famous rock band who I never really listened to before. He was marked as a controversial director by presenting human sexuality and other hot topics in the movies with a different and strong perspective that led the audience into uncomfortable territory of the movie watching experience. For more information about Russell's career I would recommend starting with the collection of links that are available on the Film Studies for Free blog.
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