Rainbow’s End? Women in Love (1969), BFI UHD out now!

 

"She saw in the rainbow the earth's new architecture, the old, brittle corruption of houses and factories swept away, the world built up in a living fabric of Truth, fitting to the over-arching heaven."*

 

Well, this is a vibrant experience and one that must have caused considerable stir on release for its hyper-reality and naked male bonding between Oliver Reed and Alan Bates… all it needed was a needle drop of Sophie Ellis-Bextor to become modern iconic in an Emerald way. But no, this is a serious attempt to capture the lightning in a bottle of Lawrence’s prose and his questing subject matter with febrile performances not just from the men in love but the women too, Jennie Linden and the super-natural Glenda Jackson.

 

The book(s) and the film are full of new century yearning for meaning as the characters question humanity’s place in the industrial world as well as the post Freudian extended sexual universe. Women in Love is the sequel to The Rainbow which DH Lawrence had originally intended as one book covering the lives of the Brangwyn family and in particular the two sisters, Ursula and Gudrun. Ursula is the dominant character in the first novel and experiences a very Freudian sexual awakening after an affair with her teacher Winifred, before her romance with a soldier which ends in disappointment. Ursula’s search for a balanced love ends in the follow up, whilst Gudrun’s is just picking up momentum but it is the men who have the biggest questions.

Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson, Alan Bates, Jenny Linden and Eleanor Bron

 

A long time ago I studied The Rainbow for A-Level and so always have more affiliation with her character in this film and for me that is closer to the way Jackson plays Gudrun but having revisited both books I see the strengths of Jennie L’s performance as the most sexually mature of the components in the two main relationships. She is based on Lawrence’s own, no doubt long-suffering, wife just as her eventual husband in WIL, Rupert Birkin (Big Alan), is the writer’s cypher… raising the question of whether a man needs a deep emotional relationship with a best friend as well as a romantic love of a woman, to be fulfilled. Whether this alludes to a homosexual or homo-social ideal is open to debate but it’s likely that WIL is one of the first great openly bi-sexual books written by a man from Nottingham.

 

Say what you will about Ken Russell but he manages to convey so much of his subject’s intent, be they composers or authors, in his sometimes-overwhelming films. The pace of the passion, imagery and the scale of the expression can be bewildering but you just have to hang on and cling on for the ride. There are some fabulous scenes – Gudrun dancing in the woods for a herd of cows, the wedding of two of the town’s wealthiest young things Laura Crich (Sharon Gurney) and Tibby Lupton (Russell regular, Christopher Gable) as well as their tragic ending on the boating lake – genuinely distressing and horrible to witness).

 

Two sisters

There’s also the “blue stocking” brilliance of Hermione Roddice (Fab Four favourite Eleanor Bron) with her picnics and artistic pretensions, a pretentious ballet completely undermined by Rupert as he switches his affections to the more earthbound Ursula. Then the special effect that is Oliver Reed, whose Gerald Crich is a modernising businessman who ultimately cannot connect with his best friend in the way that he wants nor his lover Gudrun whose almost flippant creativity and refusal to commit to a shared reality will be the death of him.

 

Russell moves the story from pre- to post-war – when the book was written – and the themes are just as relevant there. Recalling my own grandfather’s experience in the war and afterwards, the shock of what he had experienced as a teenager in the Middle East and India during the war, led him to question the established order and for the son of a canal worker from Widnes, there were new possibilities and a new balance to be struck as a battered Britain searched for a “…world built up in a living fabric of Truth…”.

 

Ursula and Rupert: are they "complete"?

This is probably my and everyone else's favourite Ken Russell film and released on BFI 4k UHD it is irresistible especially with a bevy of beautiful extras including an interview with Russell’s son – see below.

 

Special features 

• Audio commentary with director Ken Russell
• Audio commentary with writer and producer Larry Kramer
• Second Best (1972, 27 mins): film starring Alan Bates, based on the short story by D H Lawrence 
• The Guardian Lecture: Glenda Jackson (1982, 77 mins, audio only)
• The Pacemakers: Glenda Jackson (1971, 14 mins): a documentary profile of the actor
• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• A British Picture: Portrait of an Enfant Terrible (1989, 49 mins): Ken Russell’s documentary on his life and career
• Human Relations: Alexander Verney-Elliott Discusses Women in Love (2025, 17 mins): a newly recorded interview with Ken Russell’s son
• ATV Today (1968, 10 mins): interviews with writer and producer Larry Kramer and actors Alan Bates and Jennie Linden on the set of Women in Love
• Billy Williams OBE BSC in conversation with Phil Méheux BSC (2015, 49 mins)
• Stills and collections gallery
• Original theatrical trailer
• Illustrated booklet featuring new writing by Matthew Melia and archive essays by Michael Brooke, Claire Smith and Vic Pratt; notes on the special features and film credits

 

The latter is only included with the first pressing so place your order now for a film that should be in the collection of every seeker after love and truth over a century after this work was first imagined.

 

You can order directly from the BFI shop and other reputable retailers!

 

Russell would eventually film The Rainbow with Sammi Davis as Ursula and Paul McGann as Anton in 1989, it would be compromised by budget constraints and took him years to get off the ground. By this time the sexual subject matter was not as shocking as it would have been in 1969 and yet it is still remarkable given the date of its inception in 1915. It’s sobering to think that the time between these novels and Russell’s filming date for Women in Love is less than between this release and the film… the search for balance and the Truth continues.

 

 

*Quote above from The Rainbow and here's the final page annotated by annoying 16-year old P. Joyce of Deyes High School Lower Sixth...

 

 

Lost in music… The Music Lovers (1970), BFI Blu-rau out now!

 

There is a big section of the British press that hated him, absolutely f*ckin’ hated him…

Quentin Tarrentino

Another whirlwind of sound and furious imagery from Ken Russell in a film that picks you up swirls you through Oz and drops you breathlessly back down to ground with a thump. I haven’t seen The Music Lovers since a late night viewing on HTV as a teen and whilst it hasn’t lost its power, I think I understand Russell’s approach far better now with another biography based on the emotional force of its subject’s work and the extent to which it was drawn from life. Ken’s all about the passion, the swings in a life’s mood than the dates and precise actuality. Every biopic is a deception anyway so why not embrace the inability to cover decades in a couple of hours and let your audience experience Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as he sounded and, upon this evidence, really felt.

"Music and facts don't mix. Tchaikovsky said: 'My life is in my music.' And who can deny that the man's music is not utterly fantastic? So likewise the movie! I sought to honour his genius by offering up my own small portion of his courage to create."*

I watched this sparkling new BFI Blu-ray with my Gen-Z daughter and explained that it was not only just a couple of years after homosexuality was legalised but also featured a star who is still getting some stick – a crass YouTuber - for the “mystery” of his sexuality, aged 90. For our Beth, this societal pressure is hard to conceive and she felt that this must have been such an opportunity for Richard Chamberlain to express himself with a freedom so long denied.

Tarrentino quotes Russell in response to a question about whether the critical consensus of his work ever got him down and Ken’s response was as you’d expect, “of course not… because I believe with all my heart in what I’m doing…” or words to this effect. Ken thereby gave permission to Quentin to follow his own path and no doubt was attracted to figures of similar creative resolution such as Lizst, Mahler and Delius. This film was followed by The Devils and The Boy Friend, both in 1971 a visceral golden year for the director.

The summation of critical views on Wikipedia shows that most recognised Russell’s cinematic abilities but felt he was being too self-indulgent and shocking in The Music Lovers, with the long campaign to obscure Tchaikovsky’s sexuality no doubt part of this view. That said, the film starts with a tour-de-force sequence of rapid cuts, single takes and hyper-kinetic character introductions at a fairground in St Petersburg as recreated in the backlot of Bray Studios in Berkshire. It closes with Tchaikovsky’s death and his estranged wife Nina (Glenda Jackson) being sexually assaulted in a lunatic asylum straight out of Russell’s own nightmares, scenes he would revisit for The Devils…

Russell’s son is interviewed by Vic Pratt on one of the extras and he said how his father would call “action!” before the actors were fully prepared and try anything to get them out of their habits and their typical riffs. When you have someone of the discipline and lightening skill as Glenda Jackson this approach brings out an extraordinary performance and one that is not an easy watch as her character arc heads into madness. Jackson acted in Women in Love and a total of six films with Russell, clearly she relished the challenge and she is, as the director said, his dream actress – fearless and so forceful.

By contrast, Chamberlain is less technical and flexible yet creates a superb portrait of a man who in Russell’s words, only really loved himself and his sister (to what extent we’ll never really know even though Ken had made up his mind). The actor does indeed have a quiet dignity as his director noted and that unknowable look that won so many hearts during his Doctor Kildare days is repurposed here in the depiction of the most conflicted of composers who wanted marriage but not a wife. Chamberlain was also an adept piano played and good enough to convince even though he was only hitting silent keys and playing along to the sounds created by Raphael Orozco as conducted by Michael Previn (who like Jackson, also worked with the great playwright Ernie Wise…).

Nina, even his sister Sasha, are attracted not just to the composer but also the power of his music and his relationship with his long-term patron Madame Nadezhda von Meck (Izabella Telezynska) exemplifies this perfectly, she not wishing to meet him in order to maintain the fantasy of a romance conducted almost entirely via written correspondence. Perhaps his only “straight” relationship is with Count Anton Chiluvsky (Christopher Gable, also in Ken's The Boy Friend), who only wants the man and not his music.

The script was written by Melvyn Bragg based on the book Beloved Friend, The Story of Tchaikowsky and Nadejda von Meck, a collection of personal correspondence edited by Catherine Drinker Bowen and Barbara von Meck. The letters contains many frank revelations as does the biography written by Tchaikovsky’s brother Modeste – played in the film by the excellent Kenneth Colley.

We know a lot about Pyotr Ilyich it seems but to get a feel of the great man, this film is as good as anything. It’s an experience that has a nasty turn but so did the lives and, for me, this was still at the point when Russell was controlled and could afford to be making oblique points through spectacular imagery and unsettled acting, pushing both performers and his audience to a reaction beyond their norm.

Another valuable release from the BFI and highly recommended along with another great set of extras which include a wonderful sequence of the great prima ballerina Galina Ulanova in "Swan Lake" in 1940, worth the price of admission on its own: such grace and purpose!

Special features:

• Presented in High Definition
• Newly recorded audio commentary by film historian Matthew Melia
• Interview with Alexander Verney-Elliott (2024, 20 mins): Ken Russell's son looks back upon his father's work, and remembers his own appearance in The Music Lovers
• Charlotte Bronte Enters the Big Brother House (2007, 16 mins): Ken Russell staged, directed and filmed this 'Radical Bronte' ballet for young people, illustrating Jane Eyre
• The Guardian Interview: Melvyn Bragg (1988, 76mins): ten years after the inception of The Southbank Show, Melvyn Bragg discusses his career in television and film writer Ronald Harwood, at the National Film Theatre in London.
• Galina Ulanova in "Swan Lake" (1940, 6 mins): one of the greatest ballerinas of all time is seen performing a dance from Swan Lake, in this rare film held by the BFI National Archive
• Musical Highlights from USSR Today (10 mins): edited highlights from three editions of the Soviet newsreel, gathering items about Tchaikovsky and Russian musical arts
• Costume designs (2024, 2 mins): original sketches by Shirley Russell
• Original trailer
• Illustrated booklet with new writing on the film by Matthew Melia, a new essay by Caroline Langhorst and contributions from Alexander Verney-Elliott and Lisi Russell

 

The booklet is only available with the first pressing only so get yourself over to the BFI’s shop as soon as you can!

 

Over the top, did someone say? Vulgar bombast devoid of fact?*

 

*Ken Russell, writing in The Guardian about the film in 2004

Almost lost in the mix… Tommy (1975), re-release for BFI Musicals! The Greatest Show on Screen

I'm free, I'm free

And freedom tastes of reality

I'm free, I'm free

And I'm waiting for you to follow me

Written in 1968, The Who’s Tommy was one of the first concept albums and, come 1975, maverick director Ken Russell took charge of turning Pete Townsend’s lyrics into a feature film. The result is a mixed bag so packed full of impact and ideas that its irresistible if occasionally irritating and, ultimately, a little inspiring.

For me Tommy is one of those double LPs that could easily make a decent single album and Quadrophenia is much more rewarding and thought through as a concept – as is Townsend’s complex and partly-abandoned Lifehouse project which formed the basis of their best album, Who’s Next and which has since been “completed” as a radio play. Tommy broke the mold yet has some ill-conceived episodes involving torture and abuse – sexual and pharmaceutical – which pad out the young hero’s “amazing journey” to becoming a pinball wizard and guru, and, some great riffs aside it feels under-powered overall.

The Acid Queen: Tina Turner

Six songs were added to the film score to reinforce the narrative and a host of guest singers including Jack Nicholson as The Specialist, Tina Turner as The Acid Queen, Paul Nicholas as Cousin Kevin and Elton John as The Pinball Wizard. It’s over-the-top in a way only Ken can manage and, as with many of his films, leaves itself behind on a number of occasions whilst still containing some moments of real impact.

Ann-Margret is astonishing and easily the most valuable player on screen, winning an Academy Award nomination as well as a Golden Globe for an extraordinary performance that has her stretch both sinew and vocal-chords as Tommy’s conflicted mother. This is a character far beyond anything you could pick from the original double LP and you can only guess how much of herself she put into her improvisations whether rolling around in baked beans (a nod to the cover of The Who Sell Out?) or howling her anguish at her damaged son.

Oh, not the beans Ken! Ann-Margret

Oliver Reed plays her good-for-little second husband, Frank who kills her first, Captain Walker (Robert Powell) … on his surprise return from the War in which he has been MIA presumed dead. This is the first time I start to see similarities with Pink Floyd’s The Wall as songwriter Roger Water’s father died at the Battle of Anzio and this formed the basis for his over-reaching double album’s worth of alienation later filmed by Alan Parker – he and the director argued ferociously and I wonder how Townsend got on with Russell?

Tommy sees his father’s murder and shuts down his eyes, ears and hearing: he cannot bear reality after what he has seen (Water’s character takes over two side to do the same). Twenty years later he has grown into Roger Daltry who’s vocal range is not matched by his acting although he’s a very strong swimmer. He’s also great at running through surf singing the above-quoted couplet.

Elton dresses down for the occassion...

His parents attempt to find a cure through Eric Clapton’s Marilyn Monroe-based faith – literally a cult of a celebrity - before Tommy is tortured by Tina Turner, knocked about by Paul Nicholas (how could you!) and fiddled with by Keith Moon as evil Uncle Ernie – Moon’s actually quite good on camera in a disturbing way. Tommy finds his way to pinball glory and bests Elton John’s Pinball King in the film’s most famous sequence. Then a specialist - classy Jack - offers a cure for his mental block whilst flirting with Tommy’s mother… she’s just a girl who can’t say no.

It all feels careless even when it’s powerful but it is an amazing journey with some spectacular sequences especially when alongside Townsend’s best songs. Standing highest is We’re Not Going to Take it and Listening to You which leads our hero towards sunrise on the Lakeland peak on which he was conceived by his parents in a more innocent time. You can see Catbells on the background making this somewhere over Derwent Water not far from Keswick.

Roger Daltry in the Lakes

The restoration is crystal clear and Tommy goes to show how vibrant and varied musicals can be; don’t miss it if you are a fan of any or all its wild and conflicting parts… there’s nothing quite like it.

This was an advanced screening as part of the BFI's Musicals programmes and there's so much to look forward to in perhaps the most uplifting season in years and further details are available on their website. Tommy is showing at the BFI and being re-released across the country from 22 November - if ever there was a time for Eyesight for the Blind it is now.

  

With the band, Pete Townsend, Ann-Margret and Keith Moon (Photo Joe Gaffney)