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PANDAEMONIUM Ken Russell's Artist Biographies As Baroque Performance PANDAEMONIUM : Ken Russell’s artist biographies as baroque performance Citation for published version (APA): van Eecke, C. C. J. (2015). PANDAEMONIUM : Ken Russell’s artist biographies as baroque performance. Datawyse / Universitaire Pers Maastricht. https://doi.org/10.26481/dis.20151105ce Document status and date: Published: 01/01/2015 DOI: 10.26481/dis.20151105ce Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Please check the document version of this publication: • A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. 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If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement: www.umlib.nl/taverne-license Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at: [email protected] providing details and we will investigate your claim. Download date: 26 Sep. 2021 Christophe Van Eecke PANDAEMONIUM Ken Russell’s Artist Biographies as Baroque Performance Copyright © 2015, Christophe Van Eecke Cover illustration designed by Gilles Vranckx and used with permission. Lay-out and printing by DataWyse, Maastricht. ISBN 978 94 6159 488 4 PANDAEMONIUM Ken Russell’s Artist Biographies as Baroque Performance DISSERTATION to obtain the degree of Doctor at Maastricht University and the degree of Docteur en Histoire, Art et Archéologie at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, on the authority of the Rector Magnificus of Maastricht University and the Rector of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, prof. dr. L.L.G. Soete and prof. dr. Didier Viviers in accordance with the decision of the Board of Deans, to be defended in public on Thursday, 5 November 2015 at 10:00 hours by Christophe Camiel Josephine Van Eecke UMP UNIVERSITAIRE PERS MAASTRICHT Supervisors: Prof. dr. Maaike Meijer (UM) Prof. dr. Karel Vanhaesebrouck (ULB) Co-supervisor: Dr. Jack Post (UM) Assessment committee: Prof. dr. Lies Wesseling (UM) (Chair) Prof. dr. John Hill (Royal Holloway, University of London) Prof. dr. Muriel Andrin (ULB) Prof. dr. Isabelle Meuret (ULB) CONTENTS Introduction MAD, BAD, AND DANGEROUS TO SHOW Ken Russell, Biography, and Baroque Excess .................................................................. 9 Introducing the Subject ............................................................................................................. 12 Baroque and Neo-Baroque: Questions of Style ...................................................................... 17 Life Writing: Questions of Selves ............................................................................................. 22 How To Do Things With Film: The Gap Between Performance and Performativity ...... 26 Only Connect: A Note on Method .......................................................................................... 29 Pathways: Outline of the Book ................................................................................................. 32 Chapter One I SEARCHED FOR THE SOUL OF THE MAN Ken Russell’s Autobiography as Baroque Performance ................................................ 37 1.1. Constructing Mahler .......................................................................................................... 40 1.2. In Search of Collapsed Time ............................................................................................. 43 1.3. A Baroque Perspective ....................................................................................................... 54 1.4. The Gap Between Reality and Representation ................................................................ 71 Chapter Two WE NEED A LARGER THEATRE The Devils (1971) as theatrum mundi .......................................................................................... 79 2.1. The Very Image of Ruin: Baroque Allegory .................................................................... 83 2.2. Setting the Stage: Loudun as Huis Clos ............................................................................ 89 2.3. The Devils Go to Church ................................................................................................... 95 2.4. The Devils Go to Trial ...................................................................................................... 105 2.5. The Devils Go to Market .................................................................................................. 109 2.6. The World Made Flesh: A Mystery Play in Secular Time ........................................... 124 2.7. The Magic Circle ............................................................................................................... 131 2.8. Outlook: Russell Enters the Stage ................................................................................... 135 5 Chapter Three WITH BIG STROKES, BOLDLY Fashioning the Artist as a Savage Messiah (1972) .............................................................................. 137 3.1. Portrait of the Artist as a Worker ................................................................................... 141 3.2. Laying the Screen: The Context of the BBC .................................................................. 145 3.3. Refusing to Lie Down: Fact and Fiction at the BBC ..................................................... 153 3.4. See Me, Feel Me: Truth, Vulgarity, and Art .................................................................. 173 3.5. Performing Influence: Russell’s Poetics of the Swerve ................................................ 183 3.6. Outlook: Russell Inside the Text(ure) ............................................................................ 187 Chapter Four WE ARE THE GODS NOW Performing Genius in Salome’s Last Dance (1988) and Gothic (1986) ............................................................. 189 4.1. Moonstruck Follies: Staging Salome’s Last Dance ........................................................ 194 4.2. Phantasmagoriana: Gothic and Romantic Genius ........................................................ 211 4.3. Building Narratives: Russell’s Art of Montage .............................................................. 225 4.4. Perchance to Dream: Portrait of the Artist as Genius ................................................. 248 Conclusion MOY QUI ME VOY An Essay on the Self in a Time of Baroque ...... 255 5.1. Baroque Style ..................................................................................................................... 259 5.2. Baroque Lives: The Art of Performing ........................................................................... 262 5.3. Baroque Worlds ................................................................................................................ 266 5.4. No Exits and No Entrances: Life Beyond Performance and Performativity ............ 271 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 277 FILMOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 327 APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................... 331 HOW TO DO THINGS WITH A BOOK ............................................................................ 333 A Note on Valorisation ........................................................................................................... 333 A PERSONAL NOTE .............................................................................................................. 339 REFERENCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................... 345 SAMENVATTING (Dutch summary).................................................................................. 349 CURRICULUM VITAE .......................................................................................................... 355 6 ‘the history of a Poet’s mind Is labour not unworthy of regard’ – William Wordsworth, The Prelude (1850: XIV, 412-413) Introduction MAD, BAD, AND DANGEROUS TO SHOW Ken Russell, Biography, and Baroque Excess ‘The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography.’ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891 [2007: 3]) 9 MAD, BAD, AND DANGEROUS This is
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