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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Violation by Ken Russell AllMovie. British director Ken Russell started out training for a naval career, but after wartime RAF and merchant navy service he switched goals and went into ballet. Supplementing his dancing income as an actor and still photographer, Russell put together a handful of amateur films in the 50s before being hired as a staff director by the BBC. Russell made a name for himself (albeit a name not always spoken in reverence) during the first half of the '60s by directing a series of iconoclastic TV dramatizations of the lives of famous composers and dancers. And if he felt that the facts were getting in the way of his story, he'd make up his own -- frequently bordering on the libelous. If he had any respect for the famous persons whose lives he probed, it was secondary to his fascination with revealing all warts and open wounds. A film director since 1963, Russell burst into the international consciousness with 1969's Women in Love, a hothouse version of the D.H. Lawrence novel. No director who staged a scene in a mainstream movie in which two men wrestled in the nude could escape notice, and thus Russell became more of a "star" than his actors. While some viewers had their sensibilities shaken by Women in Love, others had their sensibilities run through the blender with Russell's next film, The Music Lovers. Predicated on the notion that Peter Tchaikovsky and his wife were, respectively, a homosexual and nymphomaniac, the film's much discussed "highlight" is a scene in which Nina Tchaikovsky (Glenda Jackson) allows the inmates in the cellar of an insane asylum to reach up and play with her privates. But this was kid's stuff compared to Russell's The Devils (1971), an ultraviolent and perversely anachronistic adaptation of Aldous Huxley's The Devils of Loudun. Russell returned to his musical theater roots with The Boy Friend (1971), a bloated version of Sandy Wilson's intimate 1920s pastiche, brought The Who's rock opera Tommy to the screen in a visually flamboyant cinematization that starred Roger Daltrey and Ann-Margret, and returned to offbeat biographical material with Lisztomania (1975) and Valentino (1975). The latter film not only suggested that Rudolph Valentino (Rudolf Nureyev) performed totally nude in his silent films, but also offered up the spectacle of Huntz Hall as producer Jesse Lasky. At this point, even some of the most devoted fans of Russell's outrageous (but undeniably brilliant) visual sense were fed up with his shock-for- shock's-sake approach and his all-consuming narcissism. Following the mind-bending horrors of Altered States in 1980, Russel maintained momentum with Gothic, a visually lavish retelling of the weekend of debauchery that gave birth to the Frankenstein mythos in the mind of a young female author named Mary Shelley. Though the film may have had its fair share of detractors due to Russel's signature departure from historical fact, it nevertheless aquired a cult following thanks to its heavy atmosphere and dark fantasy. After detailing the exploits of yet another famed author (this time Oscar Wilde) in the 1988 comedy drama Salome's Last Dance, Russel turned out another curiousity in the form of that same year's Lair of the White Worm. Based on Dracula author Bram Stoker's short story of the same name of featuring a memorable performance by a pre-romantic comedy stalwart Hugh Grant, Lair of the White Worm's outrageous, sex vampire excess and near surreal humor earned the effort a proud spot in many a cult movie aficionado's collection. He was back in his old form with 1991's Whore, which conveyed several times over that life on the streets is hell -- then for good measure, said it a few more times. Backed by a childishly slavering ad campaign, Whore brought Russell into the spotlight again for what would be the last time in some while. Dabbling in television for much of the 1990s, may of Russel's efforts during the decade were fairly unmemorable despite featuring such noteworthy actors as Richard Dreyfuss (Prisoner of Honor) and Bryan Brown (Dogboys). Just when it seemed as if Russel's career may have lost steam for the last time, the ever unpredictable director struck back in 2002 with the unhinged comedy horror musical The Fall of the Louse of Usher. Brimming with the director's trademark debauchery and offering a curious meld of various stories by timeless horror author Edgar Allan Poe, the film may have found Russell back in proper form, but still somehow managed to elude audiences due to both its independent origins and a virtually nonexistant advertising campaign. Russell's last major assignment involved scriptwriting work on Master Class (2011), a biopic of Maria Callas starring Faye Dunaway and adapted from the popular stage play of the same name. The interest that this project pointed to was a long-standing one: Russell had spent many years mounting operas onstage, and in 1988 contributed a segment to Don Boyd's operatic episode film Aria. Russell died in late November 2011, at age 84, following a series of strokes. Violation by Ken Russell. K e n R u ss e ll Writing. UFO over Eden: novels and writings by Ken Russell. Four Composers: Beethoven, Brahms, Elgar and Delius. A quartet of novels about composers- Beethoven Confidential, Brahms Gets Laid, Elgar the Erotic Variations and Delius A Moment with Venus. Beethoven Confidential . This is adapted from his film on Beethoven with Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster and Glenda Jackson which didn't go ahead because the finance disappeared at the last moment. Brahms Gets Laid was premiered on this site as an e-book. Elgar the Erotic Variations . Ken says he has done two films on Elgar but still had more to say and wanted to cover it in a novel. Delius A Moment with Venus . Each chapter is named after a piece by Delius and is written to match the music. "Revenge" of the White Worm. As yet unpublished, Ken's novel from 2003 is based on a filmscript for a follow-on film. With similarities to Cronenberg's Rabid, the female vampire preys on virgin flesh. "And arm in arm they walk off together back into the side door of the British Museum. And as it closes on her, Dolly takes the first step into a world of horror such as even Dracula himself could never have dreamed of". Violation. Ken Russell's best novel, a tale of a 1984 future. "Have your I.D. cards and travel permits ready for inspection," rasped an amplified voice from the CCV as the chilling wail of the siren died away and the back of the black torpedo slid open to disgorge half a dozen official 'Crowd Control Regulators'. To people with long memories they looked very like the typical football hooligans that had given Britain such a bad name at the end of the last century- except they were now condoned. Their heads were shaved, their boots were steel tipped. Brahms Gets Laid. Ken Russell's ebook about composer Brahms. The book is exclusively available through this site. "She came at him out of the mist. Perhaps that is why he did not recognise her at first. And although he had known her for nigh on half a century and lusted after her on more than one occasion, he had never seen her naked before. Not even in his wildest dreams. Her bright hair was loose, as he had not seen it for years. A slight breeze lifted strands of it, as though spinning a gossamer cloak from off her bare shoulders. Her breasts made him weep with loneliness and desire." You can read a chapter from the book, and buy the whole book if you want, from here. Directing Film from Pitch to Premiere. Ken Russell on directing, 2000. What is involved in every stage of the process of making a film. With lots of pictures and anecdotes. Mike and Gaby's Space Gospel. Ken's first novel, 1999. Two robots, Mike and Gaby, seek to create a species that will be intelligent enough to save the robots from a virus (rust) that is killing them. RIP: Rust in Peace. They plant two creatures in Eden and name them Adam and Eve, after their pet Triffids. But things do not go as planned when an alien creature (SATAN- Scientific Aeonistic Technological Angel of Nihilism) interferes. Years later Mary, pregnant, and Joe have their reservation at the Holy Day Inn cancelled so have to sleep in the stables. - Please Salome I'll give you half my kingdom - How about two tickets for Cats - Seeing a bunch of ancient Brits being thrown to the lions doesn't turn me on. The novel was based on a film script Ken had written. The web-page title UFO over Eden comes from this novel. The book is dedicated to Ken's biographer The Rev. Gene Phillips S.J. The Lion Roars. Ken Russell on films, 1993. It is also called Fire Over England: The New British Cinema Comes Under Friendly Fire . This includes an essay on The Wicker Man, one of Ken's favourite films. photo of Ken by Ian Pert, and the scene is from Devils. A British Picture. The American title with an extra chapter is Altered States, 1989. Ken Russell's autobiography from 1989 is enjoyable and informative and worth reading. At the same time he made the television film covering the same material.