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Angela Isadora Duncan was an American-born dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance and performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the US. Born and raised in California, she lived and danced in Western Europe, the US, and Soviet Russia from the age of 22. She died when her scarf became entangled in the wheel and axle of the car in which she was travelling in Nice, France.
Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films were mainly liberal adaptations of existing texts, or biographies, notably of composers of the Romantic era. Russell began directing for the BBC, where he made creative adaptations of composers' lives which were unusual for the time. He also directed many feature films independently and for studios.
Isadora is a 1968 biographical drama film directed by Karel Reisz from a screenplay written by Melvyn Bragg, Margaret Drabble, and Clive Exton adapted from the books My Life by Isadora Duncan and Isadora, an Intimate Portrait by Sewell Stokes. The film follows the life of American pioneering modern contemporary dance artist and choreographer Isadora Duncan, who performed to great acclaim throughout the US and Europe during the 19th century. A co-production between the United Kingdom and France, it stars Vanessa Redgrave as Duncan and also features James Fox, Jason Robards, and John Fraser in supporting roles.
Bruce Robinson is an English actor, director, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote and directed Withnail and I (1987), a film with comic and tragic elements set in London in the late 1960s, which drew on his experiences as a struggling actor, living in poverty in Camden Town. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Killing Fields (1984).
Kenneth Colley is an English film and television actor whose career spans over 60 years. He came to wider prominence through his role as Admiral Piett in the Star Wars films The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983), as well as his roles in the films of Ken Russell and as Jesus in Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
Phyllis Hannah Murray-Hill, known professionally as Phyllis Calvert, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1940s such as The Man in Grey (1943) and was one of the most popular movie stars in Britain in the 1940s. She continued her acting career for another 50 years.
Special Branch is a British television series made by Thames Television for ITV and shown between 1969-1970 and 1973-1974. A police drama series, the action was centred on members of the Special Branch counterintelligence and counterterrorism department of the London Metropolitan Police. The first two series starred Derren Nesbitt, before the programme went through an overhaul, with George Sewell taking over as the new lead.
John Leonard Duncan Mackenzie was a Scottish film director who worked in British film from the late 1960s, first as an assistant director and later as an independent director himself.
Valentino is a 1977 American biographical film co-written and directed by Ken Russell and starring Rudolf Nureyev, Leslie Caron, Michelle Phillips, and Carol Kane. It is loosely based on the life of silent film actor Rudolph Valentino, as recounted in the book Valentino, an Intimate Exposé of the Sheik, written by Chaw Mank and Brad Steiger.
Murray Melvin was an English actor. He was best known for his acting work with Joan Littlewood, Ken Russell and Stanley Kubrick. He was the author of two books: The Art of Theatre Workshop (2006) and The Theatre Royal, A History of the Building (2009).
Francis Martin Sewell Stokes was an English novelist, biographer, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and prison visitor. He collaborated on a number of occasions with his brother, Leslie Stokes, an actor and later in life a BBC radio producer, with whom he shared a flat for many years overlooking the British Museum.
Vivian Pickles is an English actress.
Cottage to Let is a 1941 British spy thriller film directed by Anthony Asquith starring Leslie Banks, Alastair Sim and John Mills. Filmed during the Second World War and set in Scotland during the war, its plot concerns Nazi spies trying to kidnap an inventor.
Always on Sunday is a 1965 British television film directed by Ken Russell about Henri Rousseau. It was written by Russell and Melvyn Bragg for the Monitor series. Russell's first fully dramatised biopic, the narrator was Oliver Reed.
The Secret Life of Arnold Bax is a 1992 British TV movie directed by Ken Russell, who also stars in the title role as composer Arnold Bax. It was one of eight musical drama documentaries directed by Russell for The South Bank Show on London Weekend Television between 1983 and 2002. The film focuses on the composer's complicated relationship with pianist Harriet Cohen while at the same time seeking inspiration for his music from the dancer Annie. As with all of Russell's films on composers the drama serves as a showcase for the music. Set in 1948, when the film Oliver Twist had just been released, the film mostly uses earlier compositions such as The Garden of Fand, Tintagel and the Symphony No 2 as its soundtrack. Lewis Foreman was musical adviser.
Ken Russell's ABC of British Music is a 1988 British documentary directed by and featuring Ken Russell. It was broadcast as an edition of The South Bank Show on 2 April 1988. The film presents an A to Z selection of Russell's musical enthusiasms, using alphabetical coincidence to present widely contrasting subjects - Elgar and Elton John, Holst and Heavy Metal, Punk and Purcell. Participants include Russell himself introducing each letter, along with soprano Rita Cullis, Thomas Dolby, Evelyn Glennie, Nigel Kennedy, John Lill, Julian Lloyd Webber, Eric Parkin and the saxophone quartet The Fairer Sax.
Pop Goes the Easel is a 1962 British documentary directed by Ken Russell commissioned by the BBC's Monitor arts' television series. It is a portrait of pop artists Peter Blake, Derek Boshier, Pauline Boty and Peter Phillips in a style owing a little to their own.
Gordon Jacob is a 1959 British short film about Gordon Jacob from Ken Russell for the Monitor television series. It was Russell's first biopic of a composer.
A House in Bayswater is a 1959 British television documentary directed by Ken Russell. It was his first BBC film not made for the Monitor series.
John Betjeman: A Poet in London is a 1959 British short film about John Betjeman directed by Ken Russell for the Monitor series. It was his first professional film. Russell made a second film with Betjeman, Journey into a Lost World, first shown in 1960.
References
- 1 2 Brooke, Michael (2003–14). "Isadora (1966)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
- ↑ Joseph Lanza Phallic Frenzy: Ken Russell and His Films p.48
- ↑ Gibron, Bill. "Ken Russell At The BBC". DVD Talk . Retrieved 12 November 2018.
