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Savage Messiah | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ken Russell |
Written by | Christopher Logue |
Based on | Savage Messiah by H. S. Ede |
Produced by | Ken Russell |
Starring | Dorothy Tutin Scott Antony Helen Mirren |
Cinematography | Dick Bush |
Edited by | Michael Bradsell |
Music by | Michael Garrett |
Production company | Russ-Arts |
Distributed by | MGM-EMI [1] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 103 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $705,000 [2] |
Savage Messiah is a 1972 British biographical drama film of the life of French sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, made by Russ-Arts and distributed by MGM. It was directed and produced by Ken Russell, with Harry Benn as associate producer, from a screenplay by Christopher Logue, based on the 1931 book Savage Messiah by H. S. Ede. Much of the content of Ede's book came from letters sent between Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and his lover Sophie Brzeska.
The film was based on the biography by Jim Ede, who had discovered the story while working at the Tate Gallery. [3] Ede had acquired Sophie Brzeska's estate in 1927 from the British Treasury Solicitor after she died intestate. This acquisition included not only her writings, but also the estate of Henri Gaudier, with many of his works and papers. Ede drew extensively on the letters written by Gaudier to Brzeska, and her writings and other material, when he published A Life of Gaudier-Brzeska (London: W. Heinemann) in 1930; the 1931 and later editions are entitled Savage Messiah.
The book was admired by Ken Russell who said "it will ever be an inspiration to anyone down on their luck with a belief in their own talent, despite the hostility of those who should know better. Here was a tale worth telling on film... although for years it seemed to be nothing but a pipe dream." [4]
Russell had made a number of films about artists, mostly for television, starting with Two Scottish Painters. His success with feature films such as Women in Love encouraged him to turn the book into a feature. [5]
Russell says because the film was about an artist it was considered an "art film" and was difficult to finance. "I ended up double mortgaging my house and finding most of the money myself," he later wrote. "There was a chance I'd end up on the street but I felt I owed Gaudier something. It would have been so easy to go into my father's business and opted for the easy life but Gaudier taught me there was a life outside commerce and it was well worth fighting for." [5]
Russell said the project "was austere and simple... my least glamorous film. I was satiated with flamboyance." [2] He said "I wanted to show artists as workers not people who live in ivory towers." [6] Russell later wrote "it was about passion and sweat... it was about revolution and fuck the art dealers." [7]
The production designer was Derek Jarman who had worked on The Devils and who Russell called "the last true bohemian." [7] Some of the budget was provided by the Lee brothers, who also let Russell use their studio.
Russell arranged distribution through MGM, for whom he had just made The Boy Friend. "My deal with MGM is that they'll show my version for three weeks at least," he said just before the film was released. "Then they can hack it up." [2]
The sets were designed by Derek Jarman. [8]
The musical score was by Michael Garrett – though music by Claude Debussy, Alexander Scriabin, and Sergei Prokofiev was also used.
He gave the lead roles to Dorothy Tutin, one of Britain's top stage actresses, and Scott Antony, a newcomer from drama school. Russell said Anthony "was chosen out of 300 actors I saw because he was the only one I thought could pick up a hammer and hit a stone. Being an artist is a physical thing." [2]
According to Rex Reed the film was a "tremendous hit with audiences" at the Venice Film Festival although not with critics. [9]
The Los Angeles Times said the film was "utterly unconvincing." [10]
Russell described the film as "just two people talking". He said it and Song of Summer helped get him the job of directing Altered States , because it showed he could handle actors. [11]
Dame Dorothy Tutin, was an English actress of stage, film and television. For her work in the theatre, she won two Olivier Awards and two Evening Standard Awards for Best Actress. She was made a CBE in 1967 and a Dame (DBE) in 2000.
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist.
Vorticism was a London-based modernist art movement formed in 1914 by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. The movement was partially inspired by Cubism and was introduced to the public by means of the publication of the Vorticist manifesto in Blast magazine. Familiar forms of representational art were rejected in favour of a geometric style that tended towards a hard-edged abstraction. Lewis proved unable to harness the talents of his disparate group of avant-garde artists; however, for a brief period Vorticism proved to be an exciting intervention and an artistic riposte to Marinetti's Futurism and the post-impressionism of Roger Fry's Omega Workshops.
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.
Women in Love is a 1969 British romantic drama film directed by Ken Russell and starring Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson, and Jennie Linden. The film was adapted by Larry Kramer from D.H. Lawrence's 1920 novel Women in Love. It was the first film to be released by Brandywine Productions.
The Devils is a 1971 historical drama horror film written, produced and directed by Ken Russell, and starring Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed. A dramatised historical account of the fall of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century Roman Catholic priest accused of witchcraft after the possessions in Loudun, France, the plot also focuses on Sister Jeanne des Anges, a sexually repressed nun who incites the accusations.
The Music Lovers is a 1971 British drama film directed by Ken Russell and starring Richard Chamberlain and Glenda Jackson. The screenplay by Melvyn Bragg, based on Beloved Friend, a collection of personal correspondence edited by Catherine Drinker Bowen and Barbara von Meck, focuses on the life and career of 19th-century Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It was one of the director's biographical films about classical composers, which include Elgar (1962), Delius: Song of Summer (1968), Mahler (1974) and Lisztomania (1975), made from an often idiosyncratic standpoint.
Kettle's Yard is an art gallery and house in Cambridge, England. The director of the art gallery is Andrew Nairne. Both the house and gallery reopened in February 2018 after an expansion of the facilities.
Harold Stanley Ede, also known as Jim Ede, was a British collector of art and friend to artists.
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was a French artist and sculptor who developed a rough-hewn, primitive style of direct carving.
Tommy is a 1975 British musical fantasy drama film written and directed by Ken Russell and based on the Who's 1969 rock opera album of the same name about a "psychosomatically deaf, mute, and blind" boy who becomes a pinball champion and religious leader. The film featured a star-studded ensemble cast, including the band members themselves, Ann-Margret, Oliver Reed, Eric Clapton, Tina Turner, Elton John, Robert Powell and Jack Nicholson.
Events from the year 1972 in art.
Richard Henry Bush was a prolific British cinematographer whose career spanned over thirty years. Among his films are Ken Russell's Savage Messiah (1972), Mahler (1974) and Tommy (1975), John Schlesinger's Yanks (1979), and a number of films directed by Blake Edwards.
The Boy Friend is a 1971 British musical comedy film written and directed by Ken Russell, based on the 1953 musical of the same name by Sandy Wilson. The film stars Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Tommy Tune, and Max Adrian, with an uncredited appearance by Glenda Jackson. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer made extensive edits to the film for its American release. The missing material was restored and the film was re-released in 1987. The Boy Friend was released on DVD on 12 April 2011.
Sophie Suzanne Brzeska or Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska was a Polish writer and artistic muse most noted for being the companion of the artist Henri Gaudier-Brzeska.
Laura Oldfield Ford, also known as Laura Grace Ford, is a British artist and author. Her mixed media and multimedia work, encompassing psychogeography, poetry and prose, photography, ballpoint pen, acrylic paint and spray paint, explores political themes and focuses on British urban areas. Her zine Savage Messiah, which centres on London, was published from 2005 to 2009 and collected as a book in 2011.
Fred R. Kline was an American art historian, writer, poet, sculptor, private art dealer and public gallerist in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was known for his discoveries of lost art, including paintings, drawings and sculpture by Old Masters as well as 19th and 20th-century American and European artists. Many of his discoveries have been acquired by prominent museum, corporate and private collections around the world.
Horace Ascher Brodzky was an Australian-born artist and writer most of whose work was created in London and New York. His work included paintings, drawings and linocuts, of which he was an early pioneer. An associate in his early career of many leading artists working in the Britain of his period, including Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Mark Gertler, and members of the Vorticism movement, he ended his life relatively neglected.
Scott Antony is a British former actor best known for playing the role of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska in Savage Messiah (1972).
The following is a list of unproduced Ken Russell projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, British film director Ken Russell had worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these productions fell into development hell or were cancelled, while others were taken over and completed by other filmmakers.