Movies: Ken Russell

The result of a challenge from Melvyn Bragg to write a film that Ken Russell himself would be eager to see banned, was A Kitten For Hitler – a 10-minute short in which a plucky young Jewish boy traverses the globe on a quest to warm the Führer's hear...

Ken Russell's silent film treatment of the 19th century comic novel by the Brothers Grossmith - George and Weedon. Starring Bryan Pringle, Avril Elgar and Murray Melvin. Adapted by Ken Russell and John McGrath. First shown on BBC2 at 10.10pm on Satur...

Hell on Earth is a documentary about Ken Russell's 1971 film, The Devils. Film critic Mark Kermode chats to Russell as well as two of the film’s stars, Georgina Hale and Murray Melvin. Also included are scenes that were cut from the released film for...

Ken Russell directed a short document of German actress (and widow) of famed composer Kurt Weill performing many of his best known compositions for BBC TV series "Monitor"...

A portrait of the English composer Gordon Jacob....

On-set footage of the film The Devils (1971) with commentary by editor Mike Bradsell...

DON’T SHOOT THE COMPOSER is far from an ordinary profile of Georges Delerue. It also serves as a calling card for Ken Russell, whose work would define the 1970s as Delerue’s did in the 1960s. It begins with a sly work of pastiche, parodying the conve...

Mrs Wilhelmina Sterling shows her vast collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings, pottery and other artefacts at her home in Battersea....

John Betjeman reminisces on Britain's great historical exhibitions since the 1870s: including Alexandra Palace, the Empire Exhibition at Wembley and the Festival of Britain. Also features a very special guest appearance by the National Film Theatre (...

South Bank Show documentary concerning the life and music of Ralph Vaughn Williams....

Prokofiev (BBC, tx. 18/6/1961), subtitled 'Portrait of a Soviet Composer', was the second of Ken Russell's composer biopics, though it takes a rather different approach from his first, Gordon Jacob (BBC, tx. 29/3/1959). Whereas in the earlier film Ru...

Arrigo Boito's Il Mefestefele was first performed in 1868 and his most known work. In Ken Russell's modern interpretation presented by the Genoese Opera, it has Faust as an ageing hippy. He smokes marijuana and is tormented by his lost youth. Mephist...

A double portrait of the painters Robert MacBryde and Robert Colquhoun, seen at work in their Suffolk studio while discussing their paintings....

A man trapped in purgatory must come face to face with his own demons....

This documentary begins with Ken Russell posing the question: "What is a true English folk song, if there is such a thing?" After recieving an indifferent response from his dog, Ken journeys around the countryside of England searching for an answer. ...

Short documentary about Shelagh Delaney and her hometown Salford....

Ken Russell revisits the life of Elgar, with musical background provided by the composer's works....

A short directed by Ken Russell....

Ken Russell is often cited as one of the fathers of the music video, with Tommy (1975) widely recognised as one of the pivotal works in the development of the form. However, as the far more obscure Monitor item London Moods from 1961 proves, he was e...

A study of Antoni Gaudí's architecture (especially the Church of the Holy Trinity in Barcelona), his sources of inspiration and his influence on Picasso. (BFI)...