A British Picture

Overview

Witty and freewheeling, this updated autobiography peels back the layers to explore the core of one of the most vibrant and groundbreaking film directors of recent times.

This updated autobiography of one of the most controversial film directors, the creative force behind Altered States, The Devils, The Music Lovers, The Rainbow, Tommy, and Women in Love, is as unconventional and brilliant as his best films. Moving with astonishing assurance through time and space, Russell re-creates his life in a series of interconnected episodes—his 1930s childhood in Southampton; his first sexual experience (watching Disney’s Pinocchio); his school days at the Nautical College in Pangbourne; early careers in the Merchant Marine and the Royal Air Force; dancing days at the Shepherds Bush Ballet Club; and of course his career as a filmmaker; beginning with an extraordinary interview with Huw Weldon for a job on Monitor. Full of marvelously funny anecdotes and fascinating insights into the realities of the film director's life, A British Picture is a remarkable autobiography.

Reviews

"This memoir, peppered with accounts of madcap experiences, biting comments about associates in the film world, and hallucinatory scenes, has the same shock value as Russell's movies." —Publishers Weekly

"British filmmaker Russell virtually defines the word "iconoclast" with a career in television and motion pictures studded with controversy . . . In this freewheeling self-portrait, Russell wanders through his life and career, offering few apologies or explanations." —Library Journal

"The former enfant terrible of British cinema, now in his 60s, bares all . . . A modest demythologizing from the horse's mouth." —Kirkus Reviews

"Ken Russell is one of the most visionary and inventive directors that British cinema has ever produced . . . His love of music, dance, and his knowledge or the arts is captured in his films. As is his love of life. Arise Sir Ken." —Roger Daltrey

"Without Ken Russell I doubt if British cinema would be vigorous as it is today . . . I believe there is no good British director working today who has not studied (and copied) Russell's work, even those who would rather die than admit it." —Tony Palmer

"When the dust has settled, and his envious detractors are long forgotten, Ken Russell may well be recognized as the greatest and most original of all British film directors." —Alex Cox

Author Biography

Ken Russell has made some of the most daring, disturbing, and beautifully photographed films of all time.