The British Film Institute will release two box sets with films from director Ken Russell:
The Great Passions and
The Great Composers. The two box sets will be available for purchase on February 22.
The Ken Russell Collection: The Great Passions
The collection opens with Always on Sunday a dramatized examination of the painter Henri Rousseau. The combination of Russell reuniting with Melvyn Bragg and Oliver Reed and Russell's infectious love of the film's subject results in a film which is illuminating in every frame. Isadora: The Biggest Dancer in the World (1966), a study of the outrageous American dancer, Isadora Duncan, starring Vivian Pickles as the dancer whose obsession with the importance of art and complete disdain for decorum chimes perfectly with Russell's own sensibility. Last of the TV dramas is Dante's Inferno (1967) which tells of the complex relationship between the 19th century artist and poet, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and his model Elizabeth Siddal.
The films in this collection have been remastered to High Definition, and are presented on Blu-ray for the very first time.
Special Features:
- Late Night Line-up: Ken Russell at Work (1966): documentary showing Russell at work on various BBC TV documentaries, discussing his methods and filmmaking philosophy
- Interview with editor Michael Bradsell (2015): the editor discusses his work with Ken Russell
- Illustrated booklet with essays and full credits
The Ken Russell Collection: The Great Composers
A Dual Format Edition collection bringing together the career defining work of Ken Russell at the BBC. Russell's work during the sixties for award-winning arts documentary series Monitor and Omnibus were critically-acclaimed and often seen as a high point in his filmmaking.
The first of the three films, Elgar (1962), portrays in vigorous style the life of the English composer Sir Edward Elgar, with Huw Wheldon narrating his life story over beautiful mountain scenery. The Debussy Film (1965), Russell's penultimate film for Monitor was an ambitious work about the composer s life, written by Melvyn Bragg and starring Oliver Reed as Claude Debussy. Delius: Song of Summer (1968) is generally regarded (not least by its director) as Russell's best television film with many critics citing it as his finest work in any medium. The story traces Eric Fenby and is based on his memoirs of trying to help the blind and paralysed composer Frederick Delius.
The films in this collection have been remastered to High Definition, and are presented on Blu-ray for the very first time.
Special Features:
- Elgar commentary by Michael Kennedy and Ken Russell
- Delius: Song of Summer commentary by Ken Russell
- Other extras TBC
- Illustrated booklet with essays and full credits