Russell's career changed dramatically with his next film, an adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's WOMEN IN LOVE (1969). A commercial and critical success, the film garnered an Oscar for actress Glenda Jackson, establishing her as a major star of the 70s. The film's fine period evocation and its bold erotic sensibility, particularly in the famous nude wrestling scene between Alan Bates and Oliver Reed, encouraged Russell to continue exploring the related themes of art and sensuality. He maintained his particular interest in the erotics of music with THE MUSIC LOVERS (1971), THE BOY FRIEND (1971), MAHLER (1974), TOMMY (1975), and LISZTOMANIA (1975). THE MUSIC LOVERS, focusing on Tchaikovsky's homosexuality, struck many viewers as inappropriate, while LISZTOMANIA'S unrestrained use of Nazi and pop-culture iconography seemed to demonstrate a complete loss of aesthetic control. With the exception of TOMMY, a virtually guaranteed success because of the popularity of The Who and their source "rock opera" and an all-star cast, none of these films achieved a success comparable to WOMEN IN LOVE. Indeed, since the commercial failure of VALENTINO (1977), Russell's career seems to have foundered.
Russell's more recent work, while still of considerable interest, shows him searching for a form to contain his themes, just as the protagonist of ALTERED STATES (1980) almost loses his body in pursuit of his mystic vision. THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (1988), adapted from a novel by Bram Stoker, shows Russell once again employing the imagery of sexual excess, if only in self-parody.
In his adaptation of another D. H. Lawrence nover, THE RAINBOW (1989), a young woman (Sammi Davis) experiences a sexual awakening at the hands of her female swimming instructor (Amanda Donohoe), a woman who wears men's clothing and espouses anti-male philosophies. The young woman then rebels against her parents and runs away to London where she takes a position as a teacher and falls in love with a soldier (Paul McGann). While struggling to maintain face as a normal soldier's wife, she slowly comes to understand her true sexual orientation and ultimately leaves her husband.
Russell followed this with WHORE (1991) (a.k.a. "If You Can't Say It, Just See It"). This choppy melodrama investigates the life of a prostitute in a pseydo-documentary style. The bottom line of the film is that the life of a hooker isn't easy. Hmmm... And, in 1993, he co-wrote (with Hetty Baynes) and directed the short film THE INSATIABLE MRS. KIRSCH. Here, a writer taking a rest in a country hotel is obsessed with a strange woman in the same hotel. The woman seems to observe him in provocative ways, but he does not dare to approach her. One day he follows her to her room and listen to strange "erotic" sounds from inside, and begins to have erotic thoughts. This short was included in TALES OF EROTICA (1996), along with shorts directed by Bob Rafelson, Susan Seidelman and Melvin Van Peebles.
1995 saw Russell's MINDBENDER, the story of Uri Geller, probably the world's most famous psychic. The film shows his rise to fame from small shows in the middle east where he amazed audiences with his parapsychological feats of spoon-bending and clock-fixing. Terence Stamp plays a scientist who brings him to America.
He returned to the documentary in 1997 with IN SEARCH OF THE ENGLISH FOLK SONG. This film 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, Russell journeys around the countryside of England searching for an answer. He bumps into and interviews such famous artists as; Donovan, Fairport Convention, Osibisa, Eliza Carthy, So What, Edward II and The Albion Band among others.
Russell returns again and again to themes of sexuality, primarily issues involving the burdens of masculine identity. His examination of Tchaikovsky concentrates on the composer's conflict between homoerotic desire and the dominant ideology of heterosexualtiy. Similarly, his Valentino is a man destroyed by his very popularity, since his appeal for women is seen as a threat to the power of the American male. Russell's biographical films are unorthodox because he often dispenses with history in favor of psychological speculation. These films freely blend fact and fantasy, implying that the significance of the artist's work lies as much in the perception of the listener or spectator as in the work itself. Hence the orgiastic release, a historical fact chronicled in THE DEVILS (1971), has become for Russell a paradigm of the potency of art. For him aesthetics, sexuality, and the imagination are inseparable: the films are, in effect, the cinematic equivalent of a musical fantasia.
In retrospect, it is clear why Russell was so attracted to D.H. Lawrence's novel, Women in Love, and why that film became a turning point in the director's career: like the Laurentian alter-ego Birkin, Russell is a romantic visionary who has sought to liberate repressed sexuality through his work. The prostitute of CRIMES OF PASSION (1984), in her ability to act out a variety of male sexual fantasies, is a performance artist who, like so many of Russell's characters, seeks to artfully transcend social and sexual constraints through her body.
Although he has his defenders, for the most part critics have not been kind to Russell's work. He is frequently considered tasteless, vulgar, unrestrained, even misanthropic. Pauline Kael has called him "a shrill, screaming gossip," and his movies have been described as "hyperthyroid camp circuses." Ultimately, though, much of this critical hostility can be explained as either a matter of taste or stock response to the material. Russell consciously refuses to make movies in the genteel British tradition, and he readily admits that, because of its subject and style, his work often makes viewers uncomfortable.
Nominated for Directing 1970: WOMEN IN LOVE
1 nomination