ReFocus: The Films of Ken Russell

Author: Melia, Matthew (Senior Lecturer in Literature, Film and Media, Kingston University)

Individual film directors, film-makers

Published on 31 August 2024 by EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS in the United Kingdom as part of 'the ReFocus: The International Directors Series' series.

Paperback / softback | 320 pages, 35 black and white illustrations
232 x 155 x 13 | 492g

Ken Russell was among the most provocative, creative, original and important directors in British film and television history but his career and legacy have long suffered under the media clichés of ‘Madman’ or ‘Enfant Terrible’ of British cinema – nicknames which have tended to delegitimise his status and pioneering role in post-war film and television culture.   This scholarly edited collection refuses these terms and aims to not only  reflect and further current critical research into Russell’s work but to see Russell as the Renaissance man of British cinema. It brings together the work of new and established scholars as well as the reflections of those who knew and worked with Russell. ReFocus: The Films of Ken Russell offers new perspectives across the breadth of Russell’s extensive career in television, film and other mediums, and seeks to better understand not only his reception, but the importance of collaboration to his practice, and the legacy of the man himself.