RIP Ken Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011)

Devils

British film director Ken Russell, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1969 film Women In Love, has died at the age of 84.

Very sad news. I only found out yesterday that the British Film Institute have finally persuaded Warner Bros to allow them to release the original UK cinema cut of Russell's classic The Devils on DVD for the first time ever (though not, unfortunately, on Blu-ray, and with any reference to the infamous deleted 'Rape of Christ' scene expunged).

Martin Kemp's "Stalker", a remake of the Fiona Richmond/Linda Hayden classic "Exposé", to premiere at the Grimm Up North festival

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"On Friday October 7th, the festival will host a very special premiere screening of Stalker – the directorial feature debut of TV and music icon Martin Kemp – ahead of its national theatrical release. In addition, the former Eastenders star and Spandau Ballet bass hero will be joined by members of the film’s cast and crew, including actress Jane March (The Lover, Clash of the Titans) to take part in an exclusive Q&A session after the movie.

Sure to be a controversial festival talking point, Stalker is based on the infamous 1976 sex-and-slash shocker – and previously banned ‘video nasty’ – The House on Straw Hill (aka Expose). For 2011, Kemp has reworked this cult gem into a tense, psychological thriller focusing on memory, identity and the creative imagination. Fans of the original might also be interested to hear the movie features Linda Hayden, cult horror actress and star of the seventies chiller, in a supporting role."

More details on the Grimm Up North website.

Emma Watson at the "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" premiere, 7 July 2011

And she's taking no chances this time...

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Alina Abragimova and the Quay Brothers at Chetham's School of Music | @MIFestival

Saw this last night - highly recommended! As well as being a beautiful backdrop for the amazing film and performance, during the interval you can explore the historic Chetham's School of Music, where John Dee once lived and worked and where Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels used to meet and work when Engels lived in Manchester.

BFI release Buñuel classics Un Chien Andalou and L'Age d'Or on Blu-ray complete with Mordant Music soundtrack

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The British Film Institute have just released Luis Buñuel's classics of surrealist film L' Age d'Or and Un Chien Andalou in a dual format Blu-ray/DVD edition. Although the initial information from the BFI seemed to suggest that Un Chien Andalou would only be available on the DVD and in Standard Definition, the final product makes it clear that Un Chien Andalou is also in HD, which is marvellous news!

Un Chien Andalou was Buñuel's debut as director, and was made in collaboration with his friend and fellow surrealist Salvador Dali. Although Buñuel and Dali's accounts of the making of the film do not always agree, it does seem clear that much of the film was improvised from Buñuel and Dali's own dreams. Both Dali and Buñuel make cameo appearances in the film. In addition to the canonical soundtrack added by Buñuel at the film's restoration in 1960 (the original was silent - the added soundtrack was based on the records Buñuel played behind the screen at the original 1929 performances) this release also includes a new score by Mordant Music specially commissioned for this release.

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L'Age d'Or was Buñuel's second, and more ambitious film, taking the surrealists's attack on bourgeois values mission even further (Jesus as a protagonist in the Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom is a particular favourite!) Featuring a cast that reads like a who's who of the surrealist movement (Buñuel himself, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Valentine Hugo, Valentine Penrose, Pierre Prévert) the BFI describe the film as "A sinister yet poignant chronicle of a couple’s struggle to consummate their desire - the film was banned and vilified for many years for it’s subversive eroticism and furious dissection of ‘civilised’ values."
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José Luis López-Linares and Javier Rioyo's feature-length Buñuel documentary A Proposito de Buñuel is also included, albeit only on DVD, as an extra.

For a long time, until the advent of home video, these films were difficult to see (I still remember the joy of seeing a fuzzy Un Chien Andalou for the first time - along with Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising - at a Cabaret Voltaire gig at Sheffield University in the early 80s) and whilst the age of the films and evident deterioration of the source materials means that the video quality can't be expected to match modern Blu-ray releases, I suspect that this is the best that these two important films will ever look. An essential purchase.