Sundog Rising!
Reflections on living the life literary by the Urban Sundog
Defending the Indefensible
I mostly classify Ken Russell movies as films I shouldn’t try to watch with my wife.
I did try once. On a highly unusual night back in 1981, when we were still dating. The Winnipeg Art Gallery featured a unique entertainment double feature one Saturday evening, Ken Russell’s Women In Love, followed by a concert by Nash the Slash on his Children of the Night tour. Naturally I rushed out and got tickets for both. Big mistake.
Renee made it through Women In Love, but bailed out after Nash’s first song. More because of the volume than anything else, being a lover of the more refined decibel levels of classical music and jazz. I caught up with her after the concert back at her place. She was deprogramming herself by watching a Chevy Chase-Goldie Hawn movie on the late show. She forgave me again and we got married anyway.
After all, it wasn’t as bad as the first date I took her on …
Ken Russell was a British filmmaker who died in 2011, famous for a style focussing on excess, especially regarding sexual matters; for mixing cultural crossovers in his productions sometimes more successfully than others — casting rockstars Roger Daltrey from The Who as Franz Liszt and Ringo Starr as the Pope in Lisztomania for example; and for ostensibly making biographical movies but choosing to do so more by focussing on the rumours surrounding his famous subjects’ lives and presenting them as the main story — such as Tchaikovsky supposedly struggling with homosexuality by marrying a nymphomaniac wife in The Music Lovers.
Ken Russell also made an astounding number of films. More on that next week. I’m only interested in one this week.
1977’s Valentino. Starring Rudolph Nureyev.
Doing a little background research I was pleased to discover the movie was a bit of a hit in Britain. Because it tanked abysmally in North America.
It played for about one week in Winnipeg. And this was pre-video. To my knowledge, it was never shown on network television. It’s taken this long for the flick to resurface for me. I saw it in the theatre during that one week it played. It was a dismal day, raining, I had a cold, very little was going right. I thought the movie was brilliant. I came out of it thinking I had discovered a new hero for a different sort of mind.
But I always wondered if maybe my reaction was tempered by the circumstances under which I saw the movie. I was set up that day to enjoy anything with a bit of life to it. And one thing you can never say about Ken Russell movies is that they lack energy. So I tried to track Valentino down on video in later years, but it was never available. In fact, there was a surprising dearth of any Ken Russell movies available on video through normal channels in my town. Then, about six months ago our cable company offered a movie channel free for a month, and for whatever reason, Valentino qualified under their mandate and I was able to PVR it.
Although we talked about it, ultimately I decided not to watch the movie with my wife. I have learned a few things over the years. On the whole I think I made the right decision. Not that the movie is anywhere near as over the top as Lisztomania, which Russell made just before Valentino, but there are definitely some moments which must be categorized as thoroughly Ken. But I would still argue, even after a second viewing almost 40 years later, there is still enough to the movie beyond that to justify my original opinion of it.
This movie was hyped to the gills before it came out. Rudolph Nureyev was making his film debut. On top of that, it was “Rudi plays Rudi”, one romantic icon portraying a second, in a typical Russellian crossover of artistic disciplines. Nureyev the ballet superstar as Valentino the silent screen superstar.
I recall seeing the movie on one of its first nights, before the general critical reaction on this continent became known. I walked out of the theatre thinking, “Well, there’s a hit for sure!” Something like two nights later Johnny Carson was berating Nureyev live on the Tonight Show concerning how he felt about starring in such a turkey.
Some of the flak was directed at Russell of course, since Ken Russell never made a single movie he didn’t take flak for. But the bulk of the sniping fell on Nureyev. He was the bigger name with more on the line, and in the general public’s opinion, he had fallen sadly short. Valentino proves Nureyev can’t act! Not true. His second movie, 1983’s Exposed, proved that. Actually, the more I learn about the actual Rudolph Valentino, the more I realize what an amazing job Nureyev did portraying him.
I think where the movie fell short for the general audience in North America was because Russell didn’t take the approach of doing nothing but glorifying his subject. Valentino was a cultural outsider, doing something new, that did not meet with universal acceptance in the early 1920s. Certainly on one hand he was an unprecedented superstar, with an image that he couldn’t possibly live up to. And then the whole circus was over in only five years, with his unexpected early death. But on the other hand, he was a foreigner in a culture trying to find his way as something entirely new, and not entirely acceptable. Something like Rudolph Nureyev trying to make a movie that would satisfy North American audiences in 1977. I would argue Ken Russell’s Valentino primarily and successfully shows the story of a man trying to stand up for his own personal sense of self in a world swirling madly and inexplicably out of control around him.
While I couldn’t help noting the ham-handedness of some of Ken Russell’s direction on my re-viewing, there’s still some brilliant moments. And a mix of impressive turns combined with a few throwaways by a stellar cast. Some of whom obviously got what they were doing more than others.
With a Ken Russell movie you should never entirely lose sight of the cross-pollination going on created by the juxtaposition of Ken’s choosing to do things like cast Rudi Nureyev as Rudi Valentino. One of my favourite scenes is when Rudolph Nureyev playing Rudolph Valentino hauls Carol Kane onto the dance floor for a mad tango to “Kiss of Fire”, to antagonize Kane’s character’s Fatty Arbuckle-like boyfriend. The mere idea of either Nureyev or Valentino tangoing with Carol Kane … Let alone both together.
Leslie Caron is over the top as the over the top early screen diva Nazimova, so it’s difficult to say if that’s a mistake or not. She’s certainly very much Ken Russell. But then she’s also still very much Leslie Caron, and that’s not a bad thing. Michelle Phillips — Mama Michelle — proves that some musicians can act, turning in a very strong portrayal as Valentino’s genuinely weird-in-her-own-right second wife, Natacha Rambova. AKA Winifred Hudnut. When is somebody going to make a movie about her?
And casting the ex-Bowery Boy Huntz Hall as the studio mogul Jesse Lasky was brilliant. Especially the scenes with the vulture and the ape.
But the movie was mostly shot in England, and it’s some of the British actors stepping up to portray crazy Americans that contribute the most impressive performances. The never-fail Peter Vaughan is particularly able as the Chicago newspaperman Valentino challenges to a boxing match for impugning his manhood near the end of the movie, and Felicity Kendall, better known on these shores for the light-hearted Good Neighbours, is nothing short of remarkable as June Mathis, the woman who made Valentino Valentino.
But it is Nureyev’s performance that finally makes the movie work. And that is because, in a typical twist of uniquely Ken Russell movie magic, you never forget you’re watching Rudolph Nureyev playing Rudolph Valentino. It’s not just the dancing. It’s not just a ballet superstar who shouldn’t have to put up with such things having to put up with the indignities Valentino did. Anymore than Valentino should have had to. It’s the quieter moments. When Nureyev is just Rudi. Squared in this case, but still Rudi.
The last ten minutes of the movie are finally what make it still a success for me. I actually considered skipping them on my re-viewing, because I couldn’t believe the end-scenes would work for me with my older, more conservative outlook on life and art. I was afraid they’d just turn out to be another example of Ken Russell’s occasional ham-handedness, and I’d lose the lustre from a rather precious memory from the seventies.
But no. From the moment Peter Vaughan has his first scene to the end of the credits rolling, the movie is brilliant. Rudolph Nureyev/Valentino at his best, and still showing me there can be a different kind of hero in the world.
Works for me, anyway.
*******
Ron Romanowski’s Book Launch, May 4th
A Reader’s Guide to the Unnameable
Augustine Hand Press, 2015
Sponsored by the MayWorks Festival
You don’t often have a poet open and close a launch by singing one of his poems at you, but then Ron isn’t a conventional sort of poet.
Integrating everything but a little soft-shoe into his presentation in McNally-Robinson’s arts and crafts alcove, Ron entertained a group of 40 with readings from his sixth collection, A Reader’s Guide to the Unnameable. As Ron stated, the book takes its title theme from the first piece, “The Fall Girl”, detailing a tragic event it seems unlikely people can move on from, but do. Having to deal with the emotion of an event they don’t want to face.
A heavy theme for the book, but the launch stayed light, Ron engaging his audience with a personable, enthusiastic, and cheering performance. Ably introduced by Nurit Drory, offering a short recap of the intros she’s done for Ron’s previous five books.
Ron pointed out the cover of the book has been remarked upon as a potential recruiting poster for a new poetry cult. He’ll take the names of anyone interested.
*****
REALITY FICTION AND BEYOND!
The lightning’s still flashing in Chapter Ten of The Electric Detective, posted Monday May 4th, and Episode Eleven: Poe-Ish, starts on Friday, May 8th. Reality Fiction Three: The Interrupted Edition continues at:
http://realficone.blogspot.ca/
To quote the legendary Forrest J. Ackerman, how Grand was my Guignol? Edgar Allan meets Alfred Hitchcock in “The Usher Motel”.
Episodes to Date:
Episode One: Dante-Ish — Mak’s Inferno
Episode Two: Chaucer-Ish — The Hermit’s Tale
Episode Three: Malory-Ish — Le Morte de Mak
Episode Four: Doyle-Ish — Mak the Kipper
Episode Five: Carroll-Ish — Madelyn in Wonderland
Episode Six: Stoker-Ish — The Down For The Count Shimmy
Episode Seven: Tolstoy-Ish — Anna Makerena
Episode Eight: Lem-Ish — So there is …
Episode Nine: Hoffman-Ish — Dr. Hoffman’s Happy Gene Machine
Episode Ten: Shakespeare-Ish — Hamlet the Barbarian
Episode Eleven: Poe-Ish — The Usher Motel
All with illustrations by the author. The complete roster of 34 Contestants have now appeared, so we move on to the supporting cast, the Judges, and the Guest Judges.
