Customer Reviews

Directing Films (P)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ken Russell is one of the best directors of our century, and it's a joy to read about his craft. A must read for film buffs or students of the art.

Rather superficial and not very well written. Level of writing and content is OK for "Parade" Magazine but little more. More of a biography than a "how-to" book. Disappointing because I expected more from Russell.

In Directing Film, film director Ken Russell shares his knowledge of the director's art and job from analyzing a script to making scenes and choosing images. Black and white film shots accompany a guide which comments on differences between plays and films, reveals the director's role in shooting a screenplay, and considers the requirements of the camera. Plenty of examples and first-person insights pack this presentation.

Many, many unseen photos of the very handsome and sexy Ken Russell behind the scenes and many unseen shots of his actors and family on location. The great read includes personal reflections and hilarious prose but you still get the very important basics of how to make a film. All film students should own a copy and it should be required reading for all Indie filmmakers who "do not fit in" from the get go. Ken Russell proves that the most unique and nutty artist CAN make a huge mark with his kind of laser focus. I HIGHLY recommend this book!!

The title is somewhat misleading. I have been a Ken Russell fan for a good twenty-five years or so when I first saw Tommy on tv and then subsequently many of his other films---a few actually in theaters that had the courage to show his films as a contrast to the other dull, mindless films offered. To see Crimes of Passion was something and was really hooked on the stylized films of this crazy Englishman. I had previously read his other biography Altered State with mixed feelings. When I saw this book I thought it was going to have actual tips on filmmaking from a director who was beyond the Hollywood approach of filmmaking. The actual tips a very few and far between and the book becomes really nothing more than a collect of stories behind the making on some of his films, which were sporatically interesting but really gave no insight into films or into Ken Russell. I wanted to understand the intellectual process he goes through when deciding to attach Roger Daltry to a ten-foot phallus or how to orchestrate a set of emon-possessed nuns. Even the stories themselves are skimpy in details and almost timid, which is surprising coming from one of cinema's least timid director's. I enjoyed the light read even if it failed to ignite my own frustrated director within.