A welcome repeat for Ken Russell's 1968 Omnibus film:
Song of Summer: Frederick Delius BBC Four, 24th Jan.
Song of Summer: Frederick Delius BBC Four, 24th Jan.
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One of KR's better efforts.Originally posted by Boilk View PostA welcome repeat for Ken Russell's 1968 Omnibus film:
Song of Summer: Frederick Delius BBC Four, 24th Jan.
I later heard Eric Fenby give his Delius talk a couple of times (it didn't vary much
) - once with a long-suffering Ralph Holmes doing illustrations - and had difficulty reconciling the frankly pompous and boring old gent in front of us with the young Christopher Gable in the film......
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Richard, do you know if Fenby published another book on Delius, apart from'Delius as I knew him'? Until recently I owned a proof copy of another un-named book and wonder if it ever saw the light of day.Comment
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I don't, saly - that sounds like a precious item! did it go to a good home, or like so many things disappear in a move?!Comment
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I'm sure it was a good home, a musician who was very interested in itOriginally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
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Yes, although Fenby himself coached both actors in their roles and regarded their portrayals as "absolutely true to character" and the film as "disturbingly lifelike". The scene showing Fenby attending a church and discovering the parish priest (played by Ken Russell himself) making love to a girl in a pew did occur, but it was not mentioned in Delius As I Knew Him. Fenby told it to Russell for his ears alone and was shocked when he saw it in the film. Other inconsistencies included Fenby talking with a broad Yorkshire accent which, as anyone who knew him will testify, could not have been further from the truth, and "Appalachia" being played on the gramophone four years before the first recording was made!Originally posted by verismissimo View PostComment
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These weaknesses in the film make it a little less galling that it is not available on the iPlayer, I suppose.
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I was amused by the billing in Radio Times: 'A Song of Summer: Frederick Delius. Fact-based drama chronicling the last six years in the life of renowned British composer Frederick Delius'. No mention of Ken Russell whatsoever, despite the fact that there's been a mini-season of KR's films (very few, alas, or perhaps providentially?) since his death! As for 'British composer', technically true, but remember the splendid scene where Fenby says something to the effect that things are looking up in Yorkshire, and that they even perform English music now, at which a look of horror passes over Jelka's face and Delius icily replies 'English music? What is that?'
I had the devil of a job getting hold of a copy of the Delius DVD a few years back. I just hope they haven't let it go out of circulation again, as to my mind it's as good as, if not better, than 'Elgar', thanks particularly to the superb Max Adrian. I'd love to see Russell's 'Debussy' again, one he made before he went totally OTT and which I haven't seen since it was first shown in the 60s. Never did see his Bartok -- must have been doing my homework.Comment
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Ken Russell's Debussy:Originally posted by JFLL View Post
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzFR84cEYsI
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhaIwKbI16g
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUylr8uXc1Y
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Nlosjwrg8
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZVUxDOkipk
Part 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDuUC1-QZn4
The sound quality is a bit rough. Script by Melvyn Bragg.
Enjoy.
RussComment
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Oh, marvellous, Russ, thanks very much indeed. The one thing I do remeber about this film, I'm ashamed to say, is of a party at whch Debussy is next to a gramophone listening to a piece of music and a pair of knickers suddenly lands on the turntable. (I was seventeen at the time, in the by then only partly liberated 60s, so that sort of thing sticks in the mind.)
Can that be right, though? I shall soon find out.Comment
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Indeed ... a young lady in (if memory serves) polka-dot bra and panties does a striptease to the 'Danse Sacrée' and 'Danse Profane'. (It sounds as if we're about the same age!)Comment
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Strange what we remember from the Debussy film after all this time isn't it? Must admit there were whole segments that I couldn't remember at all. The opening sequence (girl on beach being shot with arrows) still packs a punch, and I suppose is Ken Russell announcing "This is not going to be your usual music documentary"! The sequence I remember firing my imagination the most at the time of original transmission (I was very young - too young even to be interested in scantily clad ladies) is the last section, with Debussy spending years working on the Fall of the House of Usher - very gothic and very spooky!
The aspect I'd completely forgotten about is the 'film within a film' format, but did Russell pinch it from Truffaut, Godard etc (French new wave) or did they pinch it from him?
RussLast edited by Guest; 28-01-12, 14:27.Comment
- really good of you to take the trouble 
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