The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

It's a tremendously sad day for fans of gonzo cinema everywhere, as legendary madman director Ken Russell has shuffled off this mortal coil at the age of 84. Over the course of his wildly eccentric career, he forged an enduring and tempestuous artistic partnership with fellow worshipper at the altar of excess Oliver Reed, who starred in Russell's film version of D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love and co-starred in the day-glo, psychedelic, emotionally powerful screen adaptation of The Who's Tommy. Russell also reteamed with Roger Daltrey for the bizarre Lizstomania, which echoed his earlier interest in bringing the lives of classical composer to life with the Tchaikovsky-centric The Music Lovers and 1974's Mahler. You could say that the ebbs and flows, the manic emotions and dramatic lulls of classical music perfectly mirrored Russell's own auteurist bent.

But, of course, the two films that give Russell explicit relevance in this thread are 1988's Lair of the White Worm (which holds the honor of being the first ever premiere at a Columbus Horror Marathon) and none other than what is possibly his strongest collaboration with Reed: The Devils. In many ways, the film is not a traditional horror film, and there are still longtime Nightmarathoids whose only memory of it involves glimpses of naked nuns invading their half-conscious vision during its late night screening at the 1992 Night of the Living Drexel. But The Devils remains a deeply disturbing film, ever more relevant as the years pass for its depiction of religious hysteria and some very real human monsters. It's also one of the more difficult films to see today, never released on legitimate DVD and still scorned by the suits at Warner Brothers (for an excellent look at the enduring controversy, check out longtime friend of the Marathon Marc Edward Heuck's blog post on the topic.) It's no secret that Bruce and I have been dying to show this again for years; maybe now we'll find some way to make it happen.

Sad to hear this. And Yes I would like to see The Devils again at a future marathon.

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Jaws3dfan®
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This is extremely disturbing news. I am, however, morally offended that you did not list SF11's grand experience, Altered States in your eulogy. Not to mention the film I've always sorta wanted to see at the Horror, the Thomas Dolby scored psyche-fest of Gothic.

But 'tis a sad, sad day indeed ... no question.

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David A. Zecchini; Creature of the Wheel, Lord of the Infernal Engines
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You hit the nail right on the head as far as my experience with that particular marathon goes! It was my first horror marathon and only my second at the Drexel, so I hadn't quite built up my endurance at that point.

I was sad to hear the news yesterday and was pretty sure Joe would at least mention it here. I know The Devils has been one of the "holy grails" for a while now and I'm wondering if his passing will make that pursuit easier or even more difficult. Who knows.

And yes, I second the acknowledgement of Altered States as a previous marathon highlight. That film also made my recent wish list of cross-genre films that have played at a Sci-Fi marathon but never horror, along with things like The Fly, Alien and Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

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Zeke, your moral offense is completely justified. -2 points for me. I did mention it over at the Boston board, so.....ah, nevermind.

Nice obit Joe.

Horror-wise, Russell also contributed the segment "The Girl With the Golden Breasts" to the 2006 anthology film Trapped Ashes. It's certainly not a major work of his, or even close to it, but it's definitely outrageous and worth a look. The film is on DVD and Netflix streaming if anyone's interested.

Is the difficulty finding a print of it? I saw The Devils at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco back in 2008---a GREAT print of it, too. Perhaps you could give them a call and find out their connection.

Essentially, Warner Bros. are slightly less ashamed of The Devils than they were for many decades, but they still don't make it easy to rent a print for theatrical screenings. They have a vault print that screened several times in L.A. a few years back, but it took us three stabs at their repertory division before they would admit to having it...and even then they told us that they'd only rent us a DigiBeta copy. Apparently, they like to keep that print in state only.

This might have been the print you saw, although I've also heard stories about said print being watchable but somewhat worn. On the east coast, a few major theaters in New York have used the Harvard Film Archive's print(although Ken Russell was in attendance as well), but the HFA is notoriously stingy about loaning out any of their titles (not that I necessarily blame them.)

And to further complicate matters, even though most of the major studios will now generally allow screenings of collectors prints (as long as the exhibitor clears the rights with them), Warner Bros. are stridently opposed to the practice. So even if a collector out there owns a print of The Devils, they're liable to be very cautious about lending it out, or even admitting that they own it.

FLASH!



THE DEVILS is playing in L.A. on January 27th!



Print from Warner Brothers!




Small print: Digi-Beta.





Oh, well. That's seems to be the Studios' game these days. Just last year a Brand New 35mm print of MONSTER SQUAD played a couple of venues in L.A. Now, it's scheduled to play in town on January 13th. "Format: Blu Ray"

Grrrrrrr!

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas