My Favorite Ken Russell Movie

There are "Great Directors" entries where I've felt it necessary to remind the reader that this series is all about my favorite movies made by certain directors, not the movies that I consider their greatest or most iconic works. And there's probably no case where there's a great gap between the two than with my pick for Ken Russell, the notorious British provocateur. His most celebrated film is without a doubt "Women in Love," his most daring "The Devils," and the movie most exemplary of his style probably the rock opera "Tommy." To a certain degree I admire all of these films. However, the one that I really adore is "The Boy Friend," his tribute to Busby Berkeley and the golden age of movie musicals.

Writing about "The Boy Friend" feels a little like taking the easy way out. Russell is famous for pushing content standards as far as they could possibly go, often pairing really dark and twisted subject matter with over-the-top, campy depictions of sex, violence, torture, and depravity. "The Boy Friend," which was released in the same year as his most controversial films, "The Devils" and "The Music Lovers," has almost no objectionable material whatsoever. Instead, it's a lighthearted spoof of musical theater, starring the winsome '60s it-girl Twiggy in her first big acting role. However, it does have many of Russell's visual hallmarks, including opulent art direction, grandiose fantasy sequences, and aggressive, intense editing.

Based on a '50s musical that was a comic pastiche of the musicals of the '20s, "The Boy Friend" is a show within a show that involves a struggling theater troupe powering through a kitschy musical in the hopes of impressing a Hollywood director in the audience. There's all kinds of madcap business going on behind the scenes, and our leading lady is an assistant stage manager who has to take over for the show's star after an unfortunate accident. Look a little closer, and you'll also notice the deconstructions and lampooning of various character types, and the moments of raunch and sexual subtext sprinkled generously throughout. The showgirls appear garish as they fight for the spotlight onstage, while the men are often ineffectual and weak. Most of this is played for laughs, where it might have been played for grotesquerie or shock in a different Russell picture, but the subversive mockery still carries some sting.

I admit that it's the pageantry that I really enjoy, though. Roger Ebert famously panned "The Boy Friend" for being too cold and sterile, calling attention to the stifling cinematography of the onstage antics, and the unflattering stage makeup caked on the actors. However, he didn't say much about the film's flights of unfettered fancy whenever a character starts daydreaming. This is when all the big, full scale set pieces come into play, when the cinematography opens up, the orchestral fills out, and all the tension evaporates. The dance sequences are whimsical, full of cartoonish visuals and bright colors, but executed beautifully. Several Busby Berkeley shots are recreated, as well as tributes to other musicals and iconography of that era. It often looks ridiculous, but there's such a joy and weird creative giddiness to it. Let's do a Grecian pastoral! Frolicking elves! Invalids and sexy nurses!

Like many other Russell films, it gets to be a bit much. Number after number piles on the glitz to an excessive degree. I understand why the American distributors trimmed multiple song numbers and over twenty minutes of the run time. However, excess is a hallmark of a Ken Russell film. Nearly all of them manage to work in some kind of madcap fantasy sequence, even when it's totally inappropriate or in bad taste. "The Boy Friend" feels like the one project where Russell was able to let loose and put in as many as he liked, as wild and fantastical as he could make them. At the same time, some of my favorite moments of are the quietest ones, where Twiggy sings her lovelorn backstage solos to herself, or where the showgirls are shown washing up after the show. They're lovely, in a way I feel moviegoers tend to forget that Russell's films can be.


I'll always love "Lisztomania" and "Tommy" for their chaos and outrageousness, but nothing can beat "The Boy Friend's" gorgeous Pierette sequence with the Erte-inspired silhouettes. And no matter how much subversion and cynicism Russell may add to the conversation, in the end his fondness for his subjects always comes through.


What I've Seen - Ken Russell

Billion Dollar Brain (1967)
Women in Love (1969)
The Music Lovers (1971)
The Devils (1971)
The Boy Friend (1971)
Tommy (1975)
Lisztomania (1975)
Altered States (1980)
Gothic (1986)
The Lair of the White Worm (1988)

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