Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Celebration of the Perverse, 21 Mar 2008
Filmed in his garden on a digi-cam, Ken Russell's 'FOTLOU' is a bonkers, inventive charmer, guaranteed in no way to re-endear him to the likes of David Puttnam, Bryan Forbes and all the other unimaginative prigs in the hallowed halls of the British Film Industry.
He may be shorn of budget but the plus side of that of course, is that there's no studio interference. No restraint being yelled by BFI yes-men, which allows Ken free reign to deliver an ultimate in guerilla film-making.
Grueling, unpleasant but mind-bogglingly entertaining, Russell is having a picnic to remember with his neighbours, family members and clapped-out UGLY rockers, pillaging and plundering Poe til only entrails remain.
Ken himself plays psychiatrist/patient, the obviously looney Dr Calihari, who, when he's not eating lumps of his own ear-wax or trying to grope the excellent Nurse ABC Smith, is attempting to 'cure' rock-star Roddy Usher of his own insanity and also find out if he's murdered anyone or not.
Ok, as plots go, it's a bit basic, but this slight premise allows Russell cart-blanch to go rooting and digging in man's darkest extremes, stopping to absorb deliriously each atrocity as he passes it by, giving the viewer a lascivious glimpse before dashing off to the next one.
Aided and abetted by the magnificent Nurse Smith, lucky old Ken somehow makes it to the end of the flick intact, though rambling and ranting in abject response to his own failures and punishments.
Clever and funny in a lewd, peep-show sense, 'FOTLOU' is admirable and satisfying BECAUSE of it.
Obviously it can't compare to 'the Music Lovers' or 'the Devils' but it does show the maniac Russell is still the most mind-rippingly, coarse- humoured, garishly colored loose-cannon in town, and where's his MBE? (That'll be the day. Not enough sucking up!)
Wicked, profane and elatedly perverse; 'FOTLOU' is acid medicine to the saccharine excesses of mainstream cinema, not only in dusty old Blighty, but also narcoleptic Hollywood and across the world.
We'll be sorry when he's gone.
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9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Fall of the Louse of Usher, 21 Mar 2006
"A Gothic Tale for the 21st Century" in which the once-talented Ken Russell is reduced to making - and hamming it up on-screen in - student-level "comedy" on low-budget video. The parodic Nick Cave-type music videos raise the standards somewhat during the first half, but once that idea's been exhausted, there's little left to enjoy short of some Benny Hill-type humour and Gallon Drunk's laconic soundtrack.
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