"Savage Messiah" 1972, remains an interesting conundrum in Ken Russell's maniacal retelling of the lives of tortured artists. Russell tackled some big names during his heyday in the 1970s: Tchaikovsky, Mahler,Liszt. The flamboyant director switched gears from musical geniuses to observe a second-tier sculptor, one Henri Gaudier- Brzeska. Only Ken Russell would have resurrected this forgotten artist and put his brief life story on the screen. The results of the director's mania for depicting artists as driven wretched humans who live outside the norm failed at last.
"Savage Messiah" is a hot mess. Russell's famous visual styling is lukewarm at best here, only in a few scenes do we see the explosions of color and texture Russell is famous for. The Vortex nightclub and the dinner at Angus Corky's are pure Russell, which is to say, that people are monstrous and behave monstrously when given the chance. The rest of this movie is a shrill, incoherent assemblage of scenes documenting Gaudier's bizarre affair with Sophie Brzeksa, a woman old enough to be his mother. He's a randy 19 year old artistic demon and she's a failed writer who hates sex. They meet, instantly bond for some weird "artistic" reason, argue non-stop about art and culture, finally taking each other's last name in a strange sort of marriage and the rest is history.
Watching this is a pretty exhausting affair. The now-forgotten actor Scott Antony wears out his welcome pretty quickly by portraying Gaudier as a screaming out-of-control artist who shouts platitudes about art incessantly. That is, when he's not physically jumping over anything in his path and dribbling food/drink all over himself in a metaphorical visual about devouring everything in order to create. One wonders if Antony decided to play Gaudier as a borderline sociopath or if Russell urged him to go full throttle. One suspects the latter, as subtlety was never Russell's strong point. We get it, Ken. Artists are passionate. Russell shovels the Bohemian lifestyle on the viewer with a bulldozer.
So, by the end of this tale of art and the makers of, we learn that Gaudier-Brzeska dies at the tender age of 23 in WW1. His work is showcased at the film's finale and the viewer wanders off to get aspirins. Not much sticks in the viewer's memory with the exception of an astonishing nude scene by none other than Dame Helen Mirren. This must be seen to be believed and seems to be the most remembered thing about this film. Set design by the brilliant infant terrible of the 70s UK art scene, Derek Jarman. He designed the sets for "The Devils" which are unforgettable. Jarman echoes those sets here. Costumes by the equally brilliant Shirley Russell.
Not a complete failure, but very close for Russell. There's a reason this has been a forgotten film, but worth a look if you need to complete your Russell library. By the way, if watching look for the scene in the Louvre in which Gaudier decides to perch on the enormous Easter Island head while raving about primitives. The head is obviously made of paper-mache and it wobbles underneath the actor.
"Savage Messiah" is a hot mess. Russell's famous visual styling is lukewarm at best here, only in a few scenes do we see the explosions of color and texture Russell is famous for. The Vortex nightclub and the dinner at Angus Corky's are pure Russell, which is to say, that people are monstrous and behave monstrously when given the chance. The rest of this movie is a shrill, incoherent assemblage of scenes documenting Gaudier's bizarre affair with Sophie Brzeksa, a woman old enough to be his mother. He's a randy 19 year old artistic demon and she's a failed writer who hates sex. They meet, instantly bond for some weird "artistic" reason, argue non-stop about art and culture, finally taking each other's last name in a strange sort of marriage and the rest is history.
Watching this is a pretty exhausting affair. The now-forgotten actor Scott Antony wears out his welcome pretty quickly by portraying Gaudier as a screaming out-of-control artist who shouts platitudes about art incessantly. That is, when he's not physically jumping over anything in his path and dribbling food/drink all over himself in a metaphorical visual about devouring everything in order to create. One wonders if Antony decided to play Gaudier as a borderline sociopath or if Russell urged him to go full throttle. One suspects the latter, as subtlety was never Russell's strong point. We get it, Ken. Artists are passionate. Russell shovels the Bohemian lifestyle on the viewer with a bulldozer.
So, by the end of this tale of art and the makers of, we learn that Gaudier-Brzeska dies at the tender age of 23 in WW1. His work is showcased at the film's finale and the viewer wanders off to get aspirins. Not much sticks in the viewer's memory with the exception of an astonishing nude scene by none other than Dame Helen Mirren. This must be seen to be believed and seems to be the most remembered thing about this film. Set design by the brilliant infant terrible of the 70s UK art scene, Derek Jarman. He designed the sets for "The Devils" which are unforgettable. Jarman echoes those sets here. Costumes by the equally brilliant Shirley Russell.
Not a complete failure, but very close for Russell. There's a reason this has been a forgotten film, but worth a look if you need to complete your Russell library. By the way, if watching look for the scene in the Louvre in which Gaudier decides to perch on the enormous Easter Island head while raving about primitives. The head is obviously made of paper-mache and it wobbles underneath the actor.