Every
director has a film in their oeuvre that’s bitten them in the ass. Whether it be a critical or commercial
failure or a contentious production fraught with its own bevy of problems,
disaster has and always will visit upon a filmmaker whether they’re
accomplished or a novice. Moreover, a
film’s failure can offset or ultimately end careers, sometimes sneaking up on
even the most well established movie makers no matter how strong their track
record is.
Which
brings us to flamboyant master filmmaker Ken Russell who fell so hard with Valentino, his anachronistic and bawdy
biopic of famed silent film star and sex icon Rudolph Valentino, that he
retreated from feature film production altogether, working instead in
television until 1980 when he returned with Altered
States. Compounded with a failing
marriage during production, on-set in-fighting between the film’s two leads and
financial ruin, Russell was so embittered by the experience of Valentino he would disavow the film
altogether. Between calling it the
mistake of his career, Russell years later exited a screening of the film and
remarked ‘what idiot made this?’
A
bit tragic its creator felt so negatively about Valentino, as it is among Russell’s more sympathetic efforts: an
attempt to highlight the highs and lows of arguably the film world’s first
heartthrob. The picture isn’t
compromised in any way either, as all the problems studios have taken with
Russell in the past are right up there on the screen. Following in the footsteps of The Music Lovers with just a hint of the
wackiness let loose in Lisztomania, Valentino stars famed Russian dancer
Rudolf Nureyev in the titular role who bears more than a striking resemblance
to the legendary silent film star.
Following
the actor’s journey from stage theater to silver screen, Valentino like Russell’s The
Music Lovers takes interest in the dualistic nature of the actor mapping
out the disparity between his public and private life. Co-starring Leslie Caron, Michelle Phillips,
Carol Kane and Felicity Kendal, this star-studded period drama boasting
brilliant production design by Philip Harrison and icy cool cinematography by
eventual Cronenberg DP Peter Suschitzky is a full-on Russell film replete with
all of his trademark provocations and impish attitudes towards sex and
nudity. In one of the film’s more
disturbing episodes, Valentino is arrested on a bigamy charge and has the night
from Hell in prison, a sequence sure to make the faint hearted run for the
exits.
Those
expecting a straight-laced biography of the actor are in for a rude awakening
as Russell plays freely with the facts but ultimately conjures up a picture
that doesn’t dishonor the iconic actor being dramatized. There was a wealth of contention surrounding
the casting of Nureyev and it is said neither he nor his co-star Michelle
Phillips got along much with some slapping matches occurring in between takes
of their love scenes. But for someone
unfamiliar with Valentino’s The Sheik,
Nureyev is quite good in the role of a performer whose own life could never
live up to the image people fell in love with.
Having
turned down a chance to direct The Rose,
a job which ultimately went to Mark Rydell, Russell was then hired by famed
producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, who reportedly were longtime
admirers of Russell’s work. Valentino sadly
became the film all three wanted to forget and also became the last Russell
film featuring his soon-to-be ex-wife Shirley’s costume designs, all but
completely driving the nail into the film’s coffin as far as Russell was
concerned.
Flopping
financially, the film also fared poorly with critics, including being called by
the Razzies ‘one of the most amusingly bad movies ever made’. Looking back on it years later having
familiarized myself with Russell, the film fits in nicely alongside his other
biopics including The Music Lovers, Savage Messiah and Mahler which ultimately focus on the relationship of the
protagonist while providing an outlet for Russell’s own playful mischief
making. Far from a masterpiece but also
far from the train wreck it’s been made out to be over all these years.
--Andrew Kotwicki
