08-07-2019, 11:32 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-07-2019, 11:37 AM by TM2YC. Edited 1 time in total.)
Altered States (1980)
This might be the best Ken Russell film I've watched since 'The Devils'. The premise about a scientist inducing visions through a combination of psychedelic drugs and sensory deprivation is the perfect vehicle for Russell's outlandish visual imagination. Dr. Jessup (William Hurt) is in the Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Frankenstein mold, a maverick mind operating beyond the limits of scientific orthodoxy and medical ethics. Russell uses super rapid cutting for Jessup's visions, like a bad trip brought on by staring at paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, Edward Hopper, Francis Bacon and Salvador Dali, fired through the stargate from '2001: A Space Odyssey'. Especially Bosch, the scenes of hundreds bodies falling into hell pits are like his paintings brought to life. It was probably to the film's benefit that Russell came onto the project late (after Arthur Penn dropped out), with it all cast and the script by Paddy Chayefsky finalised, he couldn't go completely nuts with every aspect of the movie. The body distortion scenes are very David Cronenberg and the makeup FX are terrific. John Corigliano's brass heavy avant-garde score is wonderfully unsettling.
The score made me want to go listen to the 'Acid Brass' album yet again
. Compare 00.21 in the above trailer to the music below at 01.21:
This might be the best Ken Russell film I've watched since 'The Devils'. The premise about a scientist inducing visions through a combination of psychedelic drugs and sensory deprivation is the perfect vehicle for Russell's outlandish visual imagination. Dr. Jessup (William Hurt) is in the Dr. Jekyll and Dr. Frankenstein mold, a maverick mind operating beyond the limits of scientific orthodoxy and medical ethics. Russell uses super rapid cutting for Jessup's visions, like a bad trip brought on by staring at paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, Edward Hopper, Francis Bacon and Salvador Dali, fired through the stargate from '2001: A Space Odyssey'. Especially Bosch, the scenes of hundreds bodies falling into hell pits are like his paintings brought to life. It was probably to the film's benefit that Russell came onto the project late (after Arthur Penn dropped out), with it all cast and the script by Paddy Chayefsky finalised, he couldn't go completely nuts with every aspect of the movie. The body distortion scenes are very David Cronenberg and the makeup FX are terrific. John Corigliano's brass heavy avant-garde score is wonderfully unsettling.
The score made me want to go listen to the 'Acid Brass' album yet again
. Compare 00.21 in the above trailer to the music below at 01.21:![[+]](https://forums.fanedit.org/images/focus/collapse_collapsed.png)