The Devils (1971) (Ken Russell) Discussion Thread

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Yeah,what's not to like?

The BFI should do a Ken Russell collection.

[Paul@TheOverlook]

Originally Posted by Wes

Thanks Paul for the heads up on the Savage Mesiah DVD - I missed that one, although if truth be told, I have yet to pick up one of those burn-on-demand DVDs - they always seem too damn expensive....

You're welcome. I've not got many of the archive titles ,either. You can sometimes pick them up for a far more reasonable £12 if you look on Amazon or eBay.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

So this will be the artwork for the new release?



If so, I like it. I like it a lot!

Now that is nice.
As you said Stephen,much better than the usual.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

The more I look at it, the more I like the cover - especially the font for the title.

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by Reaper@Cult Labs

Yeah,what's not to like?

The BFI should do a Ken Russell collection.

They don't have the rights.

In fact, the long-OOP DVDs of Elgar and Song of Summer were originally intended to be the first of many releases devoted to Ken Russell's television work (something that's still scandalously hard to see), but the BBC massively increased its licensing fees to the point where both they and indeed the BFI's entire Archive Television strand no longer became viable.

[hallo37]

Originally Posted by Michael Brooke

They don't have the rights.

In fact, the long-OOP DVDs of Elgar and Song of Summer were originally intended to be the first of many releases devoted to Ken Russell's television work (something that's still scandalously hard to see), but the BBC massively increased its licensing fees to the point where both they and indeed the BFI's entire Archive Television strand no longer became viable.

I've always wondered why the BBC is so difficult - is it to do with how they originally negotiated the rights/royalties?

[Michael Brooke]

Originally Posted by hallo37

I've always wondered why the BBC is so difficult - is it to do with how they originally negotiated the rights/royalties?

I've no idea. All I know is that just under a decade ago, they massively increased the licensing fees for their stuff to UK labels.

I've had direct personal experience of this - I tried to license a 25-minute BBC documentary as an extra on one of my DVD projects, and offered them a perfectly reasonable market rate (which the suppliers of the two other documentary extras - both considerably longer - were happy to accept).

The BBC demanded twenty times what I was offering.

I tried reasoning with them, pointing out that this documentary had absolutely no commercial value except as a DVD extra, and that the rate they wanted was excessive even for a standalone release, but they refused to budge. So I dropped that documentary altogether - thankfully, it was the least interesting of the three that I was after, and I got the other two.

A friend of mine's DVD dream project is a box set of Pawel Pawlikowski's early work - all the stuff he did before turning to features with Last Resort and My Summer of Love. Not too surprisingly, Pawlikowski is also very keen on the idea, but virtually everything is owned by the BBC, which refuses to charge a sensible market rate - so the project just isn't commercially viable.

Which wouldn't be such a scandal if the BBC was even the tiniest bit interested in releasing these films themselves - but they're not, so they're gathering dust on the shelf. As is most of Ken Russell's TV work from 1959-70, despite the fact that 32 out of 33 of his BBC projects still survives - an amazing achievement for someone working in the era of mass tape-wiping.

[hallo37]

Originally Posted by Michael Brooke

I've no idea. All I know is that just under a decade ago, they massively increased the licensing fees for their stuff to UK labels.

I've had direct personal experience of this - I tried to license a 25-minute BBC documentary as an extra on one of my DVD projects, and offered them a perfectly reasonable market rate (which the suppliers of the two other documentary extras - both considerably longer - were happy to accept).

The BBC demanded twenty times what I was offering.

I tried reasoning with them, pointing out that this documentary had absolutely no commercial value except as a DVD extra, and that the rate they wanted was excessive even for a standalone release, but they refused to budge. So I dropped that documentary altogether - thankfully, it was the least interesting of the three that I was after, and I got the other two.

A friend of mine's DVD dream project is a box set of Pawel Pawlikowski's early work - all the stuff he did before turning to features with Last Resort and My Summer of Love. Not too surprisingly, Pawlikowski is also very keen on the idea, but virtually everything is owned by the BBC, which refuses to charge a sensible market rate - so the project just isn't commercially viable.

Which wouldn't be such a scandal if the BBC was even the tiniest bit interested in releasing these films themselves - but they're not, so they're gathering dust on the shelf. As is most of Ken Russell's TV work from 1959-70, despite the fact that 32 out of 33 of his BBC projects still survives - an amazing achievement for someone working in the era of mass tape-wiping.

'This all possible due to the unique way the BBC is funded....by us' sorry paraphrasing an old BBC slogan there! Its incredible - as you say they're not bothered if these get a public viewing, so why charge extortionate prices? Just as well the 'The Devils' isn't owned by them....

[Mojo]

BBFC verdict:

Title « British Board of Film Classification

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Mojo

BBFC verdict:

Title « British Board of Film Classification

It looks really good when it says 'This work was passed with no cuts made' but there a slightly disappointing bit when it then says 'This is the cut UK cinema version, classified 'X' by the BBFC in 1971', showing not much has changed in the last 40 years.

Oh, for the day when the BBFC website says 'This is for longer, previously unclassified version'!