'the devils' - grandier's execution: ken russell 1971

here is the harrowing and grizzly-glorious penultimate scene from ken russell's masterpiece, 'the devils.' all performances are perfect. the 'burning flesh' special effects are ahead of their time. everything looks real; despite the artistic take. oliver reed is wrenching and brilliant as the doomed father grandier. michael gothard is manic and flash as the priest. and last, but never least, the miraculous miss georgina hale is gorgeous as the slighted and delighted phillipe; laughing with righteous glee through the leaping flames. and yes, the whole movie is this hard, this cold, this searing, this good.

happy late birthday robert powell

man, i'm tired. i had a full week. i was unable to post last night on account of a disruption in our internet service. and now, i'm typing with my right index finger bandaged due to a freak umbrella accident earlier in the day. so bear with me as far as like, typos and other carelessness due to fatigue and an injured finger. that being said, i checked my celebrity birthday source, and realized i should probably say happy 65th birthday to the english actor robert powell. apparently most people would probably recognize him from his starring role in the 'jesus of nazareth' miniseries. but i know him best from his great work in ken russell films. he played the doomed captain walker in 'tommy,' which was probably the first time i ever saw him. and then he also starred as gustav mahler in russell's 1974 fantastic biography picture 'mahler.' (one of ken's best... it manages to seamlessly stitch classic realism with moments of high camp outrageousness.) in this shot, we see powell-as-mahler, in one such fantasy sequence, sword in hand, silver swastika on his chest, atop an english hill, about to chow down hungrily on the head of a pig. in fact, it looks like he might already have his mouth full of snout. mmm, tasty isn't it, gustav? it might go down well with a big swig of milk. so umm, happy late birthday, robert. you are a very cool member of the planet.