You can’t have an Oliver Reed-themed podcast without eventually dipping into the works of the legendary Ken Russell, and we stick our toes in for the first time with his 1969 melodramatic adaptation of D. H. Lawrence’s beloved – and controversial – 1920 novel, Women in Love. Starring Reed alongside Alan Bates, Glenda Jackson and Jennie Linden, the film examines love, sex and death in all manner of permutations, and manages to fit in some notorious nude man-on-man grappling just for fun. We go deep on the film’s explicit queerness, the difficulty of working with temperamental actors (and directors) and so much more. ENJOY!
We continue our chronological look at the career of the great Paul Bartel with his feature length debut PRIVATE PARTS from 1972. Equal parts perverse and hilarious, it’s a film that is filled with twists and turns and set the blueprint for much of what was to come from the always unpredictable director. We’re also looking at Bartel’s 1969 short film NAUGHTY NURSE, which showed that Bartel’s taste for boundary pushing was something that came about very early in his career.