Ken Russell Forever Season Ahoy!

London-wide celebration starts this weekend

Scala Forever launch their tribute to British film visionary Ken Russell (who died last November, aged 84) at Dalston Rio on Saturday with a welcome outing for 1986’s mind- and history-bending birth-of-Frankenstein fever dream Gothic, hosted by the good people of Cigarette Burns.

Running until March 20, other ticketed events include double bills of Crimes Of Passsion and Whore at the Shacklewell Arms, courtesy of Still Advance, plus Altered States and the rarely seen Bartok at Roxy Bar And Screen, thanks to Filmbar70.

Electric Sheep and Strange Attractor unleash Amanda Donohoe/Hugh Grant-starring sex ‘n’ Stoker caper The Lair Of The White Worm on The Horse Hospital, while London Short Film Festival present 1975’s perennially divisive Roger Daltrey/giant penis pop-classical ‘biopic’ Lisztomania at Notting Hill Gate Picturehouse.

Club Des Femmes bring Women In Love to Hackney Picturehouse, with BFI Southbank airing an unexpurgated director’s cut of The Devils, complete with cast and crew discussion. Ever controversial, the latter is finally released on DVD on March 19: stay tuned for a Quietus In Defence Of… reassessing the popular perception of its star Oliver Reed.

There will also be free screenings of The Who’s rock opera Tommy at The Alibi Film Club, domestically unavailable French sculptor portrait Savage Messiah at The Montpelier (Days Are Numbers’ monthly night) and, concluding the retrospective, Elgar (paired with another short documentary, title TBC by The Exploding Head Film Club) at The Jackalope.

For the full-line up be sure to check Scala Forever’s website.

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