Quentin Tarantino was in town today to promote his movie “Django Unchained” and I was lucky enough to grab an interview. Many cool things happened in the brief time I got my geek on with him.
First he remembered my Son of the 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen book, which I gave him the last time we met. So, of course I gave him a copy of my new one, Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils. “I’ve heard about this,” he said. “I actually saw it in Fangoria; they had a piece on it. I’m really looking forward to reading this!”
At the end I asked him this question:
RC: “How do you expect people to react to the film? It’s visceral. It’s funny. It’s gritty. It’s fun. It’s all those things, but some of the whipping scenes are brutal.”
QT: “It’s brutal. It’s going to be interesting. Right now you can call it a controversial movie. But it’s controversial because it is coming out right now and there’s a magnifying glass on it. You wrote a book about The Devils, alright. There is a point when Ken Russell makes The Devils, and it’s released and EVERYBODY’s talking about it. And EVERYBODY’s writing about it, but then you get past that and then it just exists and from here on in you live in a world where The Devils already exists. Then people take it and accept it or reject it or whatever.”
Wrapping up we chatted about my favorite parts of “Django Unchained” and he added that I have “the coolest socks in Canada, always.”
Just when I didn’t think it was possible to surprise me…
Last night I was invited to speak at a Salon at the Pentimento Gallery (at 1164 Queen Street East) by host Brigitte Gall. Great night with a very funny reading by Collette Stevenson and music from Al Rowe. In the second half of the show Thom Ernst from TVO’s Saturday Night at the Movies interviewed me on stage about my book Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils.
When the interview wrapped a special guest was brought up on stage. I had seen Meg Walter in the audience watching the show, but didn’t know who she was. But here’s the surprising part… She was brought up on stage and introduced as Sister Meg from The Devils! One of the dancing nuns from the movie lives in Toronto! And was there last night!
My mind was blown.
We chatted on stage for a few minutes and then a few minutes more after the show was over. She’s lovely, had amazing things to say about Ken Russell and even brought along one of the call sheets from the movie to show me.
Thanks to Meg, Brigitte Gall, Thom Ernst and everyone at the Pentimento Gallery for making last night really memorable!
Murray Melvin, who played Father Mignon in “The Devils” after November 9, 2012 screening of the film in London, carrying his copy of Richard Crouse’s book “Raising Hell: Ken Russell and The Unmaking of The Devils.”
What did Swamp Thing and TABOO artist Steve Bissette say about “Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils”? Let me tell you!
“Finished and completely enjoyed Richard Crouse’s book RAISING HELL: KEN RUSSELL AND THE MAKING OF THE DEVILS (2012), which (as intended) is driving me back to revisiting the Russell film in all the glory we’re permitted to savor of it (via illegal DVD edition, Spanish DVD, and the BFI UK edit DVD).”
What did director Rod Lurie say after reading “Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils”? Well, let me tell you…
“Every film lover should read the wonderful RAISING HELL by Richard Crouse about the insane making of the insane The Devils. It’s ‘Holy Fuck’ entertaining.”
What did Joe Dante say after reading “Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils”? Well, let me tell you…
“Finally! The Devils gets its due! With Raising Hell Richard Crouse provides an exhaustive, perplexing and almost unbelievable chronicle of the making and unmaking of Ken Russell’s brilliant and wildly unappreciated film— which has managed to become a classic despite ongoing and well orchestrated efforts to destroy it stretching back over forty years. If any single work defines Jean Cocteau’s term film maudit, this is it. But Raising Hell is also eye-opening in its chronicle of the actual historical events at Loudon that inspired the movie. It’s a win-win!”
What did John Landis say after reading “Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils”? Well, let me tell you…
“In Raising Hell Richard Crouse has written an entertaining and informative account of Ken Russell and his adventures on The Devils. Russell remains a an authentic and original voice in British cinema and this is the funny and sad tale of the rise and fall and rise of one of his most controversial films.”
What did Terry Gilliam say after reading “Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils”? Well, let me tell you…
“The Devil is in the details.. and to appreciate why so many film makers are possessed by Ken Russell’s outrageous masterpiece, this book is a must… The book is great. I learned a lot. Far more than I have storage space.”
What did David Cronenberg say after reading “Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils”? Well, let me tell you…
“Reading this book was pure pleasure for me. It made me desperate to see Ken Russell’s gorgeous, crazed epic again — maligned, mutilated, censored, suppressed, tormented though it was — in any form that I could find (bootleg VHS tape from Spain?; flip cards from Cuba?). What could be better than that?”
Quentin Tarantino was in town today to promote his movie “Django Unchained” and I was lucky enough to grab an interview. Many cool things happened in the brief time I got my geek on with him.
