Religion and Ethics Forum
General Category => Literature, Music, Art & Entertainment => Topic started by: Nearly Sane on May 29, 2017, 08:50:23 PM
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And I read this essay today on Altered States, a film I saw very near in time oddly enough to when I watched Manhattan which I posted about today. I have to admit I struggled with a bit at the time. I am still not sure of Paddy Chayefsky and Ken Russell are the best mix since it seemed to indulge too much in the FX, and obviously Chayefsky agreed but it's 30 years since I last watched it and iirc, I was in a slightly altered state myself so perhaps due another try
http://www.sbs.com.au/movies/article/2017/05/26/ken-russells-altered-states-will-expand-your-mind
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Yeah, it was one of those movies that in the cinema was a bit of a visual overload... The main reasons I went to see it was a) at the time Ken Russell was one of those directors whose work intrigued me... mainly because of his TV work on the old Omnibus series. Song of Summer comes to mind straight away and of course, Tommy and The Devils also contributed to the mix, but it was his imaginings on Liszt, Mahler, Debussy etc that drew me to the film.
b) involved drugs!
As for Altered States itself. I was captivated by the images and the story about using sensory deprivation to achieve a heightened sense of... well self I guess... Although as I recall there may have been some local psilocybin involved at the time of viewing!!
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Ken is just Ken. Half shite, half brilliance, half wtf! (yes I know that is three halves, that's Ken)
As for Altered States I would have liked more ambiguity, it came across as sub Corman. Somehow Chayefsky and Russell together produced something less than the sum of their parts.
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You know what.. I'm going to seek it out and watch it again....
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Although - I keep getting flashes of Take on Me for some reason!!
:)
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Although - I keep getting flashes of Take on Me for some reason!!
:)
LOL, be interested in what you think