Background

There are few 80 year olds who cling resolutely to the label of "enfant terrible" but producer, director and writer Ken Russell has to be a number one candidate. Perhaps best known for his Oscar winning film "Women in Love", the Who's "Tommy" and the sci-fi film "Altered States", his most recent project is entitled "A Kitten for Hitler" - a short film featuring a person of reduced size who plays a Jewish boy determined to take a kitten as a gift to Hitler... which goes to show that old age hasn't reduced Mr Russell's propensity to shock!

"Shocking" is something which has always come easily to Ken Russell, (though he might prefer to argue he has merely been pushing the boundaries of film...) whether is the scenes of naked wrestling in "Women in Love"; the cavorting of a naked Glenda Jackson in his Tchaikovsky biopic "The Music Lovers" or the outrageous depiction of composer Richard Strauss as a Nazi to mention just a few examples. But initially, Ken Russell started his career as a pioneer in the still infant world of TV documentaries and produced programmes which whilst fairly uncontroversial in comparison to his later creative work, still proved to be revolutionary ground-breakers in the development of television in Britain. "Elgar" is one of these early programmes.

"Elgar" - a Monitor programme.

Back in the late 1950s and 60s, television was still in its infancy as a mass media outlet and Monitor was an arts programming strand regarded as one of the crown jewels of the BBC's output. It was presided over by Corporation stalwart Huw Wheldon, who'd noticed Ken Russell's talent from some of his early amateur film efforts and taken him on board the team - thus establishing Russell as an innovative film maker.

Russell put forward the idea of making an almost hour long documentary on the renowned British composer Edward Elgar (1857-1934) in order to celebrate the 100th edition of "Monitor". Naturally it was an ambitious project, not least in that unlike today's no holds barred documentaries, Russell had to adhere to some pretty strict rules imposed by Wheldon and the BBC. The most restrictive was that there was a ban on the dramatisation of the lives of real people at that time on the BBC. So Russell was forced to accept a compromise: the main characters would be portrayed by actors, but they wouldn't speak and would mainly appear in long-shot. To many producers this might have fatally restricted their creativity, but to Russell it was to prove the opposite.

At the time of the programme - 1962 - composer Edward Elgar had been going through a period of neglect, and the knowledge and awareness of his music tended to concentrate mainly on the "Pomp and Circumstance" side of his compositions. Ken Russell set out to try and change this rather restricted and unrealistic image - and succeeds brilliantly in revealing a far more emotionally complex and sensitive individual.

The programme "Elgar" basically provides an overview of Elgar's entire life. Because of the restriction in not having the characters speak, Russell concentrates the viewer's attention on the music right from the start with Huw Wheldon speaking a concise yet always informative narration in his inimitable "BBC Received Pronunciation". At the time of the first broadcast, many of the compositions heard as background music had fallen into some neglect, so "Elgar" served a vital function in bringing the music back into the public domain.

But right from the start one is also aware that the visual impact of the programme is going to be a major factor. The film opens with a wonderfully evocative scene of Elgar as a young boy riding a white pony over the Malvern Hills... the countryside which was to inspire so much of his music. The accompanying music is his "Introduction and Allegro" - invigorating and evocative - it and the image of Elgar travelling along the crest of the Malvern Hills serve as a kind of Leitmotif throughout the film whenever Elgar returns to Malvern and Worcester from London. Actually, we now know that he never did ride a pony as a child! But the effectiveness of that opening image (which seems to stick in the mind of all who view this film) does seem to justify that little piece of artistic licence!

We learn of Elgar's humble roots as the son of a music shop proprietor and his obvious early talent at learning any instrument he found in his father's shop. Right from the start we hear his early compositions - whether a piece for violin, or a gorgeous extract of one of his first church music works. There is quite a strong emphasis on the hardships which he had to endure in order to establish himself as a composer, and indeed also in his personal life when he fell in love with and eventually married Alice who was from a higher social class and whose family did not approve of her marrying a "mere musician". Interestingly, we hear of Elgar's depression and even his occasional suicidal thoughts - one aspect of his character which was virtually unknown to the general public back in the 1960s. This is contrasted with his strong religious faith, and then - following his wife's death, his despair at being left alone.

Admittedly there are some inaccuracies in the film - perhaps most particularly in that his early success in Germany was first from the Enigma Variations rather than the later Dream of Gerontius, and also Elgar's antipathy towards his best known composition "Land of Hope and Glory/Pomp and Circumstance March" was in no way as strong as depicted in the film. There are also major omissions in that his relationship with Alice Stuart-Wortley is completely ignored, but back in the 60s Elgar scholarship was still in its infancy and perhaps there were too many people still alive to whom such revelations could have been offensive. But none of this should in any way deter someone from watching this film, as it does not suffer as a result.

Impression of the film.

Perhaps the most enduring aspect of the programme is the incredibly vivid visual imagery which reinforces the quality of Elgar's music. There are so many total strokes of genius which stamp Ken Russell's involvement all over this film and ensure its durability as a unique piece of television history. For example the use of actual footage of First World War fighting, accompanied by the rousing tune of Land of Hope and Glory as soldiers die in battle, are carried off injured, or a line of blinded men marching along a road, each holding on to the shoulder of the one before... culminating in the final fast climax of the march as the camera pans around a WW1 cemetery, faster and faster and faster. I can't think of a more poignant and hard-hitting depiction of the utter futility of war.

All through this film one finds the perfect combination of visual and musical imagery to make a deep emotional impact on the viewer. The cinematography of "Elgar" is at the highest possible level and one can understand how Russell's work later was to influence people such as Stanley Kubrick. Obviously as the film was made in 1962 it is in black and white, but I have to say that surprisingly in these days of HD TV, multi-million colour pixel screens and advanced tech viewing - after a few minutes you totally forget that you are seeing only shades of black, white and grey. The contrasts of lighting, shading, movement and stillness are incredibly vivid and the sure sign of a master film-maker at work. Especially stunning is one scene shot in a forest: Elgar's wife has died, he is lonely - the trees are bare, still, dark and uninviting, a mist billows around and then we pan to a desolate figure of Elgar - such contrast to previous scenes of him and his wife running through a sunlit cornfield, swaying in the breeze... or another image of the Malvern Hills to the accompaniment of the Dream of Gerontius - and suddenly one sees a vision of three crucifixes on the top of the hills...

My own favourite 2 scenes are one where Elgar and his wife are seated at a table, he is composing his first great work - the Serenade for Strings - while she draws lines for manuscript paper. The Serenade slow movement - one of Elgar's wonderful melodies - plays as they concentrate intensely on their tasks, the intensity of the lighting is vividly reminiscent of a Velasquez still life painting - unbelievably effective. The other scene comes at the end of the film where Elgar is on his deathbed, but one only sees his arm put the needle on a wind up gramophone as he looks out from his bed over to Worcester Cathedral and the hills beyond while his glorious "Nimrod" from the Enigma Variations is played on the record. At the end of the variation, the needle clicks repeatedly on the record.... and the light fades... pure genius, always makes me cry!

In hindsight, when one considers the "warts and all" type of biographical coverage that we encounter on tv nowadays, the approach taken by Russell and Wheldon in "Elgar" could perhaps be described as rather twee and superficial in some respects. Yet - I personally believe that the way in which they concentrate on what they felt were the most salient points of his complex emotional character, and coupled that with the power of his music - it makes for a much more intense experience overall than our rather intrusive modern approach.

Needless to say, this DVD edition of the film has been beautifully restored and the sound remastered, so that the mono soundtrack does not distract in any way from the quality of the sound. It says a lot for the quality of the BBC Monitor team that the basic quality of the film and sound has held up so well over the years.

DVD Extras

This is where this particular edition of "Elgar" really comes into its own and makes it a "must buy" for any serious classical music fans. We have to be incredibly indebted to the British Film Institute for putting together such a top-class package. They are doing great work in bringing this and other film classics back into the public domain and deserve the support of the public.

As well as a revealing and occasionally very droll audio commentary on the film by Ken Russell himself, there are subtitles for the hearing impaired and a whole host of wonderful extras to explore, including some fascinating archive footage of Elgar himself conducting "Land of Hope and Glory" for a recording session celebrating the opening of the renowned Abbey Road studios in 1933, with interesting commentary from the Elgar expert Michael Kennedy. Additionally, one can watch some rare "home movies" taken by a friend of Elgar's covering the Three Choirs Festival in the early 1930s, which show many of Elgar's friends and colleagues - such as George Bernard Shaw, his regular concertmaster W. H. Reid and other luminaries from Elgar's musical social scene. Most revealing and intimate of all - there is footage of Elgar playing with his beloved dogs and the only known film of his last girlfriend and "muse" Vera Hockman, who met him when he was in his 70s and she was in her late 20s and a violinist in the London Symphony Orchestra, by all accounts it was a passionate relationship and she was to inspire him to take up composing again to start work on his 3rd symphony... sadly uncompleted at his death. This is such valuable film footage for Elgar fans and it is great to have it made widely available. I have to admit that because I have a direct link to Elgar through one of my violin professors (who played for an elderly Elgar when he was only 11 or so) I have always felt a strong pull towards him and his music so this kind of archive footage is very moving.

There are also some beautiful stills from the filming of the film and a biography of Ken Russell. Altogether a very generously filled DVD. Perhaps my only criticism is that we don't get a listing of the musical forces involved in the film, it would be nice to know which orchestras, soloists and conductors were involved.

Conclusion:

This film can be purchased from all the usual outlets but I'd recommend going to the British Film Institute site and supporting them direct with your purchase. www.bfi.org.uk
As always it is hard to sum up something really special in mere words and I can only say - take the time to watch this milestone in television documentary and make your own decision. This is definitely a "must see" for any Elgar fan and also I'd recommend it highly to anyone studying television, media and film, as it strikes a revolutionary path forward in the development of the tv documentary.