Here are a pair of French ‘grande’ posters for two Ken Russell movies.

Flamboyant British ‘enfant terrible’ Russell made a wide range of ‘extreme’ censor and critic baiting movies – from The Devils to Whore. His movies tend to be love them or hate them affairs, and he made a number of undeniable stinkers in his career. I have blogged previously about how much I like his very divisive later movie Crimes of Passion. These two I have foggier memories of seeing, however. 

1969’s Women in Love, which Russell considered his ‘signature’ movie. is based on the novel by my home-town author and school alumni DH Lawrence. It was a bit of a cause celebre at the time of its release because it features a naked wrestling scene between stars Alan Bates and Oliver Reed. 

Nudity also features in Valentino, which is a free-wheeling biopic of the silent era screen sensation, starring Russian dancer Rudolph Nureyev in a rare movie role. Valentino was one of a number of biopics that Russell made in his career, including Lisztomania and Mahler.

The poster is one of the best things about it, I think – its a very powerful image which recreates a famous 1920s still from Valentino’s classic melodrama The Sheik, only in the nude!

Both of these posters are available to buy here.