While his films were sometimes strange, controversial or outright bonkers, Ken Russell was undoubtedly one of the most interesting British directors of the past 40 years. Sadly though, it’s now being reported that he’s died at the age of 84.

Russell started out in television in the late 50s and early 60s, developing a flamboyant style that stayed with him throughout his film career. After a series of documentaries and TV movies, he made his cinematic debut with 1967’s Billion Dollar Brain. However it was his follow-up film, Women In Love, that really put him on the map.

The film was controversial for being one of the first movies to get full frontal male nudity past the British censors, with a scene featuring Oliver Reed and Alan Bates wrestling in front of a fire. It put Russell on the map and remains one of the most interesting pieces of 60s British cinema.

However, while Russell is often painted as a controversial director, it was more that he was constantly trying to push the envelope. So while The Devils, about a group of posessed nuns, was indeed controversial, other movies like The Who’s Tommy showed he was more interested in trying new things and experimenting with what could be done in cinema, rather than just trying to shock people with each new film.

Although the impact of his work tailed off after his 60s and 70s heyday, 1980s movies like Gothic, Salome’s Last Dance and The Lair Of The White Worm are still wonderfully in your face and interesting, even if they’re not brilliant movies. In the 90s he went back into television, making both TV movies and documentaries. As he aged, his work rate tailed off, with his last credit being one of five directors who worked on the anthology horror release, Trapped Ashes.

Ken Russell passed away in his sleep on Sunday. However his legend will live on, as the BFI is already planning a cinema re-release for The Devils next March, as well as a first ever DVD release for the fascinating film.

General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser

Despite several new releases hitting US cinemas over the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, Twilight: Breaking Dawn has topped the box office chart, adding another $62 million over the holiday. That takes its total to $221 million in North America and over $500 million worldwide in only 10 days.

While a holdover release topped the chart, it wasn’t all bad news for new releases. The Muppets took $42 million in its first five days, which certainly isn’t bad for a movie that only cost $45 million to make. With good word of mouth, it should do pretty well in the weeks to come as well.

Arthur Christmas had less to cheer about as it came in fourth with $17 million, behind animated competitor Happy Feet Two (which opened last week). The hope is that with its festive theme it’ll keep picking up family audiences over the next few weeks, although you would have thought that releasing it closer to Christmas would have made more sense.

Martin Scorsese’s Hugo came in fifth on the chart, but its $15 million was well ahead of the $11 million it had been expected to do in its first weekend. Paramount decided to role out the film relatively slowly, opening it on just over a thousand screens (compared to over 3000 for the week’s other main releases). Although the strong opening bodes well for the weeks to come, many will feel Paramount should have given the $150 million film a stronger push to begin with, as it’s timid approach could have lost it tens of million in potential box office.

Take a look below for the US box office for the weekend of November 25th-27th.

General movie news courtesy of Movie Muser