Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

st-shot One can only imagine the switchboard at Monitor in the mid 60s after a showing of The Debussy Film, a BBC documentary on the impressionist composer. Viewers settling in for a respectable rendering of the man who composed Clair de Lune get both barrels however of a genius artist and his music to go along with a tawdry personal life of adultery, betrayal, suicide. The Debussy Film is one of director Ken Russell's earlier bio works that gives clear indication of the outrageous signature style that would inform his film career and the controversial biographies of Tchaikovsky (The Music Lovers) Liszt and Mahler. His taste often questioned, he's never been accused of being dull. Applying Debussy's romantically charged and dissonant music to his sometimes jarring and powerful compositions he both celebrates the artist and deconstructs the man who used and drove lovers over the edge and betrayed benefactors. A collaborator with Debussy once stated that the only thing Debussy ever loved was himself and possibly his music. If that's the case then the outrageous Mr. Russell has once again come closer to the truth than more sober chroniclers.

TheLittleSongbird Ken Russell was an interesting if controversial director. There is a clear love and interest for the subject and the music if a biopic of a composer or whatnot but he was prone to excesses that some will deem unnecessary or distasteful. The Debussy Film is fascinating if not quite as good or subtle as Elgar. It is filmed absolutely beautifully, I could see there was a big Fellini influence in how it looked. The music is glorious also and lovingly used, Debussy's music has grown on me significantly overtime, mainly due to his songs and watching The Debussy Film actually made me appreciate it even more. The biographical elements are very interesting, with a mix of things I knew and new information, while the voice overs are intelligently written with nothing that leaps out as out of place. It is splendidly directed by Russell, you can see a lot of his style with a mixture of restraint and excess(but never questionable) but there is never too much of one over the other. Oliver Reed is fabulous as Debussy, ideally suited and he gives his all into the role. In conclusion, wonderful and recommended highly. 9/10 Bethany Cox

didi-5 When Ken Russell was working on his series of short films about composers for the BBC, including Elgar, Delibes, and this one about Debussy, it was hard to see that his style would evolve into the excesses of Tommy and The Lair of the White Worm. Still, his early work is well worth seeing and is echoed in some of his later work such as Savage Messiah and to some extent, Valentino and The Music Lovers.In this Monitor episode, Russell regular Oliver Reed plays the composer in a series of voice overs, as well as a more modern reflection.Vladek Sheybal plays the slightly cynical narrator as well as a character in Debussy's life, Pierre Louis, who likes to do unmentionable things with young girls. Love interest Gaby is the elfin Annette Robertson, looking almost too modern and knowing for the time.This is clearly a 60s film, looking back as well as forward. The effect is rather mixed, but magical, and it is beautifully filmed and developed. The kind of thing the BBC just aren't interested in anymore - The Debussy Film, Monitor, or Ken Russell just wouldn't get their foot in the door on TV today.

johncitylit I have just seen Ken Russell's "The Debussy Film" at the National Film Theatre in London.It's every bit as good as I dimly remember it on TV in 1965.Sequences which stuck in the mind came up like old friends.An excellent example of the film within a film;to me it echoes Godard's "Le Mepris" made in 1962.It was shown as part of the celebrations of the director's 80th birthday.Celebrations in which the BBC seems to be taking no interest.A 1000 pities that they can't find time in their TV schedules to show some of these classics...too busy showing more cookery or gardening programmes?Or could it be that Russell's TV films shame the current drivel being spewed out by the Corporation?