SAVAGE MESSIAH
UK, 1972, 98 minutes, Colour.
Dorothy Tutin, Scott Antony, Helen Mirren, Lindsay Kemp, John Justin, Peter Vaughan.
Directed by Ken Russell.
Savage Messiah is rather low-key Ken Russell after - The Music Lovers, and The Devils. It is more like his famous T.V. programmes on the composers. Here he takes French sculptor, Henri Gaudier, a young man, full of artistic verve and emotion, and presents him in his work and in his platonic relationship with older Polish writer Sophie Brzeska. France and .England before World War I are well re-created and provide an authentic setting for this eccentric couple.
Dorothy Tutin is excellent as the earthy, vital Sophie and invests her role with a great deal of energy. So does Scott Antony as the young sculptor. In fact, there is a lot of energetic moving, shouting and posturing expected from Russell's style. The film is eccentric but curiously interesting.
1. Henri Gaudier was called savage and a would-be messiah by Gosh Boyle towards the end of the film. What did the title mean?
2. How were the characters of Henri and Sophie quickly established?
3. How typical a young artistic adolescent was Henri Gaudier at the start of the film? How were his youth, verve and
eccentricity communicated?
4. What kind of woman was Sophie? Was she well portrayed by Dorothy Tutin?
5. Why did the two come together? Was it love? Why was there no sexual consummation of their love, but rather a brother-sister relationship? What encouragement did Sophie give? How did Henri depend on her?
6. What did the visit to Henri's family contribute to the film?
7. Comment on the effectiveness of the re-creation of that period in France and England - libraries, markets, transport, poverty etc.
8. How did Henri's talent develop in England?
9. What was the point of the meal at Mr. Porky's house with the Vortex people?
10. Why did Sophie leave Henri alone for a time?
11. Why did Henri not become involved in the war effort but continue to sculpt? Did he believe art was positive and contributed to mankind? Why didn't Sophie take him seriously?
12. Were you shocked at his death after Porky had read his letter? How effective was the sequence of the exhibition in communicating the emotional impact of his death?
13. What did the film have to say on art, communication, audience, creativity, sex etc? Especially the sequence in the park, the Louvre, with Porky and his guests, while Henri sculpted the torso?
14. Was this a typical Ken Russell film?
15. Did you think the film was interesting and well made? Visual details: the library, park, market at the start; Sophie's long speech as she did the vegetables; Henri's sketching of the prostitute; Mr. Porky; the meal and Henri and Sophie wrestling; taking the marble from the cemetery; swashing the shop window; Portland - the rocks, catalogue, dancing; Gosh Boyle's demonstration; dance at the Vortex Club, posing for Henri, rudeness to Sophie, ridiculing her father's bust; Sophie's grief at the exhibition. Ken Russell's exuberance: shouting and running of Henri, earthy forcefulness of Sophie, weirdness of the Vortex people, rapid editing of the park and Louvre sequences.
