Ken Russell Memorial Screening: THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (Ken Russell, 1988)
Event Date: December 3, 2011 - 7:30pm
Location: The James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall 1409, UCLA
From the Director of Melnitz Movies, Samuel B. Prime:
Ever since hearing of Ken Russell's passing on Nov. 27th, 2011, I've been working to locate an available print on extremely short notice. I'm happy to say that thanks to the assistance of several partners, we are able to showcase a 16mm print of THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM. As idiosyncratic a fever dream as any of his films, LAIR is Russell's loose, freewheeling adaptation of Bram Stoker's final novel of the same name. LAIR has everything one expects from a Ken Russell film: kooky, memorable characters, a hypersexualized text and subtext, as much religious symbolism as there is air to breathe, and perhaps most importantly, as Roger Ebert puts it, "It has a lair, it has a worm, the worm is white and there is a sufficient number of screaming victims to be dragged down into the lair by the worm." And it does not disappoint. Please join us for this memorial screening in tribute to Ken Russell.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scottish archaeologist Angus Flint (Peter Capaldi) discovers an odd skull amid the ruins of a convent during an excavation. Shortly thereafter, Lady Sylvia Marsh (Amanda Donohoe) makes an early return to a nearby mansion called Temple House. At a party in the village, Angus meets Lord James D'Ampton (Hugh Grant), who has just inherited his family's land right next to Temple House. There, Angus learns of the D'Ampton Worm, a huge dragon-snake that an earlier D'Ampton killed by cutting it in half. Over the next few days, people begin acting strangely, and then disappearing. The skull is stolen from Angus's room, and the watch of a missing person is found in a cavern that was the legendary home of the D'Ampton worm. Angus and James discover that there was an ancient cult that worshiped the worm as a god. Somehow, the creature escaped destruction, but has been trapped inside the cavern. Now, Angus, James, and Mary Trent (Sammi Davis) must work together to stop Lady Marsh from freeing the creature…
"Russell's compositions are gorgeous to look at though it's the deliciousness with which the story unravels that made Lair of the White Worm Russell's most enjoyable film since his masterpiece Crimes of Passion." -Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
"A rollicking, terrifying, post-psychedlic headtrip, features a fangy vampiress of unmatched erotic allure." -Variety
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Ken Russell
STARRING: Hugh Grant, Amanda Donohue, Catherine Oxenberg, Peter Capaldi, and Sammi Davis
Vestron / Swank Motion Pictures, Inc.
16mm, 93 min.
