Ken Russell's Whore: If You Can't Say It, Just Upgrade

Alright, readers, get your Ken Russell Completist hats on again, and I'll get my Obscure, Foreign DVD hat on. I've spent a considerable amount of time researching DVD releases of Whore, one of the more controversial films by Russell. And, the situation is pretty dire; just look at its dvdcompare page... all more or less fullscreen, all cut. Presumably all taken from VHS. Just one low quality, dodgy import after another. And many of those don't have the original English audio track. Of course, it's never been released at all in the US or UK. Well, I've dug deeper, and I believe I've found... the least worst DVD option available.

Update 1/28/16 - 8/4/22: It's a whole new ballgame (pun? I'll let you decide)!  Whore is now out as a special edition blu-ray from Australia's Imprint.  How is it?  We'll take a look, but you can bet it's miles better than what we had six years ago.

Whore is based off a theatrical monologue called Bondage by English writer David Hines. Here, Theresa Russell (no relation) talks to the audience directly, telling us her unglamorized account of her life as a prostitute. But rather than being on stage, she's out on the streets, in peoples' homes, and everywhere else during the the course of her story, while constantly breaking the fourth wall. She has scenes with other characters, and during one uncharacteristic moment, another character is even allowed to monologue to the audience. It's actually a rather unique and effective combination of the faithful, theatrical piece and the additional opportunity afforded to the cinematic medium: a play that moves out into the world. And as it's Ken Russell, it's also quite stylized and provocative.

Oh, and look for a cameo from the one and only Jack Nance - is his appearance a deliberate reference to his role in Twin Peaks, finding Theresa's abandoned body just like Laura Palmer's (albeit, not "wrapped in plastic")?  You decide!

The cut/ uncut nature of this film is so complex, movie-censorship has had to create two separate articles on this film. But the short version of it is that there are essentially three cuts of this film: 1) the original, uncut version, 2) the heavily censored R-rated cut and 3) the less censored NC-17 cut. The completely uncut version doesn't seem to be available anywhere outside of VHS. Believe me, I've looked into it, so just give up on trying to find a copy of that. But, at least, it seems like almost every DVD release includes the NC-17 cut as opposed to the R-rated. The difference between the unrated and NC-17 is mostly dialogue, actually, and seems to have been cut for pacing rather than censorship. As opposed to the R-rated version, which is all about cutting down the sex, violence and swearing. So the R is to be avoided, but while the uncut would be ideal, the NC-17 isn't so bad.

Now, the dvdcompare article I linked to earlier mentions several foreign discs, including an Italian one. But the DVD I've landed on is actually a newer Italian disc from a label called Pulp Video (this one, not this more common one). It's still cut, but at least it's the NC-17 cut, and like all the others, it looks like it's sourced from VHS.  And Imprint's new blu-ray?  Yes, it's still the NC-17 cut, but it's from an infinitely more attractive, widescreen source.

2011 Pulp Video DVD top; 2022 Imprint BD bottom.

So we shift from the fullscreen 1.34:1 of the DVD to the BD's widescreen 1.85:1.  The matting does shave off a little on the tops and bottoms, but it reveals a bunch more on the sides; and overall, the framing is much more attractive.  This has to be the intended framing.  The colors and contrast are also nice and strong, as opposed to the faded and washed out DVD.  And it's so much clearer; you can now clearly read on-screen writing (like the bar rules in the bathroom scene) that were a pixelated blur before.  So it's a massive gain for us fans.  But it's not exactly a showroom floor blu.  Grain is soft and there's a lot of unfortunate edge enhancement, both of which betray an older master.  So this isn't the kind of disc that other blu-ray sites would rate an A+ - and they're correct not to - but just looking at the overall situation of Whore on the home video market, this is a really exciting upgrade.

The DVD has 2.0 English audio, plus 2.0 and a 5.1 mix of the Italian dub, and optional Italian subtitles.  Imprint drops the Italian stuff, naturally, but bumps the stereo mix up to lossless LPCM and adds optional English subtitles.

DVD featurette.

The reason I latched onto the Pulp DVD as opposed to any other is that it actually has extras. None of the others could say that (beyond bonus trailers and other fluff). Now, don't get me wrong; there's no Ken Russell commentary... this isn't exactly The Lord Of the Ring extended appendixes here. But there's some stuff; an effort was made. And looking back at the transfer, it's not interlaced. The menus are animated. I feel like with this release, they at least tried to make the best disc possible given the materials they were limited to, which is more than you can say for most of their competitors.

So what we get is essentially the film's original electronic press kit. You get a four minute featurette of on-set interviews with Ken and Theresa Russell, Benjamin Mouton and producer Dan Ireland, plus some behind the scenes footage. Then there's another four minute interview featurette just with Theresa, and a four minute (four was the magic number for Trimark, apparently) collection of promo scenes. They're like deleted scenes except they're in the movie (even the R-rated cut), just meant to be like talk show clips or other press looking for clips of the film. There's also the film's original, misleading theatrical trailer (making Whore sound like a titillating male fantasy rather than an expose of how women are mistreated) and a photo gallery. So yeah, nothing to run and alert the neighbors about; but it does add a little value.

But now Imprint really makes a proper special edition of it.  Unfortunately, they drop the vintage stuff, but they come up with a surprising amount of first class content.  There's an expert audio commentary by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson that takes a while to find its footing, but becomes worth tuning in to after about a half hour.  And then there's even more exciting is the on-camera stuff.  I was surprised to see they got a brand new interview with Theresa Russell, and she's not afraid to be candid about her career or experiences on this film.  Former porn star Ginger Lynn, who has a small cameo role in Whore, has some rather frank memories of working with the Russells, too.  And co-writer Deborah Dalton has a revealing on-camera interview, giving us better insight into the thinking behind the film.  Then gay punk/ porn filmmaker Bruce La Bruce joins us to talk about how Russell, and particularly this film, influenced some of his work, especially 1996's Hustler White.  And finally Kat Ellinger gives us a slightly meandering video essay, but starts particularly strong, putting the film in the historical context of courtesan diaries as a distinct genre of fiction.  Finally, Imprint also has the trailer, and the first 1,500 copies comes in a limited edition slipbox.

So this is terrific; Ken Russell has finally been given an edition worthy of his creation.  Still, it could've been even greater.  A fresh scan of the film elements would've looked decidedly better.  And it's not a huge deal, but it's a little disappointing that they dropped the vintage EPK stuff.  More disappointing is that the uncut footage is still absent.  Even if they couldn't get the original film elements for a proper restoration of the director's vision, they could've at least ripped a VHS copy and included the missing material as deleted scenes.  But putting aside what they didn't do, and just looking at what they did accomplish, this is a huge upgrade with some fantastic features, giving us a quality release of this underrated feature for the first time ever.

Ken Russell's Vestron Film The Rainbow: Import Or Lump It

1989's The Rainbow is the third in Ken Russell's three picture deal with Vestron, inked after their joint success with Gothic, and is based on the DH Lawrence's novel of the same name.  Film-wise, It's the prequel to 1969's Women In Love, which of course was one of Russell's most successful films.  Novel-wise, The Rainbow (1915) came first (WIL was 1920).  In both versions, characters carry through both stories.  Viewers should know, though, that The Rainbow novel is broken up into three parts, following three generations of a family.  The film only adapts the final third.

That third follows the story of Ursula, played by Sammi Davis, who you'll recognize of course from Lair Of the White Worm.  Ursula is the character played by Jennie Linden in Women In Love, but here she's just leaving her family home, yearning to strike out on her own as an independent woman, but given the times, faces constant push-back.  But she finds support from her White Worm Amanda Donohoe, who's so liberated, she's willing to go as far as a lesbian affair with her underage student while also courting a relationship with her uncle.  So as you can imagine, this is all about Lawrence pushing the envelope of his times, testing the boundaries of just how far society can and should go.  And if you know Russell, he's more than ready to give life to this young woman's sexual and emotional awakenings within the trappings of a nay-saying period England.

Naturally, Russell's not one to shy away from the sex, but he's also never about to let an important dramatic tale slide into softcore porn as often befell Lawrence's work in the 80's and 90's.  His film adaptations would alternatively be produced for Masterpiece Theater and the BBC or Skinemax and Showtime After Dark.  Russell uses the opportunity to give us a few colorful, ribald images, including some naked homosexual wrestling on a carpet in front of a fireplace as a cheeky nod to the most famous scene in Women In Love.  But he actually shows considerable restraint and never lets this film veer away from proper respectability and intelligent story-telling.  Glenda Jackson is back, this time playing the mother of her character from WIL, and other noteworthy cast members include David Hemmings, Russell stalwart Dudley Statton and Withnail and I's Paul McGann (he was I).

Through the entire DVD era, the only option for The Rainbow was a barebones 4:3 DVD from Columbia Tri-Star released in 2001, and reissued in 2007 by Lions Gate.  That was the whole story.  But fortunately, in the HD era, it was given a proper blu-ray, making it available in its proper widescreen format for the very first time.  But only in Italy.  Pulp Video (the same guys who did that Whore DVD I wrote about... these guys must be proper Russell fans) released it in 2014 as La Vita è un Arcobaleno, or Life Is a Rainbow.

1) 2001 Columbia Tri-Star UK DVD; 2) 2014 Pulp IT BD.

I've seen the DVDs 1.30:1 image described as open-matte online, but getting to compare it to the blu-ray's 1.78:1 now, it's obvious a lot was cut off the sides and very little was added vertically.  So restoring it a widescreen is a huge improvement, and that's just the composition.  Both discs seem to be sourced from the same film elements - note the same white fleck on the left-hand side of both transfers in the first set of shots.  But the DVD seems to be coming to us by way of a video tape transfer; it's very soft and murky.  Thankfully the blu is a proper scan of film elements, looking remarkably sharper, clearer and more detail.  We can finally see, for instance, the pattern on wallpaper behind them in the second shot.  Colors are corrected, too, getting rid of the dull hue that was cast over the DVD.  I mean, just look at those shots, it's an entirely different viewing experience.  Grain's a little uneven, this is no top-of-the-line 4k restoration, but it's a real, quality HD image, which is only welcome all the more considering how paltry our previous SD option was.

Said DVD features the original stereo mix and nothing more.  It's adequate, but feels its age.  That same stereo mix is carried over to the blu, and disappointingly, it's still lossy.  Besides that, the blu just adds alternative Italian language options, including an Italian stereo dub, a 5.1 remix and optional subtitles.  Neither disc has English subs, but hey, at least the blu doesn't force the Italian ones.

It's disappointing to find, especially when we know what wonderful commentaries Russell frequently gave his films, that both of these discs are essentially barebones.  The DVD included a full-frame trailer, at least.  The blu-ray even drops that, although they do add their own stills gallery.  But if it feels like we're splitting hairs, here, that's because we are.  Both discs are awfully barren.  Sure, I'd love to see Red Shirt and co. turn this into a superior special edition through the Vestron line, but somehow I don't see them tackling a non-genre film like The Rainbow in this lifetime.  I'll be delighted to be proved wrong, but I don't think we have any real choice but to import.