something like a teleological midpoint between the system (where ken russell discovered oliver reed) and another russell biopic for the bbc, dante’s inferno. reed plays an actor who is playing debussy in a film, which is a handy device for having the film-within-the-film’s director explain the composer’s life and complicated relationships. as the film and its film intertwine we get the sense that the french impressionists and the british beatniks weren’t really so different, or at least that russell wants us to think so. and fair enough, since it meant that russell could transition reed from the beats and hammer era of his career into his next, and best, phase. russell gave reed his art, as the latter once said, and it was to be an art of magnificent, troubled men.

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