In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Whore (1991)

Ken Russell’s adaptation of David Hines’ play (called Bondage) is reportedly the cult director’s response to the unrealistic romantic nonsense that was Pretty Woman (1990). Russell made a no frills, low budget film packed with monologues and lengthy asides by Theresa Russell (no relation) that are both candid and self-deluding. If you’re paying attention you’ll hopefully figure out which of those two states is the most telling at any given time.
It was the last cinema release he ever made. The studio’s treatment of the film and their fear it would bring them bad publicity meant it was criminally overlooked at the time of release.

3½ substitutes out of 5

2 comments:

cuckoo said...

I saw this film way back in the day.

My buddy and I thought we had found the ultimate filth film on some movie channel.

We were a bit disappointed but I recall finding something about it that wasn't a complete throwaway.

I'll watch it again because of this Nut.

Dr Faustus said...

It didn’t score too well on IMDB but you like stuff based on plays same as I do so I think you’ll like it, maybe not as much as I did but enough to see it through to the end. Try to find the uncut version.

I thought Theresa was fantastic. She was sympathetic and strong, but common as shit. I plan to seek out more of her work to see if she got lucky here or not.