To me, this movie is perfection.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

First I have to admit that I was directed by Ken Russell in this movie. He told me to "get out of the bloody shot" when I was watching the filming at Horsted Keynes station between shots while working as an extra! The movie itself has several excellent parts, many of them well and clearly shown on Helen Mirren's body as she descends the stairs all woman totally disablie! The most moving part (by far) is the last 10 minutes where we see the work of Gaudier-Brzeska after being told of his demise. Back to Russell as a director he was friendly, indeed charming to the cast and even we extras, but scathing to the crew when things went wrong. In one case almost throwing the camera operator off set when he switched off the camera before the director shouted "cut". Suppose Russell had a point, it wasn't for the man with the switch to decide when the scene was over! The sound man received a round of applause - led by Shirly Russell when he performed some sort of audio miracle. Certainly not the best Russell movie,but far from his worst either. Good film that I would have never ever watched had I not been an extra. Glad that I did.

Ken Russell did it with Valentino, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, and Lizst. He made British movies of these non-British geniuses, biographical at the obvious level, with satire and pathos lurking beneath the obvious layer. "Savage messiah" is once again a biopic of an eccentric French sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, though not as famous as Russell's three musical composers or the ballet dancer he made films about, yet a gifted French genius (an outsider in British society) who finds a Polish spouse 20 years his senior in real life ("ugly", he calls her in the film), intelligent, creative and sensitive as the sculptor but disinterested in sex. Russell captures the rich world of artist's agents, the rich who frequent art galleries and museums, rich society's rules that give importance of tucking in shirt-tails while appreciating art in museums, the rich copying art and passing the results off as genuine works...Russell's film captures the brave suffragettes (in the character of Gosh Boyle, played by the stunning young Dame Helen Mirren, who even appears nude) who are not averse to sex and nudity and contrasts them with the lead character of Sophie Brzeska (a charismatic portrayal by Dame Dorothy Tutin), who never takes off her clothes and is openly averse to sex.The director makes the viewer virtually taste the cabbage in the soup made by the poor artists as the rich agent savors the bad concoction. That is an example of Russel at his best.The film is a love story--an unusual one. There is sexual energy that exudes in the cutting of cabbages by Dame Dorothy that seems to have been copied decades later in the vegetable chopping by Cate Blanchett in the recent film "Bandits". The death of the artist is captured by still photographs of the World War and his spouse viewing his sculptures in a public gallery.The film is a remarkable work of two great actors--Dame Dorothy Tutin and Dame Helen Mirren--honored by the British Queen much after the film was made.Russell and set designer Derek Jarman dishes out a movie that may not be outstanding but worthy of note to any one who appreciates the genius among artists and what they have to battle against in the quest to state the truth and tear down pretensions in society. It is a tragic tale of a genius nipped in the bud. Only his spouse, herself a loser among "geniuses", seems to realize this.

This one is arty in such an unconventional and politically incorrect way, that surprises the viewer. Though old in style, it's 'fresh' in ideas and context.It's the 3rd or 4rth Ken Russel film I got to see. Altered states, Music lover, Gothic, all rule in their own universe. And so does Savage Messiah. RECOMMENDED TO ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE TRUE NATURE OF ARTI sure loved it!

Ken Russell's take on the life of Gaudia Brzeska is irreverant and a little flippant. Perhaps that is just as well, because clearly someone who was able to produce the quantity and quality of work that Brzeska did during his short life, must have had something like mad energy portrayed in this film. Had he lived, he might have been as well known as Picasso. There are flaws, it looks very dated to the 70's, but if this film had not been made, I probably would not have heard of him.