Ken Russell, The Great Passions

Ken Russell's playful and exuberant 1965 film about the artist Henri Rousseau. Divided into roughly three acts, the film charts the life of Rousseau from being rejected and despised by all, to having his work championed by the mighty Picasso. The film fizzes with the sort of inventiveness that comes from working with low budgets but editorial freedom and after its first broadcast was favourably compared to the early films of Truffaut and Richard Lester. Always on Sunday is a delight, and a vindication of the maxim that good films are made not with an abundance of money, but with an abundance of ideas.

Ken Russell's film Isadora takes a snapshot approach to the life of one of the most innovative dancers of the twentieth century - Isadora Duncan. Jumping from one key moment in her life to another, the film also devotes a lot of time to sequences that show her dancing, meaning much of its success rests on the shoulders of Vivian Pickles who portrays Duncan. Isadora remains a fascinating and important film today because of the way it subverts the conventions of documentary filmmaking. The first of Russell's films to go over the top in that red-blooded way he is now fondly remembered for.

Dante's Inferno takes as its focus the 'personal life' of the Pre-Raphaelite poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Ken Russell's evocative images work wonderfully alongside writer Austin Frazer's extremely literate screenplay which brilliantly uses the poetry of Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti.