A Kitten for Hitler

Ken Russell – 2007 – England

 

This short is simply another piece of the sad puzzle making up the final couple of decades of the great Ken Russell’s career.  Once the director of a barrage of vibrant and challenging features in the 60s and 70s, Russell was mercilessly punished and discarded by his own nation’s film industry for being an unapologetic maverick, eccentric and iconoclast.  He survived for as long as he could persuade bankable stars to appear in his films, but once that fell away, so did the backers.  The rationale for this treatment of important filmmakers always seems to center on their lack of ability to guarantee profits, which is fair enough in a democratic free market, but what we never hear about is the enormous sums that are funneled into presumably “safer” productions that never earn a dime.  No one ever ostracizes the makers of those films for their failure.  Since there is no guarantee of success at all, why not err on the side of supporting our greatest artists?  But I digress.  A Kitten for Hitler is pretty lame, and there is little evidence of its maker’s once-great wit.  Apparently, Russell was challenged to make the most offensive film he could imagine; one that would even he would want banned.  You can’t ask for a much touchier subject than the Holocaust, I suppose, although there has been plenty of tasteless comedy about it already.  It doesn’t entirely lack bite, but in a post-South Park, post-Farrelly brothers environment, Russell’s casual stab at being outrageous and provocative just feels kind of blah.