'Oliver Reed always called me Jesus'

When he agreed to be this year's Raindance Film Festival director in residence, British director Ken Russell was asked which of his films he thought best represented his body of work. Out of the 80 or so films he's made, he picked Savage Messiah, a 1972 biopic of sculptor Henri Gaudier that proved so impenetrable it was pulled from cinemas after five days, never to be screened again.

Until now. Always eccentric and often controversial, Russell, 76, is better known for making Oliver Reed and Alan Bates wrestle naked in Women in Love, taking religious hysteria to new (and mostly naked) heights in The Devils and bringing the Who's concept album to the screen with Tommy. He spoke to TIME's Jumana Farouky about making art and making waves.

Why did you agree to be the face of this year's Raindance? I never ask. All they had to do was ask me.

But must have a special affinity for independent film. Oh yes. I'm making one myself at this very moment called Revenge of the Elephant Man in my back garden with family and friends.

Why? Why not? I'm not answerable to anyone but me. I don't have to get the script approved, I don't have to get the final cut taken away from me. I can indulge myself.

So what if Warner Bros. asked you to do another movie for them..? Warner Bros. would never ask me after two films I made for them which they didn't like.

Even your big studio films, though, tend to have an independent sensibility to them. I sometimes wonder how they got accepted by the committee in the first place. Of course they didn't have committees so much when I was making my so-called controversial films like The Devils. You didn't have to sell the idea to a committee, there would be just one or two people who had to approve. After Women in Love I remember United Artists were pleased that it was an artistic success and it made money as well. And they asked me what film I'd like to do next and I said a film on Tchaikovsky whereupon their faces fell. And they said, 'What's the pitch?' And I said, 'It's about a homosexual who falls in love with a nymphomaniac.' I got the money. Ping! The cash register went and they handed it over.

Were they happy with it at the end? No. They were a bit shocked.

You refer to your films as "so-called controversial." But when you were making films like The Devils you must have known they were going to cause a stir. Well, it wasn't my idea to make the film. At least half the films I've made have been commissioned. The studios would come up with an idea and ask if I'd like to make a film of it. I'd never heard of it, but then I read Aldous Huxley's book on Devils of Loudun then amalgamated the film and made the script. Warners read the script, accepted it and when they saw the film they were appalled. And yet I hadn't changed a thing. Maybe they just didn't have as vivid an imagination.

Are you proud of it? Oh yeah, I think it's one of my best films. And the fact that it's taught at Loyola University in Chicago as a "pukka" Catholic movie ensures my entrance into heaven!