From its stunning opening sequence, featuring Georgina Hale (who plays the wife of Gustav Mahler in this Ken Russell film) isolated in full mummy wrap and writhing with erotic yearning to the lush strains of her husband's music, Mahler distinguishes itself as the most poetic and archetypal of Russell's great-composer works. A .. Read more
| Starring | Robert Powell, Georgina Hale, Lee Montague, Miriam Karlin |
|---|---|
| Director | Ken Russell |
| Genres | Drama |
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From its stunning opening sequence, featuring Georgina Hale (who plays the wife of Gustav Mahler in this Ken Russell film) isolated in full mummy wrap and writhing with erotic yearning to the lush strains of her husband's music, Mahler distinguishes itself as the most poetic and archetypal of Russell's great-composer works. A kind of cinematic response to Luchino Visconti's 1971 adaptation of Death in Venice, in which Dirk Bogarde plays a Mahler-esque composer in search of beauty in the plague-filled city, Mahler stars Robert Powell as the great Jewish romantic from 19th-century Vienna, drafting enormous symphonic works in the midst of rising anti-Semitism. Converting to Christianity as a means of survival, Mahler carries on with his work but experiences an erosion of his health and sense of identity. Meanwhile, his self-effacing spouse represses her own creative drives to keep the resident genius afloat, plugging every leak and receding all but invisible into the woodwork. While the film is the least ostentatious of Russell's movies about music, it is hardly conventional--a mix of lyrical tableaux and comic fantasy that adds up to a stirring, dream-like experience.
| Starring | Robert Powell, Georgina Hale, Lee Montague, Miriam Karlin, Rosalie Crutchley, Gary Rich |
|---|---|
| Director | Ken Russell |
| Studio | FREMANTLE HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 51 mins |
| Certificate |  |
| Genres | Drama |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Released | Production year: 1974 To Rent: DVD: not available To Buy: DVD: 28 Mar 2005 |
This musical biography, Russell-style, comes over like a cross between a comic strip and Life with the Mahlers (or the... read more on Time Out
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Typical Russell
Mahler, towards the end of his life, takes a train journey with his wife Alma, during which an admirer of hers tries to persuade her to leave her ailing husband... read more »
[Highly rated reviewer]
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SUPERB
Superb film about the finest composer EVER. Pity that only short extracts of the music of this genius were played. Well worth watching.
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Mahler
Sorry-too weird-would have preferred a documentary really
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One of the better Russells...
Ken Russell had a trademark of extravagant black comedy. Sometimes it fails miserably (Lair of the White Worm, Lisztomania, Aria, etc). Sometimes, as in this ... read more »
With few exceptions, films about the great composers have been a rum bunch. Grieg got the egregious Song of Norway. Ken Russell did well by Delius in Song of Summer, okay by Tchaikovsky in The Music Lovers, so-so for Mahler, then perpetrated Lisztomania, with Roger Daltrey as Franz Liszt, Paul Nicholas as Wagner, and Ringo Starr as the Pope. And of course, Tom Hulce played Mozart as a braying adolescent in Amadeus. Stern, deaf old Beethoven has mostly been given a wide berth by filmmakers,... Read more
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