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Mahler Details

1974

60
from 433 members

Starring	Robert Powell, Georgina Hale, Lee Montague, Miriam Karlin
Director	Ken Russell
Genres	Drama

Mahler

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	DB MUSIC SALES
Run time	DVD: 1 hr 51 mins
Certificate
Genres	Drama
Language	DVD: English
Released	Production year: 1974 To Rent: DVD: 23 Jan 2012

Critic's review of Mahler
View all (1)
- 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
- 47855
- - Time Out
  - 04 Nov 2008 at 00:18
Most helpful member's review of Mahler
View all members' reviews (13)
- - 2
  - 0
  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 »
  
  Report this review
- 217502
- [Highly rated reviewer]
  - David Ions
  - London
  - 11 Mar 2006 at 19:41
Most recent members' reviews of Mahler
View all members' reviews (13)
- - 1
  - 1
  SUPERB
  
  Superb film about the finest composer EVER. Pity that only short extracts of the music of this genius were played. Well worth watching.
  
  Report this review
- 894751
- - a customer
  - Burntwood, Staffordshire, England
  - 29 May 2010 at 12:28
- - 1
  - 0
  Mahler
  
  Sorry-too weird-would have preferred a documentary really
  
  Report this review
- 868773
- - a customer
  - Richmond
  - 04 Mar 2010 at 14:16
- - 0
  - 0
  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 »
  
  Report this review
- 859858
- - Leni
  - 179 reviews
  - London
  - 10 Feb 2010 at 09:19
View all members' reviews (13)
News and features
View all
Copying Beethoven
- 13 Aug 2007
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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Rating breakdown

433 Member ratings

100	21
90	19
80	77
70	74
60	91
50	43
40	41
30	23
20	23
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- Mahler
  
  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 ...