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. --Tom Keogh [show more]
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Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play Ken Russell&39;s unusual film biography of the Austrian composer whose unique compositional style altered the evolutionary course of western music Jealousy over his attractive wife the insanity of a fellow music student his conversion from the Jewish to the Catholic faith the tragic death of his young daughter his own ill health - these are just some of the elements chosen for this symbolic visualisation of Mahler and his music The flow of the narrative mimics the form of his music combining to provide some beautifully evocative moments throughout the film Actors Robert Powell Georgina Hale Lee Montague Miriam Karlin Rosalie Crutchley Gary Rich Richard Morant Angela Down Antonia Ellis Ronald Pickup & Peter Eyre Director Ken Russell Certificate 15 years and over Year 1974 Languages English - Stereo Duration 1 hour and 51 minutes (approx)
This musical biography of the life of Gustav Mahler stars Robert Powell as the German composer. En route to Vienna, Mahler reminisces on his life, in particular his turbulent relationship with his wife Alma, and his conversion from Judaism. Written and directed by Ken Russell.
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