Mahler (1974) - DaaVeeDee

Mahler (1974) (Blu-Ray) (*)

$23.99

Screened, competed or awarded at:
BAFTA Awards
Cannes Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Subtitles )
French ( Subtitles )
Portuguese ( Subtitles )
Spanish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
Spanish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( Blu-Ray/Region A/B/C )

Running Time:
115 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (1.85:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 1974 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Ken Russell

Written By:
Ken Russell

Actors:
Robert Powell ..... Gustav Mahler
Georgina Hale ..... Alma Mahler
Lee Montague ..... Bernhard Mahler
Miriam Karlin ..... Aunt Rosa
Rosalie Crutchley ..... Marie Mahler
Gary Rich ..... Young Gustav
Richard Morant ..... Max
Angela Down ..... Justine Mahler
Antonia Ellis ..... Cosima Wagner
Ronald Pickup ..... Nick
Peter Eyre ..... Otto Mahler
Dana Gillespie ..... Anna von Mildenburg
George Coulouris ..... Doctor Roth
David Collings ..... Hugo Wolf
Arnold Yarrow ..... Grandfather

Synopsis:

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, dreamlike experience.

Both trifles and structure are tossed out the door by director Ken Russell in this film. Here, historical content matters not so much as metaphors, feelings, emotions, and interpretations, and pay close attention, as every word and frame is intended to be important. The film takes place on a single train ride, in which the sickly composer Gustav Mahler and his wife, Alma, confront the reasons behind their faltered marriage and dying love. Each word seems to evoke memories of past, and so the audience witnesses events of Mahler's life that explain somewhat his present state. Included are his turbulent and dysfunctional family life as a child, his discovery of solace in the "natural" world, his brother's suicide, his [unwanted] conversion from Judiasm to Catholicism, his rocky marriage and the death of their young child. The movie weaves in and out of dreams, flashbacks, thoughts and reality as Russell poetically describes the man behind the music.

Ken Russell's (Women in Love, Tommy, Crimes of Passion) Mahler is a dazzling depiction of Gustav Mahler's tormented life. The maverick director, who revolutionized the film biography, blends history and psychological analysis for a fascinating study of art and sensuality. Equally brilliant and disturbing flashbacks and dream sequences chronicle the turn-of-the-century Austrian composer's turbulent marriage, passionate affairs, and rejection of Judaism. Viewers will revel in Mahler's stirring music, the exquisite cinematography and lavish sets, and characteristic Russellian extremes (including an anachronistic reference to Nazis). The superb cast is led by Robert Powell as the musician consumed with ambition and Georgina Hale as the woman shadowed by his genius.

This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 16 January, 2025.