Mahler - DaaVeeDee

Mahler (DVD) (*)

~~$25.99~~ $22.98

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

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital Stereo )
Spanish ( Dolby Digital Stereo )
Spanish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Spain ( PAL/Region 0 )

Running Time:
111 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:

Director Ken Russell made a number of biographical films of composers' lives including The Music Lovers, (about Tchaikovsky) and Lisztomania. Russell embellished the other films with certain characteristic flourishes, which include a focus on the composers' sexual obsessions, poetically telling anachronisms, and scenes which show Richard Wagner in a bad light. The story of Mahler is recounted in a much less complex and flamboyant manner and is a relatively reverent study of the life and work of Austrian composer Gustav Mahler, here played by Robert Powell. The film tackles the touchy dilemma of Mahler's Jewishness in the anti-Semitic atmosphere of 19th-century Vienna. He converts to Christianity, which has no effect on his brilliant musical output but which eats away at his physical and mental well-being. Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was a conductor and composer of the late Romantic era and specialized in huge symphonic works. Though his works were performed widely during his lifetime, they were less and less-often played until Leonard Bernstein's active campaign on their behalf brought him renewed recognition as a composer of the first rank, every bit the peer of Brahms or Stravinsky.

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 Here, historical content matters not so much as metaphors, feelings, emotions, and interpretations, and pay close attention, as every word and frame is intended to be important.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.

The film begins on a train journey with Gustav Mahler (Robert Powell) and his wife Alma (Georgina Hale) confronting their failing marriage. The story is then recounted in a series of flashbacks (some of which are surrealistic and nightmarish), taking one through Mahler's childhood, his brother's suicide, his experience with anti-semitism, his conversion from Judaism to Catholicism, his marital problems, and the death of his young daughter. The film also contains a surreal fantasy sequence involving the anti-Semitic Cosima Wagner (Antonia Ellis), widow of Richard Wagner, whose objections to his taking control of the Court Opera were supposedly removed by his conversion to Catholicism. In the process, the film explores Mahler's music and its relationship to his life. Some outdoor sections of the film were made in Borrowdale, in the English Lake District.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 08 September, 2009.

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