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Customer Reviews of Mahler: Symphony No. 7 - Vienna Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein (conductor)

Bizarre but Beautiful
Okay, this film does appear very strange at times, as it shows Austrian composer Gustav Mahler smashing a Star of David, taking a sword to symbolically kill a dragon (the old traditional German masters), and eating pork washed down with a mug of milk to show his renunciation of his Jewish roots, just to get ahead on the music scene. <
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>If you can't stand an anachronistic Cosima Wagner goose-stepping back and forth to determine if Mahler is worthy to conduct in Vienna, then you should'nt watch this film. <
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>But you'll be missing something valuable. Ken Russell captures Mahler the genius, who was both arrogant, and yet uncertain. <
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>Many of Mahler's most beautiful themes are used throughout the film and always at appropriate places. It was in this way that the film captures Mahler's genius for taking what he hears in the natural world and tranforming it into his symphonies. Especially poignant was an English version of a song from Kindertotenlieder, which accompanies a nightmarish fleeing of Mahler's daughters through the forest during a storm. <
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>A portion of a symphony which includes the sound of a rattle, is led into by Alma trying to quiet the Mahler children, shaking a rattle. Likewise one of the frightening "what the animals of the night tell me" phantom monsters of the Third Symphony, appears to young Gustav as a white horse terrifying him in as a very literal "night mare." <
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>As one who believes Mahler was the greatest of the Romantic composers, and perhaps also a sort of musical philosopher or even theologian, I find more to enjoy in Ken Russell's Mahler each time I watch it. It's a little bizarre at times, but also very beautiful. <
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>Two more quick comments: Robert Powell, the actor who plays Mahler, looks astonishingly like the composer. <
>The "bad transfer" which other reviewers have remarked about, has obviously been corrected, as current copies are perfect.

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Russell's Best Film: The Life Of Mahler In Symbolic Fantasy
Ken Russell was a controversial, daring and bold director of modernism back in the late 60's and through the 70's. His films were disturbing to watch for many and so crammed with bizarre symbolism that it appeared to be inspired by hallucinations triggered by drug abuse. The horror film "The Devils" from 1971 was about witchcraft, Satanism and the Black Plague in early Renaissance France in which Vannessa Redgrave played a blasphemous nun. "Tommy" was a rock opera depicting the drug cultre and rock of the 70's. Lisztomania was a bio epic with a bizarre comic book twist on the life of pianist and composer Franz Liszt. Of all his films, Mahler is Russell's most restrained and most beautiful. It has minimal twists and bizarre symbols, except for the appropriate sections - the opening in which Mahler is dreaming of his wife as a struggling creature in a cocoon, witnessing his own death and his wife dancing over his grave and taking on lovers and the silent movie "The Convert" about Cosima Wagner converting Mahler from Jew to Catholic. This scene is hilarious as Cosima Wagner plays a Nazi dominatrix forcing him to eat pig (Still Kosher ?)making a parody of Wagner opera and the scene concludes with their singing of The Ride Of The Valkyries. <
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>The true meat of the film is the music being used for the right scenes. Even an allusion to Visconti's version of A Death In Venice by Thomas Mann is made early in the film. There are many fine moments in the film. Among them is the scene in which Alma, Mahler's wife, buries her husband's 10th Symphony Score or perhaps something else that was never discovered to the romantic strains of Wagner's Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde. Cosima Wagner is the villain in the film, portrayed as a seductive, dark, mysterious temptress. Mahler did in fact convert to Catholicism simply to get the job of conductor of the Vienna State Opera. Anti-Semitism was a popular movement during this time and Cosima Wagner, the widow of the late Richard Wagner, was notoriously Anti-Semitic. Another powerful scene is Mahler explaining Heaven and Hell, angels and demons to his two daughters. Illustrations by Gustav Dore are depicted. Also moving is the scene towards the end in which Alma protects her daughters from a coming storm and from the allure of the evil Cosima Wagner who apparently has already bewitched Mahler. The conflicts of the film are two: Mahler and his inner conflict. He was Jewish, betrayed his faith to gain fame as conductor (He was the lead conductor of the world next to Arturo Toscanini in the Metropolitan Opera of New York City during the 1908-1910 seasons.) His obscession with Death, his fascination with the natural world and the loss of children's innocence, hence his work for voice Songs On The Death Of Children. The music here from the symphonies is well done and conducted by Bernard Haitink. It is a beautiful if bizarre film.

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Russell's Best Film: Mahler's Life With A Twist
Ken Russell directed movies in the late 60's and throughout the 70's that were probably his best but highly controversial, bizarre, symbolic and disturbing to many people. The new age of rock had arrived, and a new culture that intended to "shock". His 1971 film "The Devils" is a horror piece about a nun and a priest who commit unholy acts and brings a village to mob hysteria. His 1975 "Tommy" musical was a rock opera and in the same years he also directed the bizarre and comic book style Lisztomania about the life of pianist Franz Liszt. Of all his movies, Mahler is his most restrained and most beautiful. It does not go over the top and does not have too many twists like his other movies. It is simply about the inner conflict of conductor/composer Gustav Mahler, his abandoning of his native Jewish faith and turning Catholic for the sake of his career and his troubled marriage to Alma Mahler. It is a psychological, introspective movie, entirely in Mahler's mind which evidently Russell believed he understood. Robert Powell plays the tormented composer who as the film opens is having a dream about himself as rock and his wife Alma as a struggling creature in a cacoon. Later, we discover Alma feels unhappy because she is nothing to Mahler whose career he values more than anything and she is living under his shadow. The sequence in which she is dressed and veiled in black amidst the crowd represents this sentiment. The train scenes are all well made, including a segment early in the film that alludes to "A Death In Venice" which was a 1971 Visconti film based on the book by Thomas Mann. <
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>Appropriately during this scene, Mahler's Adagietto from Symphony. No. 5 is playing.Gustav Mahler composed music of bold and modern late Romantic style. His music is grandiose, calling for a large orchestra and using choruses in the vein of Beethoven's Ninth. He shared conducting positions with Arturo Toscanini, long considered the greatest conductor of all time, during the Metropolitan Opera season of 1908-1910, mentioned in the film. Mahler's obscession with death is revealed as he has a disturbing dream that he dies but is able to see that his wife dances over his grave and takes on new lovers. This segment is pretty vulgar stuff as Alma dances in the nude. The symphonies are incredibly suited to the scenes in the movie. The Symphony No. 10, which was Mahler's last and which was unfinished, is played as his wife Alma buries the score in the woods at night. With his marriage falling apart, Mahler turns to Cosima Wagner, the wife of the late Richard Wagner. Notoriously Anti-Semitic, she does not allow Mahler to conduct at the prestigious Vienna State Opera unless he converts to Catholicism. During a silent film parody his "conversion" is portrayed in the funny, slapstick, blasphemous Ken Russell manner. Cosima is a Nazi dominatrix urging Mahler to leave behind his Jewish faith and even eating a pig (Still Kosher...?) the scene concludes with Cosima and Mahler singing original lyrics composed for the Ride Of The Valkyries in a mock Wagner Opera. If you can go beyond these banal scenes, you will see how beautiful the movie really is. I especially liked the part in which to the English translation of the Songs On The Death Of Children, Cosima and Mahler stroll through their lake property near the woods, a storm breaks out and Alma hurries to protect her daughters. A brilliant, beautiful if bizarre film.