Pretty Good

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

at first sigh, more a Ken Russell film than a biopic about Mahler. irreverent, to poetic, crazy in few scenes, far by the public image of the great composer. in fact, a great work. not only for the strange biographical accuracy but for the fascinating exploration of a ambiguous existence essence. because each step to the legend is presented with subtle precision. it is not the portrait of a statue but the story of the circle of a man. and the option for the lead role of Robert Powell is a fantastic idea. not for physical resemblance but for the art to define the sides of choices, answers to tragedy, self definition of a young Jew in Austrian society, success and shadows of marriage. a film of his music in same measure, provocative, as each film by Ken Russell, Mahler is a seductive show. and this is the most important motif for see it.

Ken Russell can go either way for me, but Mahler I find absolutely fascinating and one of his better films. There are a couple of touches that are perhaps excessively weird and hard to swallow or completely believe like Cosima Wagner as a dominatrix and Mahler biting into a pig snout. Even with those touches though, Mahler is actually in a way one of Russell's more restrained efforts and all the better for it. The film is beautifully shot, the period lovingly evoked and the locations stunning to look at. The music is phenomenal, and is utilised very well here. The effective being that of Kindertotenlieder in the wonderful sequence where Alma is searching for her children. Russell directs with a restrained but unmistakable style and the film is finely scripted by him even if it is purposefully talky. The story unfolds slowly, but is continually riveting. Robert Powell not only bears some semblance to Mahler but also gives a performance of great depth and subtlety. Georgina Hale gives him excellent support as Alma, and it was interesting to see a portrayal of Hugo Wolf, played ably here by David Collings. Overall, a fascinating film whether you're a classical music fan, a newcomer to the style or not, though it is one of those movies that I don't see everybody being totally enamoured with. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Definitely a good film about the composer; it portrays him better than "Bride of the Wind" did (that movie showed only the older Mahler as he was not the central feature). Alma is portrayed more realistically in this movie. Much has been made about the conversion to Christianity and though this segment of the film is quite controversial in the U.S. it should be noted that in the German speaking areas of Europe at that time Christianity was not nearly as benevolent towards people of the Jewish faith as it is in the U.S. (or Lithuania) today. Realize that Lithuania is a Catholic country and we lost our Jews in the Great Patriotic War due to the Germans coming through here so we know. Russell was trying to show that Mahler had to take a heck of a leap, psychologically, to go from being a Jew to becoming a Christian.Enough of politics. This film has much more of his music than "Bride of the Wind" and that is certainly enjoyable. VHS does not give adequate quality of sound reproduction for the music so I highly recommend DVD with good stereo speakers for viewing this film. His work was incredible and he was definitely the greatest German composer after Beethoven. One item of note: Most of this film seems to take place at Mahler's summer residence- where he composed most of his music. Yet, during most of the year(s) he was in Vienna conducting. Was Mahler unfaithful to Alma in Vienna? Well, when you consider the conductor of any great philharmonic was then as popular to women as hard rock singers are now; Let's just say that he was probably not as unfaithful to Alma as he could have been.

As with so many of Ken Russell's films, this work probes, again, the nature of artistic genius, the mores of artists during the last 150 years and, especially, the proximity of this form of genius to psycho-pathology. During this period-- 1968 to 1980-- the period of Russell's greatest popularity, infamy and exposure coincided with a formative period of my life. He was ' a god of my adolescence.' By this I mean to say that my critical 'objectivity' is somewhat blurred when it comes to assessing the films of this period. For I, too am a music lover.