A few great stills from Ken Russell's "Mahler"

[barry guerrero]

Timed to the loud outburst in the first movement of M10. These photos are very small, but it's quite shocking on a big screen. Ken Russell adds at tam-tam at this spot. He's a big "gong head" too.





To the strains of Wagner:




Accompanied by the expressionistic "scream" chord in M10/1. Outside of the coffin, Alma and Gropius are dancing and fooling around - mostly to the strains of waltz episodes from M7/3.



A Huck Finn type begins to teach the young Mahler about nature and the great outdoors:



Mahler shows his two daughters life under the microscope - (loose) evidence that god exists, even though you can't see him/her/it - whatever.



Gustav and Alma: tender moments.




More initiation rites with Cosima. "Pork   .    .   it's what's for dinner"



Once again, preparing for battle:



The partially fulfilled, "bride of the wind":



Alma: "ohhhhh, you were so foul that summer - working day and night on your wretched sixth symphony"

.    .     .   to the strains of the sweeping "Alma theme" in M6:

Mahler:  "I did it for you - for us. You copied it out. Didn't you recognize yourself? What was the one, true glimmer of light in the whole symphony; the one in A-Major? That was you, my love"



Upon returning back to Vienna for the last time:  "you can throw out your pills, Doctor; we won't be needing any of that. We're going to live forever!"



The accompanying music is the very end of M6/1 - in A major.

[Leo K]

I've never seen Russell's "Mahler"--I was always hesistant to rent it for some reason...but I've always been a big fan of "The Music Lovers"!!!

Thanks for those pics...maybe now I should rent it  

[barry guerrero]

Even if it's only based on half-truths, I think it's fabulous - so many great scenes. I won't give any more of them away.

[Jot N. Tittle]

Even if it's only based on half-truths, I think it's fabulous - so many great scenes. I won't give any more of them away.

Well, sort of, Barry--about the half-truths, that is. It's not so much half-truths as it is Russell's taking bits of actuality and then placing them in fictional settings and out of proper sequence. This is not to say that there are no misrepresentations! But I agree, the movie is a hoot for a Mahlerite with a sense of humor. Russell uses some fascinating symbolizing too--note the opening scene of the chrysalis (Alma) wriggling up to and against the Rodin marble head of Mahler. And the treatment of Cosima Wagner! Whooosh! Sieg Heil!

Go ahead and see it, Leo. But don't get mad at Russell for taking artistic license about as far as it can go.

. & '

[Leo K]

Cool...I'll check it out soon...Russell went over the top with Tchaikovsky's story too, but when I first saw that film I was young and didn't know any better, and I became a fan of Tchaikovsky...now I have fond memories of "the Music Lovers"...despite all the hysteria there are moments of great beauty in that film.

[barry guerrero]

Actually, I think that there are some very good insights in the K.R. movie that must be pretty much "right on the money".

[mike bosworth]

Actually, I think that there are some very good insights in the K.R. movie that must be pretty much "right on the money".

Agreed.  It's clear that Russell did quite a bit of reading and research to inform his film.  A bit over the top at times, and a bit Alma 'heavy', but still well worth the occasional viewing.  I particularly like the scene where Alma is trying to keep the surroundings around the composing hut quiet so that GM will not be disturbed.

Mike Bosworth
Vientinae

[Damfino]

I actually found the Mahler soundtrack a long time ago in a bargain bin.  The cover artwork is interesting.  Here's a scan i did of it (of course the entire cover does not fit my scanner bed):



I have not seen the film for several years.   The first time I saw it was on a local PBS station.  Unbeknownst to me, they had cut some of the middle of the film, so there was no eating of the pig's head, no Nazis, no Cosima/Brunnhilde imagery, and the film seemed much better to me.  Even if you lose all that, the film still made clear that Mahler had undergone a conversion to Catholicism, presumably for the Vienna Opera job (although I believe Cosima still black-balled Mahler, so the emphasis on her in the film was a bit much, IMO).  I liked Robert Powell as Mahler, and thought he actually resembled the young Gustav.

Russell always goes over the top in his films.  Had he used a tad more restraint, he could have been a really good filmmaker.  I tend to think of him as a hack with flashes of genius.  He reached his nadir as a director of composer films with Liztomania, in which the entire film was like one of the "bad" sequences from Mahler or The Music Lovers.  Some of his sequences are quite good, such as the sequence in The Music Lovers in which several characters have their own fantasies during Tchaikovsky's performance of the 1st piano concerto, or the final horrific images of Nina in the insane asylum.  Also, the Kindertotenlieder sequence from Mahler is quite touching.

[Jot N. Tittle]

DAMFINO! A name to reckon with. Might you be from Colorado, where there is a Mt. Damfino? Local lore has it, as I recall, that when asked the name of "that mountain over there," a rustic replied "Damfino"--and thus became the mountain's name.

. & '

[Damfino]

Jot N. Tittle: No, I am down here in Houston, TX.  I chose the name after Buster Keaton's silent short film The Boat, in which his home-made boat was called the Damfino (I'm a huge Keaton fan).

At the end of the film, with the boat sunk, and Keaton and wife and kids stranded on shore, the wife asks: "where do we go now?", to which Buster replies: "Damfino".

[barry guerrero]

Oh, I get it; "damfino" is Texan for "damn if I know".     And here I thought it might be the name of a new sparkling wine or fruit beverage, pronounced:  domfeeno