RUSSOMANIA | Lisztomania [VHS] | Roger Daltrey, Sara Kestelman

Whacked-out trip! | Lisztomania [VHS] | Roger Daltrey, Sara Kestelman

vhs video:


	• Lisztomania [VHS] Roger Daltrey, Sara Kestelman Warner Home Video, 1992 average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Lisztomania PAL Letterbox DVD

If you haven't seen the movie, it stars Roger Daltrey (The Who)as Franz Liszt and Paul Nicholas as Liszt nemesis, Richard Wagner, both from Ken Russell's "TOMMY" made the same year both are rock music oriented films. However, I want to review the quality of the DVD - NOT the movie. This PAL Region Letterbox DVD was released through a company equal to "Goodtimes Video" so, the quality appears to be duplicated from the laserdisc. The picture quality is grainy and poorly transfered. Stay away from this copy and wait for the official Warner Brothers Release! I already had the laserdisc and I transfered it to a DVD-R for convenience and my copy looks as good as this one that I spent too much money for! Buyer beware and have patience and wait for an "official" release.

for more information click here

RUSSOMANIA

As some-one who is given to regularly reviewing the works of Ken Russell (against my better judgement), a completely (often deliberately) misunderstood and unjustly derided film-maker, you eventually reach some kind of review-brick-wall. A point from which it's impossible to progress any further.

'Lisztomania' is Russell's MOST misunderstood and MOST unjustly derided motion picture. I'll bet much filthy lucre he laughed like a drain while he shot it.
If ever a film, jam packed with fabulously garish and disrespectful visuals, was designed and clinically executed with the sole purpose of goading pompous, humourless, over-reverential critics - 'Lisztomania' is definitely it.

Where else can you see iconic composer Richard Wagner grow a pair of vampire fangs; make an Aryan monster (Thor - played by overblown organ-obsessive Rick Wakeman!); stage a thoroughly nightmarish 'Rape of the Rhine Maidens' with the perpetrator sporting a Star of David tattoo (on his forehead!!); teach innocent little kiddies anti-Semitic rock songs about 'Teutonic Godheads;' die; return from the grave as Frankenstein's monster with a Hitler moustache, firing an enormous guitar/machine gun at a spaceship full of his and Franz Liszt's ex-lovers, who are trying to bomb him ?

You can't...
Only (and much, much more) in 'Lisztomania'.
See Ringo Starr as the Pope: "Raped at gunpoint?....well it happens to the best of us my son."
Gasp at the brilliantly unfeasible nudity; reel at the disgraceful marrying of beautiful classical pieces with vulgar rock lyrics; fall on the floor and roll in the mud as Roger Daltrey's hair miraculously changes from 70's curly-perm to straight shoulder-length half-way through the film - making a mockery of any attempt at continuity...
And I'm just scratching the surface.

'Lisztomania' is one of the most entertaining films ever made; it's also one of Russell's most autobiographical as well as the most historically accurate of all his biopics.
None of this matters a jot - I'm just trying to justify the pneumatically opinionated excess and comically distorted abandon with a fact or two; give the delirium some gravitas and worthiness...

Ken won't thank me; likewise those tediously boring classical music bods who will never recognise that the art they so revere and champion was of its time populist and often reactionary - won't thank him.
'Lisztomania' is Ken Russell slowly raising a middle finger to the critic, to the elite and to the church among (many) others.

Unfortunately, when mega-conservative David Puttnam and his un-enlightened, un-prepossessing cohorts realized what Russell was doing with the money they were giving him...they didn't give him any more, and without the backing of Lord and Lady Muck at the BFI, he never again achieved the kind of artistic success as his insane 70's period.
He's made good films, but never really re-captured that desperate energy and dash he possessed in such abundance.

Those responsible should hang their heads in shame as the limo drops them at yet another red carpet event celebrating 'the Bank Job,' 'Four Weddings.' 'Notting Hill' or whatever lumpen mush is passing for British movies these days.

They won't, but the fact 'Lisztomania' exists at all will serve to remind them that Britain could once turn out a real film and not just a dispassionate corporate formula.

for more information click here

Whacked-out trip!

I finally got to see this movie after seeing stills many years ago. WHAT A TRIP!!! I am not a Franz Liszt historian but it is quite clear, early on, this movie is full of . . . well, fancy. The viewer is shown exhibits of bare [...], a guillotined giant male organ, phallic columns, smoking rear ends and other amazingly bizarre visual nuggets. There is more eye-candy than one person probably should take in but it is quite fascinating as an artist's canvas.

The story is strange, and to say the very least, weak. Roger Daltrey pulls his stiff Tommy acting skills into his role of Liszt. He does manage an unexplainable presence that keeps one entertained. You don't watch this for the story, or the acting, but rather the pure extravagance of the visual presentation. The ending is just beyond belief!!! It's unintentional, but I was roaring with laughter at the finale of the movie. Even after seeing how far Ken Russell had gone throughout the picture, the ending left me giggling at the audacity of where he piloted his production. WARNING!!! If you're of the imbibing persuasion, see this thing straight or you'll surely think you're on a bad, if not demented trip.

Just for the visuals I have to give this movie 3 stars. It's pretty much a one-viewing experience unless you're interested in seeing the fantastic, although strange, art direction again. I doubt if it's possible, but I would rent it first to see if it's you're cup of tea. I have a feeling it won't be many folks thing but if your an artist, writer or lover of fantasy, this is the one for you!!!

for more information click here

The Least Subtle Film In History

I had wanted to see "Lisztomania" since first reading about it in the brilliant "Golden Turkey Awards" in 1980. True to its reputation, Roger Daltrey plays Franz Liszt in a highly stylized (major understatement) manner as an oversexed rock star, singing his way from one predicament to another and making an arch enemy of Richard Wagner, who exists solely to subjugate the world to Nazi Germany, and who is a vampire on the side. I appreciated that Wagner's hat said "Nietzsche," which made his philosophy somewhat evident early on. Nice touch, Ken.

In the midst of this bedlam Pope Ringo (I'm not kidding: Ringo Starr is the Pope, complete with eye patch and cowboy boots) makes Liszt attempt to convert Wagner to Catholicism in exchange for his (the Pope's) permission for Liszt to marry. Confused? Don't be. Director Ken Russell explained in an interview at the time of release that "the past attracts me because when dealing with it you don't have to be historically accurate", then helpfully adds that "Lisztomania" is "pure fantasy based on fact rather than straight factual biography." I'll say.

What this liberty with the truth gives Russell license to do here is stultifying: I am still most amazed by the scene in which Liszt is tormented by noxious flatus from rectum-shaped wall fixtures, then performs a musical number featuring his ten foot long phallus, which meets a guillotine before it's all over. Understated, you say? Well perhaps you will enjoy the death harpsichord, the pipe organ spaceship, and a prolonged familial scene done as Charlie Chaplin. Yes, that's right: Roger Daltrey playing Franz Liszt playing Charlie Chaplin. I would say that this isn't "straight factual biography," although I don't actually know what it is.

"Lisztomania" is absolutely impossible to rate: there are some entertaining moments, and some surrealistic moments of brilliance, but there are also loads of miscues and plain bad acting in abundance. This film is unquestionably for adults only, and I'm giving it three stars as my best guess. Your own appraisal will depend entirely on your viewpoint: there are people who think it's utterly brilliant, while others (probably many more others) find it pretentious and over the top. I think it has value as a touchstone of 1970's overexuberance (and drugs, no doubt.) The one thing I can say without question about "Lisztomania" is that it's never predictable and never boring.

for more information click here

Highly Entertaining for Those with an Odd Sense of Humor

Lisztomania is certainly not a movie for the faint of heart. However, if you're into peculiar films with odd imagery and a raunchy sense of humor this is the movie for you. Ken Russell's movie is based on the life of famous composer Franz Liszt and his "friendship" with Richard Wagner, also a well known composer. This isn't a history book story though. If you're like me and enjoy a twistedly funny movie then I suggest this movie. If you're into sweet, innocent little films then I'm not sure how you found this movie.

Lisztomania, Ken Russell's follow-up to Tommy (both films were released in 1975) finds him even more in the mood for desultory spectacle than his garish pop artistry adapting the Who's rock opera. Seeking to tell the story of superstar composer Franz Liszt through a freewheeling series of pop allegories, kitsch, quotes, and pastiches, Russell hopes to reflect in contemporary terms the runaway train of Liszt's celebrity, love life, and alleged rivalry with Richard Wagner.

Roger Daltrey, the Who vocalist and star of Tommy, returns to Russell's circus as Liszt, a great pianist nevertheless seduced by the ease with which he can make women squeal by playing flamboyant renditions of "Chopsticks." Floating on a sea of groupies, Liszt struggles with the possibilities of real love while also encountering the vampiric Wagner's exotic plans for world domination. Intuitive impressions, not history, are what this film experience is for, and toward that end Russell pulls out all the stops, planting Liszt into a heartbreakingly Chaplinesque short film, casting Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman as a cryogenic viking, and placing the hero in phallic jeopardy when his genitals are subjected to a guillotine. Some of this striking stuff works, some of it doesn't, but all of it is determinedly undisciplined. With Paul Nicholas as Wagner, and Ringo Starr as the Pope (!). --Tom Keogh

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

hot