BRIDE OF THE WIND
US/Austria, 2001, 94 minutes, Colour.
Sarah Wynter, Jonathan Pryce, Vincent Perez.
Directed by Bruce Beresford.
Bride of the Wind is the story of Alma Schindler. She was a young woman in Vienna at the turn of the 20th century. Educated classically and a composer of songs in her own right, she had a father who was an artist and moved in Viennese society. She has strong opinions about the music of Gustav Mahler and expresses these at a dinner table in Mahler's presence. He is fascinated by her. She attends rehearsals and gradually changes her mind, begins an affair with Mahler. They finally marry.
Alma had two children with Mahler. When one of them dies, she goes to a sanatorium for recovery and there meets Walter Gropius, the architect. She decides to stay with Mahler and accompanies him on his American tour. When he dies, she begins an affair with the artist Oscar Kokoschka, whom she had met at an art exhibition. The affair is passionate but she is not sure that that is what she wants, even though her daughter Anna is happy with Uncle Oscar.
She allows Oscar to go to war, where he is severely wounded and thought dead. She marries Gropius. However, his plain unadorned architectural style and manner of life is not enough for her and she is entranced by the more bohemian Jewish writer Franz Werfel.
The film finally indicates the influence on 20th century arts of each of these men with whom she was involved. She finally married Werfel and moved to Hollywood (where, in 1943, his famous novel The Song of Bernadette was filmed). Gropius also went to Harvard.
The material is of great interest. While Mahler as a character dies halfway through the film, his music pervades it, as do the songs of Alma. However, the making of the film is fairly straightforward, as is Bruce Beresford's usual style, rather lacking more flair and oomph than might have been hoped. (Perhaps audiences who have seen Ken Russell's Mahler with all its flamboyance would have liked Beresford to have attempted some of these flourishes.)
1. The title: Oscar Kokoschka's painting of Alma as The Bride of the Wind with himself. The energies of the world and of the war whirling around the serene Alma?
2. Mahler's music, its impact at the beginning of the 20th century, in Vienna, in the United States? The use of excerpts of Mahler throughout the film? Alma's songs, especially for the finale? The rest of the musical score?
3. Audience knowledge of Gustav Mahler and his wife? Of Alma Mahler's subsequent career? Her life spanning a major part of the 20th century with all its transitions: from empire in Vienna to the First World War to the aftermath and the migration, of so many from Central Europe, to the United States, even to Hollywood. An overview of the transition of 20th century culture?
4. The portrait of Alma: the structure of the film with selected years and the audience filling in the missing years? As a wilful young woman, going to the party, its bohemian style and her enjoyment of it? Her artist friend, especially Klim? At home with her mother, her mother doting on her (and the later references to her mother's rather wilder past)? Her staid stepfather? The going to dinner and meeting Mahler and his sister, her outspoken comments, Mahler's following her? Their walks together, invitations to rehearsals, discussions? Mutual seduction? The affair? The decision to marry? Mahler's Jewish background and her stepfather's comments, her own vicious comment later about his Jewish music? His becoming a Catholic for his career?
5. Three years of marriage, Alma feeling herself crushed, her delight in the children, Mahler absorbed in his music? Her feeling desperate? The children growing up? Alma having put all Mahler's financial affairs in good order? Her feeling crushed? Her daughter's illness, the death? Her going to the sanatorium, the treatments, improving her spirits, the encounter with Gropius? His letters? Mahler opening the letter by mistake, his being hurt, bringing Gropius to the house, Alma's choice to stay with Mahler and help him? The tour of the United States, Carnegie Hall, his illness, his death and funeral?
6. The next stage of Alma's life, her closeness to her daughter and her daughter approving of the men in her life? Meeting Oscar again (and the previous sequence of the art exhibition with Oscar's presence with Klim)? The bohemian style, the importance of Oscar breaking free from his mother? (And the contrast with Gropius's arrogant mother?) The outings and the picnics, the posing, Oscar's success? His wanting to marry Alma? Her resistance? Painting The Bride of the Wind and having enough money to start a family? The motivation for her refusal? His buying the commission and the horse, going to war?
7. Oscar in the war, the ambush, being shot, being bayoneted? The irony of his not dying? His mother with the gun wanting to kill Alma? Oscar's return, wanting to meet Alma, her rejection of him? His mother supporting him - and the fact that Oscar lived many decades into the 20th century? His art?
8. The return of Gropius, his manner, his architectural style and beliefs? The marriage? Oscar returning to find Alma pregnant - and the significance of Oscar being distraught when she aborted their child? Gropius and society? The aftermath of World War One? Her becoming bored with his classicism?
9. Franz Werfel and his exuberant style, singing Italian opera songs, Alma's fascination, the separation from Gropius? The divorce? With Werfel, the Jewish connection again? Anna and her approval? The exuberance of the relationship?
10. The information about the aftermath of the life of each of the main characters?
11. The significance of Alma as a muse, her effect on men, her wilful amorality, her passion? The range of men and their music, visual arts, literature, architecture? The muse of significant 20th century artists? In this sense, a bride of the wind?
