MAHLER

UK, 1974, 115 minutes, Colour.
Robert Powell, Georgina Hale, Richard Morant, Lee Montague, Rosalie Crutchley, Miriam Karlin, Ronald Pickup.
Directed by Ken Russell.

Ken Russell has staked his claim to visualise his subjective response to an artist's work and relate his own appreciation and the artist's work to the aspects of his life (and his torments). This is the method of Mahler, a film to be liked or loathed. The incidents, the character, the music are Mahler's (and interestingly factual enough). The decor, the locations, the extravagant memories, the fantastic fantasies (ballet of a chrysalis, S.S. funeral horrors) and the tour de force silent film pastiche of Mahler's external conversion to Catholicism are Russell's. This is carefully worked Russell material, serious, satirical; reverence for an artist, criticism for a man. Subjective, indulgent, fascinating.

1. The films of Ken Russell ? his imagination, flamboyant style, pace? Realism, fantasy? Extravagance? Critics' response? Mahler as a typically Ken Russell film?

2. Audience interest in Mahler as composer, as a person? His place in the history of music, its development? A man of the 19th. century - Austrian and Bavarian backgrounds? The styles of his music? The themes of his music? The film helping appreciation and interpretation? Russell's use of the music to illustrate Mahler's life, his intensity, his struggles, conflicts? The value of subjective interpretations of the music and the visualising of subjective interpretations?

3. The criteria for choice of Mahler's work for the film, its arrangement, editing? Its being used for the chronology of Mahler's life and his' development of attitudes? The themes of his music and the themes of his life? The orchestra music? The songs?

4. The framework for this interpretation of Mahler: the giving of images first ?the house exploding, the chrysalis, Alma and her emerging from the cocoon, Mahler's head in rock? The lake, the children? The style of these images, the introduction of characters and thews? The importance of dreams, memory, fantasy? The reality of the train journey? The sparking off of memories? The predominance of Mahler's own memories? Some of Alma's? Insight via dream and fantasy in memory? How well did the film give the basic facts of Mahler's life, the stages of his career, indications of his genius? The effect of such an interpretation along with Mahler's history?

5. Ken Russell's cinematic style? visual flamboyance, sound? The continued use of symbols? Mime? Farce, slapstick? The anticipation of the future within the past? The shock tactics? Audience response to the flamboyance and shock? Greater understanding of Mahler?

6. The contribution of decor, settings, the beauty of nature, artificiality? The symbolism of clothes e.g. Alma's dresses, veils etc.?

7. The basic outline of the train journey in 1911: presenting the facts about Mahler and his genius, illustrating his temperament? The introduction to him at this stage of his life and career, illness? Alma and her continued presence, support, being used by Mahler? The confrontation and the challenge for her to express her love for him? The presence of Max and his rivalry? The elaborate changing of seats, the African woman and her comments on Mahler? The fuss, the crowds? Mahler and his despising of the crowds, of military music and bands? The people at the station and the windows? The doctor and his diagnosis? The ending with the reconciliation, the irony of the results of Mahler's tests and his imminent death?

8. The contrast with his childhood - the family house, the number of relations in the house and their different attitudes, interactions? The Jewish family and its traditions? Mahler's relationship with his parents? His prying on his father with the maid in the barn? His attitude towards his father? The sequences at the table? Problems of money? The arrangement of the music lessons? His mother and her fussing about 'a boy genius'? His father's demands? The fights with the boys at school? The swimming, the encounter with Old Nick in the forest, his being rescued from drowning, the lessons of nature, the image of Pan? Learning how to float and observe? Wandering through the beauties of the forest? The contrast with the piano lessons, the theory? Mahler's development as a pianist? The clashes in the household, his hiding in the closet, his father's threats and fears? An atmosphere of violence? The influence on Mahler's adult life?

9. The picture of the family? Otto and his musical composition, attitude towards Mahler's conversion, his death? Justine and her managing the household, the visit to Hugo Wolfe in the asylum? The importance of the visit to Hugo and Mahler's memories of his study with him, Hugo's capacity for composition, his madness in thinking he was the Emperor Ludwig? The Mahler family with its reputation and pride?

10. The portrait of Alma? as a young girl, infatuated with Mahler, her composition and Mahler's refusing to listen to it, his finally playing it and the rival singing it, the solemn ceremony of Alma's burying the song? Her copying the music, her continued help for Mahler in his composition? Love? the lyrical sequences of the lake. the swimming? The children and her care for them? The build-up of the affairs? Max and romance? Mahler and the liaison with opera stars? The growing old and her dissatisfaction with her life? Caring for the children? the search through the forest and the death of the daughter? Her place in Mahler's fantasies? As emerging from the cocoon, as being Mahler's shadow in the stockinged face and top hat, the bizarre presence in the cremating sequence, her dancing on his grave, the liaison with Max? The reconciliation during the journey and Alma's later history? How well delineated a character. a type? The blend of fantasy and reality for interpreting her?

11. The portrait of Mahler's children? his love for them, the domestic sequences, the importance of the explanation about God and His being invisible but existing, angels and devils? The sequences in the boat, in the house with the microscope? The search for the children in the woods? The daughter's death and the visual presentation and shock?

12. Hugo Wolfe in the asylum ? a shadow figure for Mahler, his madness, his being the Emperor and holding court, his comment on Mahler and his brother. the sequence of his being taken off in the straitjacket, the cell and his use of the music for lavatory use? The potential madness in the composer genius?

13. The contrast with Max and his military background, his love for Alma, his demands of choice? His presence in the crematorium sequence? the Austrian officer becoming the S.S, the military style of the funeral?

14. The build up to the conversion sequence and the ten minute fantasy: its aims, the success of the insertion of this change of style? The details of the fantasy? The role of Cosima Wagner? Her being associated with the Wagnerian and Nordic myths? Mahler and his being her servant? The details of her dress and her becoming a Nazi, goose-stepping, on the cross, kissing Mahler, sending him towards the dragon? The singing of the song of the Valkyries? The various emblems e.g. the star of David. hammering it into the sword, the cross and the sword, the pig's head, the milk? The dragon and its farcical aspects? Mahler's fight with the dragon? The overtones of Al Jolson and the various silent comedies? The Sacred Heart, the knives, the Jewish clothes pinned to the cross? Mahler as a mock-Christ figure to show the hypocrisy of his conversion? His being put through the hoops? The captions and the overtones of the silent film? How effective? Valhalla and the Catholic Church? The transition to the baptism sequence with the kitsch holy cards and the nun? The death of his brother?

15. The importance of the cremation sequence? the use of the symphony, the being buried alive and the overtones of Edgar Ellen Poe horror film? The cremation with its comic artificiality? The lewd aspects and the sexual overtones? The more serious visualising of the music e.g. the symphony on nature and the young Mahler wandering through the forest, alert to all the beauty and sensitivity? The importance of Old Nick and his saving presence at various sequences especially in the cemetery? The search for the lost children? The pages of sketches of God and angels for the exploration of religious themes?

16. Mahler's role as composer, conductor? The interrelationship of the two? The importance of his career, Hugo Wolfe, the interview in the asylum, the conversion? The international tours and his comments?

17. The joky aspects of the film and the references to other films e.g. the parody sequence of death in Venice, reference to The Music Lovers, echoes of Al Jolson, the Marx Brothers and other silent comedians?

18. The major themes of Mahler's music: faith, resurrection, death ? the death of love, nature, death of innocence?

19. Mahler's particular genius, his torment? 19th century atmosphere, Europe, Austria and Bavaria, the Norse mythologies and the later development of Nazism? A valid and valuable interpretation of a composer?