Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

You will see that Mahler is directed and written by Ken Russell, and you will instantly know that it will be a very strange film. Added to this it’s about a composer who is not exactly famed for being normal, and you have an even weirder film. But weird can mean good, so let us see…

Gustav Mahler was a Jewish Austrian composer who lived in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Being a Jew there and then was far from easy, and his father hoped for the very best for him – with anything less than the best being a disappointment. At one point Mahler decides to convert to Catholicism to aid his quest to get a prestigious job. There is also his relationship with his wife, Alma, who has musical aspirations of her own, his brother and close friend who are both also composers, and his wife’s admirers. The whole film is shot as a train journey – now before you all switch off, it’s a train journey with a series of flashbacks and visions along the way. It is kind of confusing working out just where in the stream of time you are and what’s real or fantasy to begin with, but once you realise that anything not on the actual train is a flashback and anything too weird to be true is a vision, it’s not a problem!!

The storyline eventually takes us from Mahler’s young childhood all the way through to being a famous composer, and an effective but bittersweet ending. The music does not play sequentially through his symphonies, but there is a good selection of his music to be heard in this music (as well as a fair bit of Wagner). Mahler (and Wagner too for that matter) is often unfairly dismissed as writing “depressing” music, and while it is fair to say that there is quite a bit of music in his repertoire that could rightly be described as depressing, it is by no means true that all of his music is. Much of it has a lighter touch, some is majestic, and some could perhaps be described as inspired. I liked the music in this film, but then I already liked a lot of Mahler’s music – however, if you have previously shied away from Mahler because of other people’s comments about his music, give it a try (especially symphony no. 1) and you may well be surprised.

Mahler is played in this film by Robert Powell, who is a very fine actor indeed and does a superb job. Similarly Georgina Hale as his wife is asked to play quite an… unusual role here at times, and acquits herself well in the role. This is one very strange film, not only because of Russell’s penchant for playing around with unusual camera ankles (anyone who has seen any of his films will know what I mean!), but also because the story is very, very strange in parts. Much of it focuses on Mahler’s obsessive nature, but also ventures into his paranoia and guilt complex. Some of the scenes are not only weird but could be highly offensive to some, the scene that plays out following his conversion from Judaism to Catholicism being probably the most controversial, and the scene of a scantily clad Alma dancing on her husband’s grave being pretty disturbing too. There are one or two other scenes that because of sexual content or nudity are most definitely not for children. I get the impression that at times Russell shocked more for the sake of shocking than to make a particular point, however, so some of the effect was rather wasted. One early scene showed a markedly more humorous tone than most of the film, where Alma was rushing around trying to stop any noise from disturbing her husband’s work.

Overall, Mahler is an interesting film, has some very interesting themes and some clever dialogue, but is ultimately just too weird for its own good. I’m not sorry I watched it (in fact I’d been meaning to for quite some time as it looked interesting), but it’s probably not a film I’d watch again. I’m going to give it 3 stars and a recommended, but with strong reservations on objectionable content and general strangeness. It’s not exactly surreal, but it’s very, very odd. If you like films that do things differently to most and you’re not particularly difficult to offend, you may well enjoy this, but it’s certainly not for everyone. At its best, it contained shocking imagery with striking symbolism; at its worst, it seemed a little shambolic. The soundtrack was, of course, brilliant – as long as you like Mahler’s music!

Links

Other biopics of musicians that I’ve seen are (not classical composers, I do vaguely remember The Song of Norway about Grieg but not well enough to review it):

Ray (Ray Charles)
Walk the Line (Johnny Cash)



Recommended: Yes

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age