Part of Music City Mondays and Ken Russell x4
Ken Russell’s run of increasingly florid portraits of classical composers reached its delirious — and divisive — apex with this outrageously surreal take on the life of 19th century virtuoso Franz Liszt. Nodding to Liszt’s status as the “first pop star,” Russell casts the Who’s Roger Daltrey (fresh from their collaboration on TOMMY) as the hedonistic pianist whose dazzling performances and personal magnetism drive women to hysterics and whose rivalry with fellow composer Richard Wagner — depicted as a Nazi vampire in a Superman costume — culminates in an epic musical showdown. Look out for Ringo Starr in an audacious cameo as the Pope.
“No, this isn’t a biography…. It’s a berserk exercise of demented genius…. To argue with Russell’s extravaganza on any rational basis is clearly to miss the point. Russell is far, far beyond any vestigial concern with logic — and, to tell the truth, I’m starting to like his movies more now that he’s frankly running wild…. LISZTOMANIA is the latest, most outrageous outing for Russell’s fecund unconscious and, while we must pause to whisper, ‘poor Franz,’ there’s no denying the man is growing peculiarly interesting.” —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times (Oct 28, 1975) “Ken Russell's latest pyrotechnical heresy…is upon us, a mad, fantastic joy ride that will outrage some, dazzle others, and leave no one bored.” —Bernard Drew, Gannett News
