Tschaikowsky - Genie und Wahnsinn

Watching a Ken Russell film is, if anything, an experience, and this was certainly was an emotional rollercoaster. Although it has less of the absurdist/surrealist touches that would come to characterize his later films, it still had a rhapsodic quality that deftly blended the music and visuals. While I can't claim to be overly familiar with Tchaikovsky's life, by now I'm used to Russell's approach in this area: taking the raw, biographical material and concocting something purely fantastical out of it. It's an approach that I quite like, something which moves beyond the mundane and quotidian details that characterize ordinary life and creates something magical and mythological, that lays bare the inner life of its characters. I also liked how the film played with blurring lines, revealing underlying connections between music and sexuality, ecstasy and insanity. This was certainly less insane of a movie than LISZTOMANIA, but just as dramatically thrilling. It is cinematic art.

One of Richard Chamberlain's most memorable and fringe roles. Glenda Jackson is brilliant. The romance, passion, melodrama, and ultimate tragic fate of the main characters are all intensely portrayed with rich cinematography and the most lavish sets Russell ever used. The film carries that subtle yet omnipresent surreality which is a trademark of Russell's films, and which some find so annoying, and others so seductive and heightening of the experience. A truly wonderful but sad film.

As startling and entertaining a piece of cinema The Music Lovers is, on the whole it will disappoint those who (not unreasonably) may be expecting an accurate (if typically melodramatic) biopic.

Rife with inaccuracies, The Music Lovers however occasionally elicits tantalising moments of truth which will be familiar to those who might have studied the great man and his music. The moment of madness during the composition of the violin concerto, Tchaikovsk'y mixing fact and fiction during the composition of Eugene Onegin; (resulting in his disastrous marriage), the brief glimpse of his benefactress during a stay at her apartments, the failed suicide attempt etc etc. However, these fascinating glimpses into well documented occurrences are undeveloped, and in their place we are left with a pastiche either of overly romanticised or histrionic scenes of theatrical fantasy.

The real strength here lies in the actor's performances, even Richard Chaimberlain's stuffy and occasionally irritating performance has its moments and Glenda Jackson is wonderful as the vulnerable, unloved wife. The cinematography too is wonderful, evocative and colourful - perfectly in tune with the music of Tchaikovsk'y which also is used to great effect.

If you can take Ken Russel's notorious penchant for the ridiculous (and at times, distasteful) and are not expecting the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then The Music Lovers is worth watching if only for its being so gloriously over the top!

Although this film is difficult to follow at times (and, reportedly, historically inaccurate, too; I wouldn't know), there are still several reasons to see it:

1) Glenda Jackson's outstanding performance (you won't believe that the actress we see at the final stages of the film is the same one who played Tchaikovsky's wife early on, but it is - her transformation is amazing).

2) Some truly impressive sequences; be sure to watch this movie on tape, so you can rewind it and watch them again.

3) Tchaikovsky's music, of course.

4) Lush sets and costumes.

Ken Russell is a very unpredictable director; just when you think the film is about to start boring you, he'll give you a wonderful moment out of nowhere.

I've always enjoyed watching this movie, so much because the music alone stands out for its exhilarating beauty. ( Possible Spoilers! ) Though not historically accurate, it captures the psychological emotions and passions, especially during the seven minute portion when the composer is playing the piano and imagining what the complete second movement of his Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 "visually" represents to himself, and what Antonina's amorous delusions would of wished it meant! In totality, the performance of this concerto and the visual interactions between Tchaikovsky, Sasha, Antonina, Madame von Meck, and the others in the concert hall are extremely intense concerning one of Russia's most famous composers. The director Ken Russell does an excellent job at directing his actors and actresses to portray the required emotional intensity, though somewhat comical over exaggerated script of the story based on the book, "Beloved Friend" The Story of Tchaikovsky and Nadejda von Meck. But, even so the excellent acting by the leading and supporting actors and actresses move this film into its "pathetique" or tragic climax. The acting by the wonderful actress Glenda Jackson is superb in her interpretation of the unbalanced Antonina Milyukova. Her performance is an effective counterbalance to Richard Chamberlain's extraordinarily complicated portrayal of Peter Tchaikovsky with all of his emotional energies concentrated on his musical compositions and his private personal torments controlling his "fate" of never having what society would deem a "normal" life! So much said that this excellent movie is a tribute to a composer genius, especially on the anniversary ( 6th November 1893 ) of the one-hundred-eleventh year of his unfortunate mysterious death by his own hands. My rating for this movie is a 3 out of 4.