Mahler auf der Couch

MAHLER ON THE COUCH ... Viewed at Los Angeles Film Festival, June 27, 2010

PHOTO: How 'bout a little buzzmeg, mein schatz ~~ Barbara Romaner and Johannes Silberschneider in Percy Adlon's "Mahler on the Couch"

The latest offering from the highly respected elder statesman of German independent filmmaking, Percy Adlon, a glossy, heady, off-beat biopic about the famous turn of the century Viennese composer Gustav Mahler, his tumultuous affair and stormy marriage with Alma Schindler, a woman twenty years younger, and his presumed (but undoubtedly fictitious) couch sessions with Sigmund Freud to sort out his emotional problems when she throws him over, was definitely the class film of the 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival.

This was a world Premiere scoop leveraged by Newsweek film critic David Ansen (the new artistic director of the fest) and was attended by many of the cast and production team including Percy and his son Felix, who co-directed. The film was shown at the vast theater number one, flagship hall of the Regal Cinemas complex, and was followed by a classy cocktail reception at Trader Vics just down the street.

As for the movie: Actress Barbara Romaner was salaciously sumptuous in the slightly vampish role of Alma Schindler and Austrian actor Johannes Silberschneider was a very close look-alike of the Historical Gustav Mahler. The scenes with Freud, with a rather comic bookish version of the Big Daddy of Psychoanalysis, were the least convincing and actually play less of a role in the overall picture than Gustav's relationship with the younger Alma — and her relationships with her various other lovers. Much of the film was shot in Vienna and at the famed Vienna Opera House, which together with Silberschneider's uncanny resemblance to Mahler lent a feel of authenticity to the whole. Brilliant cinematography set the giant Theater Number One screen aglow, and the lavish production values make this picture look like a huge Hollywood production although it was actually made on a relatively modest budget.

Early twentieth century Vienna was the cultural crossroads of Europe and many of Mahler's contemporaries became international cultural icons. Among prominent historical names and personalities featured in the film are the painter and Art Nouveau genius, Gustav Klimt (Played grotesquely a few seasons back by John Malkovich in a horrible forgettable picture entitled "Klimt"), the architect Walter Gropius, and the famous conductor Bruno Walter.

Munich stage actress Barbara Romaner makes a dazzling screen debut as the object of Mahler's obsession, Alma, and the head turner of the town's decadent elite. This is as much her film as Mahler's and she is an actress I would certainly like to see more of. The style of the film is to have many of these persons, including an actress playing the sister of Mahler, talk directly to the camera about Mahler and Alma, in sections set off from the main wide screen story as if this were a talking heads documentary, which it isn't by any means.

What MOTC is, is a highly stylized, imaginative, and decorative dissection of an improbable but actual love affair between a famous composer and a feisty ambitious woman half his age, herself talented, who finally throws the great man over because, two children down the line, she can't stand living as a footnote to his frenzied work ethic and towering ego any longer. The death of one child acts as the fulcrum for their separation, but we feel all along that Alma has Mahler by the you-know-whats, and needs more solid loving than he can dish out. The relationship with Freud is pictured as cold, formal, and confrontational, but when they end up traveling together on a train toward the end they finally do a male bonding number as Mahler offers Freud his hand and says "You can call me Gustl" (the friendly nickname for Gustav) to which the eminent founder of the science of Head-shrinking replies, "Well, then — just call me Siggy"!

This is definitely not a movie for the truck drivers out there, but it should cut a nifty arc in proper intellectual and authentic foreign film buff circles, and may even cross over to a more general audience of the kind that likes hot love stories, pomp, and … circumstances.

Mahler On The Couch is not a German gem. It is a stylistic nightmare of zooms and novelty shots that make it almost unbearable to watch. Adlon Brother's period drama focuses Gustav Mahler seeking advice from Sigmund Freud about his cheating wife.

I will admit that I was not overly exited about the content of the film. If I was more interested in Mahler or Freud I might have been able to see this film as glass half full instead of glass completely empty. I even thought that maybe I would become more interested in one of them because of the film. Unfortunately the films style was so distracting I was almost to disgusted to pay attention to the story at all.

The actors were all apparently trying to channel Klaus Kinski and in doing so give some of the most over dramatic performances I have seen. I understand that having an unfaithful wife could be frustrating but the way it comes through on the screen just made me roll my eyes. I am not saying in anyway that the actors in this film are talentless but Brother's directing misses on almost every mark.

If you love over dramatic, wordy, historical dramas you might like Mahler On The Couch, I however did not.

Filmbalaya.com

Gustav & Alma Mahler have been the stars of films like 'Mahler' (Ken Russel; 1974), 'Bride Of The Wind' / 'Alma' (Bruce Beresford; 2001), and of course there is Visconti's 'Morte A Venezia' (1971), where the names are changed to Gustav and Frau von Aschenbach.

All these films are totally different from one another, and now there is 'Mahler On The Couch', which continues the tradition. A unique film, a feast for the eyes and breathtaking beautiful music.

Portraying a true but neurotic genius and a femme fatale who holds her ground next to Helena of Troy, isn't easy, and probably accounts for the diversity between all these films. It must be a marvel to play these characters, and in this Mahler On The Couch all actors are very convincing. It's hard to single out anyone, but if we should, then ... Well, Barbara Romaner is amazing as Alma Mahler. That bigger than life character is surrounded by thousands of pages of biography, even more letters, and a shipload of mystification (mainly fabricated by herself, it's true). But Barbara shows the fun side and the seducing powers of the lady as well as her intelligence and passion and wish for spiritual freedom.

All in all a wonderful, glowing film, giving us Sigmund Freud as a wonderful bonus. Brilliantly acted, also ! 9 stars, and waiting for many more Alma and Gustav films, maybe even the ultimate one...