Twilight of the Gods

Forests have been cleared to make the pulp upon which complex analyses of Wagner have been printed.

In little over an hour Julian Doyle gives us an insightful expose of Richard Wagner's character, motives and flaws in a surreal dialogue with his erstwhile friend Friederich Nietzsche.

Sharp dialogue encapsulating their disagreements, superb acting and, of course, excellent camera work all deliver this most unexpected opus. Humour is not overlooked.

This is an extraordinary film. How could I have missed it for so long?

GM.

Definitely what can termed "niche viewing"! Takes place in the Turin Mental Asylum to which Nietzsche has been referred after his total mental breakdown in 1889. In the depths of his despair he summons up the ghost of Richard Wagner, the man he has most admired and loved in his entire life. What follows a a systematic demolition of Wagner's many roles: as a revolutionary in the 1840s, as a husband, as a librettist and philosopher and as an anti-Semite as well, above all, as, in Nietzsche's view, betraying his universal artistic ambitions and instead bowing to the chauvinistic forces of the Second German Reich. His anti-Semitism is also shown to be based, as with most things to do with Wagner, on his own experiences and ego/self-regard, while emphasising that, however despicable and unattractive Wagner was as a man, as a music genius he ranks among the top-most exponents Western culture has produced. The complexity of assessing Wagner is thus brought to the fore well in what I found to be an informative and (by both main actors) very well presented production.