csrothwec

Going through a phase of watching "End of the Roman Empire" movies ("The Last Legion", "The Standard") and so gave this one a go as well. After a slow-motion fight sequence (not very well handled) at the very beginning, the thing descends into non-stop copulation plus the lead participants in this (the masters/mistresses of the performing slaves) talking endlessly of plots, intrigues, machinations and political manoeuvrings. After a solid half hour of this, I could feel myself going comatose and did something I very rarely do once I have started to watch a movie; gave up and did something more constructive with my time. I am grateful for the hour or so I saved by not watching this tripe further, but resent having wasted the half hour spent watching the first third. Do ANYTHING (rearrange your sock drawer, sort your desktop paper clips according to size, polish all your shoes etc.) rather than making the same mistake! (Makes the two other (moderately good) films mentioned look like "Gladiator" or "Ben Hur" in comparison!)

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.