Slang Editorial :: Never Underestimate The Value Of A Holla'

Friday, April 10, 2009
Lisztomania al Cine

Tonight I saw one of the most unexpectedly insane movies ever, Ken Russell's Lisztomania. Russell's follow-up to the cinematic version of The Who's Tommy, Lisztomania is a "far out" ode to the life and times of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, starring Who frontman Roger Daltrey as Liszt. And I swear to any available god: not only does "far out" fail to even begin to hint at the state of mind of this film, but there are literally no words that could possibly do justice to the out-and-out insanity of Lisztomania. It is truly a film that must be seen to be believed.

I am certain you cannot guess what is actually happening in the film at this exact moment.

Which is not really to say that Lisztomania is a "great film"--in fact, it's pretty indisputably not. For starters, Daltrey isn't much of an actor, and many of the other cast members--including Ringo Starr as the Pope (!!!)--are much, much worse. Also, the score, which melds and recontextualizes the musics of Liszt and Wagner with 70s prog (erm) was crafted and performed by Yes-mastermind Rick Wakeman (which I believe is says everything). And course, the entire film is fantastic to the point of absurd--Nazis, photographers, giant expanding penises, and so forth.

In fact, just about every nuance of the film is preposterous--the subject, the context, the cast, the fact it's shot in the superwide anamorphic 2.35:1 format, the fact that it can only be watched in the US on out-print VHS (the version I watched was a bit-torrented rip of a European LASERDISC!!!). Everything about Lisztomania makes it pretty much impossible to walk away from a viewing saying to yourself, "Wow, that was one of the best films I've ever seen--I would recommend that to anyone!" And yet... WOW.

"My, what big appendages you have, Franzi!"

Richard Wagner as Hitler-Frankenstein Jew-killing Culture Leader. Seriously.

Because, truly, Lisztomania is, honestly, an absolutely amazing picture. I have seen so many of films, feature-format or otherwise, and Lisztomania is easily one the most unique and bizarre cinematic spectacles i've ever taken in. The considerable pageantry of craziness and bombast is something to behold, and the fact that most all of the story ties at least loosely to actual historical truths gives the film a kind of confidence and authoratative panache that, again, is actually quite impressive. In fact, every one of the facets named above that work to label it preposterous are also what make it unique and precious, and immensely enjoyable.

It is late and I am too tired to go on about this film any longer, but just try and find it and watch it if you can. I wish that there was some easy way I could just make this film available to you right from Slang, but it's far too big for me to host anywhere (>4GBs). The best thing I can recommend doing is downloading the torrent file here. It actually went a lot faster than I expected, and again, it's worth the wait--you won't see anything else like it.

Labels: curiosities, INSANITY, la cine

posted by Nihilist Loves Hate, Hates Everything at 4/10/2009 01:36:00 AM 0 comments

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