tomsview I remember vividly when this movie came to Sydney's Paris Theatre in 1971. I used to work for a cinema chain and received complimentary tickets each week. My mother liked musicals so I took her and my sister to see it. It was rated Suitable Only for Adults, which was fine - we were all adults.After about the first half hour, my brow furrowed with concern; my mother's favourite movie was "Waterloo Bridge", and this movie was a long way from "Waterloo Bridge". By the time of Glenda Jackson's final encounter with her 'lovers' in the asylum, we were all a bit punch drunk. As we left the theatre, we were probably suffering from a mild form of PSTD. After all, critic Pauline Kael said that the man who made the movie should have had a stake driven through his heart.However the movie left an impression. Not long after seeing it I read the book it was based on, "Beloved Friend"; the book is fact; the film is fireworks.As the story begins, Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain), struggles to have his music accepted. He seems comfortable with his homosexuality, but is haunted by past events. However, through convention, and an exaggerated sense of the romantic, he ends up married to Antonina Miliukova (Glenda Jackson) who is so supercharged sexually that his rejection of her sends her over the edge into nymphomania. Hey, a guy had to be able to create great music with that much emotional disturbance in his life.He finds the perfect relationship with a woman - a platonic one - in his patron, Nadezhda von Meck (Izabella Telezynska). However, unhappiness pushes Tchaikovsky and Antonina on a downward spiral; he to suicide; she to an insane asylum.Although it's hard to be totally objective about a movie where you are constantly steeling yourself for the next assault on your senses, the film does connect with Tchaikovsky's music whether it's Richard Chamberlain at the piano or sequences where the music is interpreted visually in dreams or flashbacks. Andre Previn arranged Tchaikovsky's work into a cohesive and powerful score.Richard Chamberlain gives a passionate performance - at once conflicted and sometimes cruel. He dug deep, especially in light of the fact that he 'came out' 30 years later - he was also pretty convincing on that grand piano.As for Glenda Jackson? Her performance is a showstopper; she ventures where few actresses have gone before - and most probably wouldn't want to. But Antonina's agony, self-delusion, and humiliation gets to us. One scene that wasn't filmed, which would have made illuminating viewing is where director Ken Russell explained to Glenda exactly what he wanted her to do on that grate in the asylum."The Music Lovers" is an experience, possibly an unpleasant one for some, however in between the jarring scenes, it's actually a stylish piece of filmmaking.Of course, the challenging scenes in "The Music Lovers" were just a warm up for what was to come in Russell's "The Devils" a year later. And no, I didn't take 'the fam' to see that one.

Tim Kidner Wow! All the dramatics of Amadeus - and then some! That was Mozart, this is Tchaikovsky.To say Mr Russell has a vivid imagination is an underestimation and a half. Forthright film critic Mark Kermode constantly reminds us that Ken Russell is Britain's (or England's, I can't remember which) finest, living director. Mark Kermode often divides opinion and so I assumed that he was wrong.The Music Lovers will knock the woolly old dears off their perches - classical music being so pure and saintly and all that. BUT, it was the rock'n'roll of its day; its blood, sinew and its sex. People didn't always listen to it dressed to the nines in some chaste church or hall. People orgasmed (or would have, if they'd had a record player), argued and got drunk to it. Their protagonists were the rock stars of their time.So, why not have exploding heads to the crescendo of the 1812 climax? Would Tchaikovsky seriously have expected us to want to fall asleep instead? Richard Chamberlaine never puts a foot wrong and I'm so glad that Alan Bates turned the role down. Chamberlaine is both elegant and troubled and cuts a dash that Bates cannot. Glenda Jackson as his fiery nymphomaniac wife is, as always superb. Her intent, to net a trophy husband is never off her radar and the film follows this theme.Boring moments? No - I was entertained, blown away and exhilarated, often all at the same time. The sound quality (at least on my DVD) was amazing, the Andre Previn conducting the London Symphony Orchestra score having a wide stereo and dramatic range. The way Russell montages the increasingly frantic hand-held camera with the music is breathtaking. To get both Previn and the LSO as well as Melvyn Bragg's script shows the obvious cinematic clout that Russell had back then. These were all big-hitters in 1970. Now (apparently) Russell can barely get funding to make anything.The period feel is always believable and feels authentic.So, why not 10/10? Well, while this is as good as Amadeus, that didn't get 10/10 from me, either.

rdjeffers Flaming Love, and CholeraSunday October 22, 12:00pm, The Cinerama"Gossip dies without a few facts to support it my friend. Tchaikovsky gives them plenty."The fifth of seven vaguely biographical features based on the lives of prominent composers, The Music Lovers (1970) is director Ken Russell's florid distortion of romantic Russian master, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Throughout his long career, a primary criticism of Russell's work has been that the garish, excessive and vulgar in-your-face style of this former television director is merely amplified on the big screen. Casting one of televisions biggest stars in the title role, production values which have become decidedly dated, and the frequent use of dizzying camera movement do little to contradict this observation. Still, Russell's typically over-the-top portrayal of an artist who struggles with childhood trauma, a difficult (but very unconvincing) temperament and sexual frustration, does have several breathtaking visual moments: The incredible bonfire scene, dancing with the swans, and Nina (Glenda Jackson) ravaged through an iron grate by lunatic asylum inmates. The beautiful score is of course, Tchaikovsky.

Hamilton1781 Ken Russell's "The Music Lovers" might be one of the, if not the best film ever made on the subject of classical music. I emphasize this, because as a historical biography it could be described as merely sensational.Russell portrays Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) as a closet homosexual who is haunted by the past and present. In order to obtain social acceptance, he marries a sexually ravenous young woman (Glenda Jackson). Their marriage, of course, proves to be disastrous, and Peter flees from his wife, isolating himself in the countryside to compose music for Madame Von Meck (Isabella Telezynska), a rich aristocrat and widow. But Tchaikovsky's past comes back to haunt him several times before the film's manic and grotesque conclusion.Russell has constructed images that are beautiful and disgusting (often in the same scene) and the film is a perfect accompaniment to the inspiration and ambiance felt in the composer's music.The best scenes involve the seamless meld between sound and image. A concert at the beginning of the film beautifully transposes images of audience members listening to Tchaikovsky's latest piece, with the fantasies that the music inspires in them. Numerous fantasy sequences throughout the film teeter on the edge of insanity, highlighting the composer's feelings and fears.Which brings us to the film's astonishing and loony climax: an excessive montage set to the "War of 1812 Overture" that must rival any other sequence in the history of film for its inappropriateness. The piece is no doubt Tchaikovsky's most well known work, which brought him wealth and fame. But Russell presents his transition from composer to "star" entirely in fantasy. I could try to describe this sequence for you, but it would be futile. It must be seen to be believed. Let's just say that the climatic cannons from the "Overture" are put to violent and hilarious use.The components of the film come together perfectly. Everyone seems to have been in their element while filming. The cinematography by Douglas Slocombe is absolutely beautiful, and proves to be the best feature of the film. This is possibly the best "looking" Russell film. Glenda Jackson's performance as the nymphomaniac wife is perfectly in tune with Russell's histrionic presentation. And though Richard Chamberlain does not fair as well, he shows some emotional depth that has hardly been seen in his other work.Russell's pyrotechnic camera-work is so breathtaking that it is a wonder why the man cannot find work these days. "The Music Lovers" is an exercise in the pure joy of film-making and the emotions it can invoke within us. Perhaps Russell's career slipped through his fingers in the late 1970's (along with his budget), but this film, like Tchaikovsky's greatest compositions, is a work of genius.