{"id":3437,"date":"2024-08-28T16:14:35","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T16:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3437"},"modified":"2024-10-12T21:37:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T21:37:51","slug":"lisztomania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/28\/lisztomania\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisztomania"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Lisztomania <\/strong>(1975)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Musical-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic nudity, sexual content\/imagery, violent war images)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ken Russell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ken Russell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Rick Wakeman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Suschitzky\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 10, 1975 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Roger Daltrey, Sara Kestelman, Paul Nicholas, Ringo Starr, Rick Wakeman, John Justin, Fiona Lewis, Veronica Quilligan, Andrew Reilly, Nell Campbell, Murray Melvin, Andrew Faulds, Kenneth Colley, Otto Diamant, Ken Parry, Imogen Claire.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0As an avid moviegoer for more than half my life, I truly believed I\u2019d seen everything. I was proven dead wrong when I saw Roger Daltrey affixed with a giant rubber penis in Ken Russell\u2019s Lisztomania<\/strong>. And that\u2019s not even the weirdest thing in this movie, one that I can only describe as like something written, staged and performed by inmates at an asylum. It is the very definition of \u201cout there\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The title Lisztomania<\/strong> refers to a term coined by German literary figure Heinrich Heine to describe the hysteria accompanying composer Franz Liszt\u2019s public piano performances. He allegedly drew large crowds of screaming women, some of whom fainted while he played the piano. It\u2019s similar to Beatlemania right down to the mop-haired musician at the center of it all. Writer-director Russell (The Music Lovers) paints Liszt, played by The Who\u2019s Roger Daltrey, as a 19th<\/sup> century variant of a rock star in his rendition of a biopic. Instead of a straight telling of the composer\u2019s life and music, it starts and remains firmly rooted in the realm of the surreal. It\u2019s more like a bizarre impressionistic portrait by a demented artist. There\u2019s nothing conventional, rational or logical about it. It makes little sense if any. On that level, it\u2019s positively brilliant.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Lisztomania<\/strong> opens with Liszt and his lover Marie d\u2019Agoult (Lewis, The Fearless Vampire Killers) being strapped inside a piano by her jealous husband, The Count (Justin, Island in the Sun), which is then placed on railroad tracks as a train speeds towards it. CRASH! The scene then cuts to backstage just before one of Liszt\u2019s concerts as he\u2019s besieged by photographers, adoring fans and lustful women. Several of his contemporaries like Rossini, Chopin, and Sand are also in attendance. He\u2019s approached by a young, eager composer named Richard Wagner (pop star Nicholas) who wants to get his name out there. He allows Liszt to play one of his pieces at his concert. He becomes enraged when Liszt publicly mocks him during the performance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Things get really weird when Liszt leaves his family (again) to perform for the czar in Russia at the invitation of Princess Carolyn (Kestelman, Zardoz). It\u2019s here that his wish to be prolific once again is granted at a cost, namely his sex drive hence the giant penis being guided towards a guillotine in one of many hallucinatory scenes. He later runs into Wagner again. Now a political revolutionary on the lam, he still holds a grudge against Liszt. He\u2019s about to take revenge in a way only a madman could conceive.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m going to stop describing the \u201cplot\u201d at this point. It\u2019s better you see for yourself the madness that follows. I will, however, give you a few minor details to pique your curiosity. It holds Wagner directly responsible for Nazism. There are allusions and references to Nietzsche, Frankenstein and Thor. Vampirism is involved. There\u2019s an exorcism by a piano that shoots flames from the front. Ringo Starr shows up as The Pope. It ends with Liszt piloting a spaceship. If that doesn\u2019t make you want to watch Lisztomania<\/strong>, it\u2019s probably not your cup of tea to begin with.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Lisztomania<\/strong> marks the second Daltrey-Russell pairing in a year; the rock opera Tommy came out earlier in \u201975. The two movies share several stylistic similarities and while Tommy is the one that endured, Lisztomania<\/strong> holds a secure place among films too strange to forget. I first heard of it in the book The Golden Turkey Awards (by Michael and Harry Medved). I knew I had to see after I read their description of it. I finally found a copy in \u201994 at Movies Unlimited and snatched it right up. I thought it was cool and I wasn\u2019t even stoned. I purchased the DVD a few years ago and finally got around to rewatching it this week. It\u2019s still cool. What you have to remember while watching it is that it\u2019s NOT a traditional biopic. It\u2019s nowhere close to that. It\u2019s an exercise in wretched excess that entertains precisely because it doesn\u2019t stop at pushing boundaries. It breaks right through them and keeps going.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Given the non-traditional nature of Lisztomania<\/strong>, I will follow suit and not offer up a traditional review. It doesn\u2019t seem fitting to make comments about the acting, writing and directing. It\u2019s Ken Russell, what more do you need to know? The synthesized music score is perfect for a movie filled with anachronisms. On a purely artistic level, Lisztomania<\/strong> is impressive. The set design is mighty imaginative. But those are things I\u2019d normally say in reviews so I\u2019ll take an alternate route. Can anybody name the three cast and crew members Lisztomania<\/strong> has in common with The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Give up? They are actress Nell Campbell (aka \u201cLittle Nell\u201d), cinematographer Peter Suschitzky and special effects coordinator Colin Chilvers. Hey, I found this tidbit of trivia interesting.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll close by saying that Lisztomania<\/strong> is definitely NOT for everybody. The straight-laced demographic is advised to steer clear. The midnight movie crowd, on the other hand, will probably love it. It satisfies my taste for the weird and unusual.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lisztomania (1975)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Musical-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (graphic nudity, sexual content\/imagery, violent war images)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ken Russell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ken Russell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Rick Wakeman\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Peter Suschitzky\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 10, 1975 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Roger Daltrey, Sara Kestelman, Paul Nicholas, Ringo Starr, Rick Wakeman, John Justin, Fiona Lewis, Veronica Quilligan, Andrew Reilly, Nell Campbell, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musical","category-weird-ones"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Lisztomania-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3437"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5054,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3437\/revisions\/5054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}