Lisztomania

Lisztomania (1975)

Runtime: 103 minutes

Directed by: Ken Russell (no relation)

Starring: Roger Daltrey, Sara Kestelman, Paul Nicholas, Ringo Starr, Rick Wakeman

From: Warner Bros.

A rather lengthy review here, but for good reason. At least 15 years ago I saw a rather lousy print of this movie “via less than ethical means” back when this was quite difficult to track down; my reaction was “WTF?” and in 2023 after viewing it in not 4K but at least in good quality on TCM late one night (it was another DVR recording), my reaction hasn’t changed.

Ostensibly, this is a biography of 19th century Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt and how for a few years there was a hysteria revolving around his performances where the girls acted as if he was BTS or Harry Styles; that’s why he is still referred to as “the first rock ‘n roll star.” Seems like a ripe topic for a biopic, right? It starring an actual rock star in Roger Daltrey of The Who is even better. However, after an opening act which is weird-a small segment is narrated by a guy with a country twang and that is accompanied by appropriate music… “why did they do that?” is a question you’ll ask yourself often-but presents some basic facts about his life, it devolves into becoming REALLY weird.

After all, this suggests that fellow composer Richard Wagner hated his guts and wanted him dead when I don’t believe that was the case… nor I don’t believe he was in the Navy yet that was his clothing in some scenes. I know he wasn’t a VAMPIRE yet that was what the movie told us! At times it looked that Daltrey’s wardrobe was straight from his closet-historical accuracy was not followed, but you probably gathered that already. The one moment I did remember from long ago: the least subtle scene, which was that Liszt suddenly had a GIANT COCK AND BALLS, and this lasted for several minutes as the phallus was used in ways too befuddling to mention here. He was a womanizer with many girlfriends, you see…

This is really a series of surrealistic scenes broken up at times by some sort of actual story, where Ringo Starr is the Pope, Rick Wakeman is Thor, and well… depending on your religion you may think this is in real bad taste. I hate bringing this up as it is a spoiler, yet it seemed like something that I better mention for this is a truth of Wagner’s life: whether or not it was in tune with his contemporaries at the time in Germany, charges of anti-Semitism have been attached to him. It’d take way too long to explain here so I recommend a Google search, but the third act completely divorces itself from reality and Wagner becomes analogous to HITLER, again in unsubtle fashion. I do NOT know how I remembered only fragments of this most tasteless aspect.

This seemed like something I should mention… that was INCREDIBLY uncomfortable to me and I am a Gentile. Before you ask, yes this was played at 2AM on TCM for what should be obvious reasons. My wariness over the final act is why I can only say this was fine overall. As much as the insanity made me giggle in the opening hour, once you see the swastika and other Nazi iconography, it was much more difficult for me to have fun. Its questionable taste aside, that was not enough to personally ruin the overall experience for me.

For Russell fans (Ken, not me!), there are familiar players in small roles, and at least it was well made in terms of sets, direction and music. Oh yeah, the soundtrack-unlike the movie, no reservations here-is gloriously 70’s as Wakeman created synth versions of classical musical pieces alongside more traditional piano pieces, which naturally was a gas of a time for me to hear it all on YouTube after the fact. While I can say is the filmmakers were on drugs when they made this, undoubtedly this would have been better for me if I was ON drugs during viewing! In retrospect, on Friday night I’d have been better off pairing Phantom of the Paradise w/ the other 1975 Ken Russell rock opera starring Roger Daltrey…