Lisztomania (1975)   Starring: Roger Daltrey, Sara Kestelman, Paul Nicholas, Ringo Starr and Rick Wakeman Digital Classics RRP: £19.99 1012DC Certificate: 18 Available 04 May 2009

Okay! Stay with me as this is a Ken Russell film, not necessarily about the live of Franz Liszt. It would appear that the composer, having had some bad luck in love, decides to turn away from matters of the flesh and concentrate on more cerebral, monastic, pastimes, however... having first taken off with the wife of a local count, Marie d'Agoult, he finds true love in the arms of Princess Carolyn, but in order for them to be together they must get the Pope to agree to her divorce, however the Pope requires something in return - that Liszt tackle the pressing problem of, Richard Wagner, a Nazi vampire who has not only appropriated some of Liszt’s music, as well as marrying his daughter, but is also bent on world domination...

Lisztomania (1975 - 1 hr, 41 min, 14 sec) is a mad surreal dash through the life of Franz Liszt. The film was written and directed by Ken Russell (Billion Dollar Brain (1967), The Devils (1971), Tommy (1975), Altered States (1980)). Although it shares a lot of the same vision which Russell brought in his adaptation of Tommy, it pushes the rock musical right over the top and out of the playing field.

It is a film which needs to be experienced, as for the most part it defies description. The actors really don’t need to act as they spend their time in scenes which have little of what could be described as having an internal logic. This gets particularly out of hand near the end of the film when Wagner unleashed the Viking god of thunder, Thor (Rick Wakeman), and a host of machine gun wheedling Nazi zombies. World domination is only averted after our hero narrowly escapes and attacks Wagner in a flying organ (the type you play and not the other type).

The disc had a clean print and a 2.0 track, it’s another bare bones affair I’m afraid.

So it's wild, wacky, makes no sense, extravagant, over the top... a real Ken Russell film. In truth you’re either going to love this or really hate it, Russell takes no prisoners.

6

Charles Packer