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Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786300268982 Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC ISBN: 6300268985 Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Release Date: April 15, 1992 Running Time: 103 minutes Sales Rank: 9443 Studio: Warner Home Video
Amazon.com: Lisztomania, Ken Russell's follow-up to Tommy (both films were released in 1975) finds him even more in the mood for desultory spectacle than his garish pop artistry adapting the Who's rock opera. Seeking to tell the story of superstar composer Franz Liszt through a freewheeling series of pop allegories, kitsch, quotes, and pastiches, Russell hopes to reflect in contemporary terms the runaway train of Liszt's celebrity, love life, and alleged rivalry with Richard Wagner.
Roger Daltrey, the Who vocalist and star of Tommy, returns to Russell's circus as Liszt, a great pianist nevertheless seduced by the ease with which he can make women squeal by playing flamboyant renditions of "Chopsticks." Floating on a sea of groupies, Liszt struggles with the possibilities of real love while also encountering the vampiric Wagner's exotic plans for world domination. Intuitive impressions, not history, are what this film experience is for, and toward that end Russell pulls out all the stops, planting Liszt into a heartbreakingly Chaplinesque short film, casting Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman as a cryogenic viking, and placing the hero in phallic jeopardy when his genitals are subjected to a guillotine. Some of this striking stuff works, some of it doesn't, but all of it is determinedly undisciplined. With Paul Nicholas as Wagner, and Ringo Starr as the Pope (!). --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - The Least Subtle Film In History
I had wanted to see "Lisztomania" since first reading about it in the brilliant "Golden Turkey Awards" in 1980. True to its reputation, Roger Daltrey plays Franz Liszt in a highly stylized (major understatement) manner as an oversexed rock star, singing his way from one predicament to another and making an arch enemy of Richard Wagner, who exists solely to subjugate the world to Nazi Germany, and who is a vampire on the side. I appreciated that Wagner's hat said "Nietzsche," which made his philosophy somewhat evident early on. Nice touch, Ken.
In the midst of this bedlam Pope Ringo ... Read More
Rating: - List should be on your List!
It's a Ken Russell film that never made it to dvd. Worth a look and just plain fun with Roger Daltrey in tow. Rent or purchase away!
Rating: - Whacked-out trip!
I finally got to see this movie after seeing stills many years ago. WHAT A TRIP!!! I am not a Franz Liszt historian but it is quite clear, early on, this movie is full of . . . well, fancy. The viewer is shown exhibits of bare [...], a guillotined giant male organ, phallic columns, smoking rear ends and other amazingly bizarre visual nuggets. There is more eye-candy than one person probably should take in but it is quite fascinating as an artist's canvas.
The story is strange, and to say the very least, weak. Roger Daltrey pulls his stiff Tommy acting skills into his role of Liszt. ... Read More
Rating: - FrankenWagnerHitler? What's not to love?!
Oh b'gosh 'n golly, this film is chock full of treats both visual and aural. Given what happens in Princess Carolyne's antechamber, I think we can safely add olfactory to the list as well.
Okay, let's try a little experiment: I want you to think of the most excessive movie you've ever seen. Now, what would it be like if it were twice as excessive? You're not there yet. Make it -more- over-the-top. Getting close.
Ken Russell's Lisztomania makes Ken Russell's Tommy look sedate. It makes any Derek Jarman film seem frightfully low-key. But it also makes you want to watch it again ... Read More
Rating: - we need the dvd...we need the dvd
YES...I vote for the DVD....does one of you know how to set up the "voting" ballot type thing on amazon?.... the people demand the dvd. I only have a destroyed second generation vhs of Liszto......p
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