Product Details

• Actors: Imogen Claire, Roger Daltrey, Sara Kestelman, Paul Nicholas, Ringo Starr
• Directors: Ken Russell
• Producers: Lisztomania
• Format: Import, PAL, Widescreen
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Digital Classics
• Run Time: 102 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002A6FDLI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #209,745 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital Stereo ), WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Booklet, Commentary, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: This audacious, vulgar, freewheeling fantasia on the life of pianist Franz Liszt ranks among director Ken Russell's most outrageous efforts. Roger Daltrey, lead singer for The Who, is awkward yet likeable as the flamboyant piano performer with a bevy of fetching mistresses and groupies, while Paul Nicholas is completely outlandish as the scheming opera composer Richard Wagner. There's no nod to reality here: Liszt and Wagner were in fact friends, and Liszt, who became Wagner's father-in-law, actually assisted in the production of Wagner's opulent productions. Russell, on the other hand, presents Wagner as Liszt's jealous rival ready to wreak havoc on the world by unleashing a cryogenic Viking (Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman) and a horde of machine-gun wielding robot Nazis. In a finale out of Flash Gordon serials, Liszt saves the day after surviving a guillotine designed for phallic dismemberment. The film is fast and loud and wildly undisciplined, much like one of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies. Look fast and you'll see Ringo Starr as the pope. ...Lisztomania

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A disgrace Warner persist on VHS., March 26, 2006

By 

George Danochristos (Athens, Greece) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lisztomania [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Indispensable, cult-status Ken Russel movie (not only for fans of The Who), that masterfully captures and subversively portrays on screen classical piano player/composer Frantz Liszt's personality: a legendary genious of a man whose life and times match that of a Rock star, 100 years before Rock was invented. If Glen Gould is the flamboyant 20th century classical piano player that rocked an establishment, just watch this movie to compare the original Master on his heyday.

Unfortunatelly however, VHS does not deliver. The movie should've long ago been digitally transfered on DVD. Don't get mislead by Amazon referring to this product as DVD 1992 release, it's default listing manner. If you look closely by the picture it's actually VHS edition only. True, Warner still persist not to release it on DVD, obviously they don't expect a blockbuster out of it. Guess we'll have to wait for Criterion Collection to salvage it. 4* for the movie, 0* for Warner.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cult Film: For freaks who know their Classical music history, December 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Lisztomania [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I had the rare and unexpected pleasure of seeing this film in a theater in college and, fortunately not while on drugs. Knowledge of (classical) music history, particularily from the late Romantic period (and if you know about Franz Liszt's life, all the better) helps one to appreciate all the little "in-jokes." An appreciation of mid-70's "stadium-rock" culture also helps. Casting Roger Daltrey as Liszt seems about perfect as he adds that modern rock-star's charm to the salacious fellow.

It certainly takes liberties with interpretation of historic events (as Russell's "biographies" tend to do) but there is a lot of outrageous humor. Witness the scene when exiled in the Countessa's castle, Liszt has this fantasy sequence where she comes riding in on top of a 10-foot penis. Bizarre as it may seem, it's not entirely unrealistic; Liszt was a known philanderer and let's face it, he loved the ladies and they adored him. Wagner, who spends the whole film chasing Liszt down, emerges at the end of the film as a proto-Nitzschean-cum-Nazi-Hitler "ubermensch." It's bizarre, and I guess you'd have to understand the Wagner-Nitszche-Hitler connections. (Though meant as humor, some people, understandably, walked out of the film at this point. I was surprised that more didn't earlier but perhaps they sat at the back of the theater.) Wagner comes across as something of a juvenile wuss and, of course later marrys Liszt's daughter.

This is definitely not a film for a lot of people. Non-traditional or "deviant" classical music buffs would best appreciate this film... I have yet to see "Mahler" but I hear it is of the same vein. The cinematography looks a little cheap at times but the production is consistent and there is a lot of great costuming and "methodical" bad acting which really is part of the whole schtick. It's not as tasteless/shocking as a John Waters' film or "Return to the Valley of the Dolls," which is good because it does show and require some sense of intelligence and understanding of historical events/references so I would certainly not categorize it as deconstructionist. It's a lot more (intentionally) weird than "Amadeus" but not a full-out freakshow. Go to a Marilyn Manson concert of Karen Finley performance for one of those.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Offensove at times but funny, November 5, 2001

By 

Anna Shlimovich (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lisztomania [VHS] (VHS Tape)

There are many long reviews here analyzing every detail of this film. I will only say that it does become too phantasmagoric and even in its deliberate excess and offensiveness the measure of good taste is a bit lost. I do think that it's great and entertaining that some scenes are shocking, but when the shots become too fixated on the same thing, it feels like a great joke that is being told too many times - it looses its zest. To me, Mahler was a better one in terms of being better balanced. This picture is still a good entertainment, though.