Customer Reviews

Ludwig (Special Edition) [Region 2]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderful movie, in fact it was so compelling that three hours flew by and I found myself not wanting it to end.

Overall it's a quiet film with thoughtful performances and seems to be sincere in its attempt to show the central role of King Ludwig of Bavaria as a very sensitive, sad, ultimately self destructive King who loved art and music more than his throne. Here he is gently underplayed by Berger whose dignified portrayal is one of his best performances.


Whether madness or medicine we will never know but our sympathy for this tormented man is enlisted from the start. How much is historically accurate I am not sure but it seems to follow the well known facts and presents them dressed in all the splendour of the day.

Visconti strikes the right note from the very start with sumptuous costumes, ultra romantic settings, and beautiful actors - he has a craftsman's grip on his subject and never once does he allow the film to descend into a clichéd costume drama, nor does the usually irritating dubbing have any detrimental effect on the overall enjoyment of this film - all this accompanied by the strains of Wagner's monumental music and what more could you ask for?

The DVD is value for money, picture quality and sound are excellent and there is a bonus disc containing a documentary on Visconti. A must have for any serious movie collection.

First of all this movie gets 5 stars.............. Second why would you pay all this much for a movie that does not have English Subtitles? I just hope that the criterion collection or kino gives this the proper release.Otherwise avoid these Imports..................

I was fascinated and amazed by this movie which evokes so perfectly what I have learned of this intriguing king during visits to Bavaria and his castles and what I've read about him. His rather sad life and mysterious, tragic death vie with his extravagance and at times to his duties as King. His relationship with Wagner was most interesting and clearly each "fed" off the other - the King wanting this connection with the artist whose work he so admired and the composer who frankly needed the money and didn't like to live in penury.

The stage musical Ludwig II, performed for some years in the specially-constructed memorial theatre in Fussen, was equally fascinating, with some clever on-stage ideas and glorious music. A show well worth seeing if you ever get the chance.

Both highly recommended.

Luchino Visconti' s cinematography is extremely interesting to analyze because of the fact, he is just one of the few directors in the cinema' s history that demands from the viewer a compelling vision, that ranges an impressive sort of artistic disciplines, (such as Robert Bresson, Andrei Tarkovsky, Carl Dreyer, David Ward Griffith, Jean Renoir among the most representative ones) who embodied what Wagner meant by total art.

In this sense, Ludwig is one of the most ambitious films ever made. You must be prepared to watch a movie that tells us a story enrooted in a crucial historical period, so you must know what happened in Germany after the 1848' s conflict, the life of Richard Wagner, the complex relations between him and Nietzsche, the historical moment is determinant, Wagner is preparing his Tristan, but the main aspect to remark is that possibly as never before we have the most brutal portrait of any other monarch before the art after the bloody French revolution,
Visconti becomes aware his tribulations, grandness delirious, as well as his gradual breakthrough with his surrounding and ominous reality, his interior conflicts, his not corresponded love with his cousin; so lyrically expressed by Visconti through an emblematic game of shades and lights, his efforts for trying to return the art its authentic importance into the social body, Ludwig is conscious about that; all of us know about how the trivialization of the arts achieved an undeserved place around the world. To restore the antique dignity and sheer relevance to the art was the main reason that led Ludwig to build Bayreuth in 1876 for Wagner's sake.

And Visconti - who also was a true aristocrat of the visual arts - you may realize about his visible sumptuousness, the winged elegance in what his characters displace, the particular tempo in which Visconti displays the story, the breathtaking landscapes, the formidable angle shots and the poetic language makes an artistic wholeness in which the voluptuousness, solitude, desperation and decadence are certainly a part of it.

So, when you are ready to watch this supreme artistic legacy, take your time and get into an universe completely different. There have been two notable directors in the actuality who have been captivated for Visconti' style, because they are aware how effective and expressive results: Coppola (establish by yourself the surprising analogy around the use of the game of lights and shades in the most intimate sequences of the Godfather I, and Martin Scorsese in The age of innocence), but the style will never be achieved by simple imitation, due it's the final product of a Cosmo vision.

At the moment to make a scrutinizing selection of the most important films of the seventies, include this one and the Innocent (the swan's song' Visconti) among the most pyramidal ones.

Saw the 6-hour version at the SF Film Festival special screening about eight years or so ago. Was not bored for a minute. Why are we being offered the truncated version? Only 2 stars for this version which is very disappointing after having waited so long for a Region 1 release. Really a shame.

Three stars about the best film of all times. Americans are dumb, but this from San Diego is the "dumbest"!!! Santa simplicitas!