XDA

Watched the last half of Ken Russell's 1970 movie The Music Lovers last night and was reminded of how brilliant it was. Russell, who in the 60s had made a long string of black and white, surrealistic 'lives of the artists' for the BBC (the one on Isadora Duncan is perhaps my favorite although the ones on Rossetti and Sibelius were pretty good too) filmed in color a surrealistic full length movie docudrama of the adult life of composer Peter Tchaikovsky. Everything was good; Glenda Jackson was brilliant, and even somewhat attractive, the cinematography and set decoration was beautiful, even Richard Chamberlain was good -- although his ability to play a homosexual convincingly wasn't exactly the stretch I once thought it was. As Vladek Sheybal in Women in Love describes it, in that movie, it is the story of a homosexual married to a nymphomaniac. Oh, and he writes brilliant music, which Russell weaves into the action in a series of brilliant music videos that actually add to the narrative and illuminate important historical events in the life of the composer. There's weaving in all of the movie.

My favorite videos in the movie are cutting hay in the summer, children dancing under a shower of sparks, and the "execution" of family members and friends during the 1812 Overture. Brilliant stuff. The movie is ineffably sad, but well worth watching.

Russell is still alive but he hasn't made a good movie since Altered States 26 years ago, but he had a great run in the late 60s early 70s with
Mahler (1974)
Savage Messiah (1972)
The Boy Friend (1971)
The Devils (1971)
The Music Lovers (1970)
Women in Love (1969)