Lisztomania

Hysterical 70s rock-musical in the vein of Rocky Horror, but a much better watch; which may be attributed to the extremely decadent feel, the colourful design or the fact that Ken Russell actually knows how to make movies.. Or - more likely - it's because it has Franz Liszt turned Franciscan exorcist battling Richard Wagner turned Vampire-Hitler-Frakenstein. Deliciously absurd!

Lisztomania review in Haiku format: Dammit Ken Russell! Can you try "under" the top? And why the penis?

Outrageous. Absolutely mad, but never more so than to - when it has gone far enough - hint at some undercurrent of symbolic sanity. If you don't mind getting your conventions of history, music and film raped, 'Lisztomania' will have you fully engrossed, thoroughly entertained and completely confuzzled throughout. What else to say about a movie where one of the lesser strange features is Ringo Starr playing the pope?

Wowzers! One of the most bonkers films ever, it's incredibly stimulating due to not only the lavish set-design, theatrical acting, and terrific music score, but the story and its historical revisionism that it rapes is so audacious. I can see how people may roll their eyes at this tiring film, but I was wide awake -- every frame of this film says this sort of pop-art couldn't and wouldn't be made today. The silent film montage scene (similar to that montage scene from Up) is beautiful.

If you'd describe some of the most outrageous moments of the film, it sounds like something fun. Nazi vampire Wagner! Flamethrower piano! Oversized penis guillotine! But overall, this extravagant musical never grabbed me. It's over the top style was tiring, the music never felt memorable and the contents were juvenile and too silly for me.

A crazy mess to be marveled at or despised, whatever one's tastes. Decadence does nothing for me, and this is certainly not a straight biopic, so it comes down to the humour - which is slightly amusing, occasionally, but mostly too silly.

wtf

Practicing with the metronome will never be the same for me again! I loved this, but that's really only possible once one accepts that this is not so much a biography, but a series of metaphor-laden fantasies using Liszt's life as a point of departure. Roger Ebert called it "a berserk exercise of demented genius, and on that level (I want to make my praise explicit) it functions and sometimes even works. Most people will probably despise it."

Some very prominent moments.

Carried by its zaniness.

Viewed June 17, 2017. Bacchanalia doesn't begin to describe it. Dicks, everywhere. Crosses, swastiskas, burning baby carriages. Daltrey's casting is a stroke of genius - he very earnestly performs these silly songs while surrounded in even sillier scenarios. The frame just about bursts with ideas, and about 85% of it works perfectly.

silly

A complete travesty in terms of classical music - vulgar, surreal, obsessed with penises and with its combination of intelligence and lack of good taste, the better because of it.

Vulgar in so many ways, this highly entertaining satire is one of the more original biopics.