Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

ebbill-869-268288 After listening and reading the written record, I was slightly disappointed that screenplay writers failed to bring Liszt's passion for all classical music and the perfection that he so longed to achieve. Sure the groupies were all agog by the dashing young man that had them swooning and passing out when his surprising and powerful compositions reached a crescendo never heard before. And, yes, he did not pass up on an opportunity to jump on those bloomers when presented so seductively by those vixens. Liszt was my first celebrity crush before my family owned a television or I had viewed a motion picture. All I had to comfort me were classical LP vinyl records that were given to Momma from our landlady. I still adore his music and will always think of him as one of the greatest composers that really speak the words my heart and soul want to tell. The spoiler is that the screenplay writer made my rock star appear to be a whore and it spoiled the image of Liszt and knocked him completely off the pedestal I had placed him upon until I could find redeeming written fact. I say this the kindest way I can but the character and chastity of the women, especially the teenagers, of the class of society that would have had access to a Liszt performance, are portrayed quite accurately in the movie as being er, um, tramps, seductresses, temptress, and other politically correct adjectives of women of the time. This was my second "R" rated movie as an adult and, being as innocent as I was at the time (20), I was completely shocked in many ways from the way the promiscuity was accepted even encouraged behavior. Needless to say, it stirred some chit up within me, and the rest they say is history. My first "R" movie was FIVE EASY PIECES with Jack Nicholson that my mother brought me to see at age 18 so that I would be introduced to heterosexual activity behind closed doors. I was wrecked and horrified as Momma sat there watching so intently.

TheLittleSongbird Ken Russell did have some interesting ideas that came across as entertaining but there were times where his style got ahead of him and the film in question, and Lisztomania epitomises a bit of both. Lisztomania is definitely a polarising film, people will find it wonderfully weird while others will find it tasteless. With me, both seem to be here which is the main reason why the film is not an easy one to rate. If you are looking for a biographical drama, look elsewhere, the first half does have a story to it(more than likely to be fictionalised though) but the second half is like you've having a long really surreal dream and the characters are merely parodies. There are some striking visuals that are colourful and surreal while the music is pulsating and catchy and there is evidence of wit and imaginative touches like the homage to Charlie Chaplin and Hammer films, the fantasy interlude, Liszt's arrival at the castle and the Frankenstein figure(though that may also come under vulgar too because it's Wagner and the Nazis). Fiona Lewis and Veronica Quilligan are good as well. Some of it can feel music-video-like though- much of the second half has very little plot and feels like an excuse to string different vignettes together with a lot of tone shifts- and while the special effects are mostly okay the spaceship is rather fake. Lisztomania does change tone a lot and some of the shifts come without warning and feel very chaotic and there are some touches that are vulgar like the piano torture machine, the giant penis, sex scenes at high speed, Nazi iconography. Not entirely which category the vaginal fantastic voyage comes under, visually it was imaginative but there was a real weirdness as well, the same could be said of the most unique version of the Pope you will ever see. Most of the acting is really not very good, Paul Nicholas is pretty awful, Ringo Starr has a naturalness but doesn't have much to do and Roger Daltry is rather dull. Russell has shown with his Elgar and Delius biographies that he can be restrained and Mahler also(though also with some outrageous images), but Lisztomania is the prime example that I've seen of his filmography where restraint and subtlety go completely out the window, and at times it can feel heavy-handed. Overall, very difficult to rate but is unlike many other films seen before, personally not entirely sure whether I liked or disliked it, most likely to be neither. 5/10 Bethany Cox

marie-236 Pure escapism! This film is fantastic. It contains farce, humour, nudity and crudity along with lots of laughs and many cringes. It's ludicrous, hilarious and colourful with great music and costumes. I like the music and also the paradox of some of the scenes. My daughter and I love it, and happy to watch it time and time again, but everyone we've loaned the video to can't get past the first 20 minutes, and think we are weird, so maybe we are off-the-wall like the film. I haven't seen the film Tommy and would like to do so now I've seen this. Don't watch Lisztomania if you are easily offended. Sit back, relax, take it all with a pinch of salt and you'll be grinning all night.

dbeckham This film is brilliant! Casting Roger Daltry (a rock star of his day) as Franz Liszt (a rock star of HIS day) was a master stroke (though Russell seemed to always like working with the same people again and again and he had done Tommy with Daltry). Ringo star in a cameo as the Pope was a crack-up and Wagner as a vampire stealing themes from Liszt was a trip as well. There is a wonderful "silent movie" section with Daltry doing a Chaplinesque sequence which covers several years in Switzerland and incredible sequences of him as a performer dazzling teeny-bopper girls in crinolines and bonnets--all screaming and swooning to whatever he plays. The piece-de-resistance is the sequence at the end with Liszt in a rocket ship "powered" by several former loves swooping down to destroy a Naziesque Wagnerian Frankenstein Monster who is laying waste to the world with an electric guitar/tommy-gun. This film is so over-the-top I had to have a copy for my collection!