Watch The Music Lovers For Free

Sorry, this movie sucks

Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely Fantastic

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Wow! All the dramatics of Amadeus - and then some! That was Mozart, this is Tchaikovsky.To say Mr Russell has a vivid imagination is an underestimation and a half. Forthright film critic Mark Kermode constantly reminds us that Ken Russell is Britain's (or England's, I can't remember which) finest, living director. Mark Kermode often divides opinion and so I assumed that he was wrong.The Music Lovers will knock the woolly old dears off their perches - classical music being so pure and saintly and all that. BUT, it was the rock'n'roll of its day; its blood, sinew and its sex. People didn't always listen to it dressed to the nines in some chaste church or hall. People orgasmed (or would have, if they'd had a record player), argued and got drunk to it. Their protagonists were the rock stars of their time.So, why not have exploding heads to the crescendo of the 1812 climax? Would Tchaikovsky seriously have expected us to want to fall asleep instead? Richard Chamberlaine never puts a foot wrong and I'm so glad that Alan Bates turned the role down. Chamberlaine is both elegant and troubled and cuts a dash that Bates cannot. Glenda Jackson as his fiery nymphomaniac wife is, as always superb. Her intent, to net a trophy husband is never off her radar and the film follows this theme.Boring moments? No - I was entertained, blown away and exhilarated, often all at the same time. The sound quality (at least on my DVD) was amazing, the Andre Previn conducting the London Symphony Orchestra score having a wide stereo and dramatic range. The way Russell montages the increasingly frantic hand-held camera with the music is breathtaking. To get both Previn and the LSO as well as Melvyn Bragg's script shows the obvious cinematic clout that Russell had back then. These were all big-hitters in 1970. Now (apparently) Russell can barely get funding to make anything.The period feel is always believable and feels authentic.So, why not 10/10? Well, while this is as good as Amadeus, that didn't get 10/10 from me, either.

I have not seen The Music Lovers since the 1970s but it remains vivid in my mind, regardless of its historical inaccuracy. Perhaps it was that I was just coming to terms with my homosexuality at the very time I saw it at 17. Nevertheless, I have its visual images burned into my mind and will do for the rest of my life. That says something about the imagination of the director. No other Russell film made such an impression on me, though, I have to say, so perhaps the effect had to do with my love of Tchaikovsky's music and my identification with his struggles. How I would like to have met Tchaikovsky! What a musical imagination he had! So many great works that will live forever.

"The Music Lovers" captures the Ken Russell style at its best. It's a full blown expression of his romanticized, shocking, exaggerated biographies, previously seen in black and white, low-budget BBC productions (more adequately financed here thanks to the success of "Women In Love"). Russell's excessive style contrasts the supreme beauty of Tchaikovsky's music with the turbulent, tormented, messy life from which it arose. The visual flights of fancy succeed in conveying the musical transcendence. Performances go way over the top, but the treatment calls for it. Richard Chamberlain bravely goes where few actors would in 1970. Glenda Jackson is absolutely fearless. She'll do whatever it takes, from writhing around nude to shaving her head. There's no denying the film is a deliberate assault on the senses, but thoughtful viewers will leave with much to contemplate and digest. I should not omit the fact that it's highly entertaining as well.

Ken Russell's film of the life of Tchaikovsky and his lunatic wife is unabashedly opulent and more than a little wacky. A woefully miscast Richard Chamberlain plays the title role and he's awful...was one of the world's great composers really THIS vapid? Glenda Jackson as his unhinged wife is a lot better..in fact she's a lot more animated than usual. She's also a lot prettier than usual donning a full head of hair and looking quite foxy in costumes that leave little to the imagination. Russell's direction is also terrific...the scenes of Jackson in an insane asylum are among the best Russell's ever done. It's certainly much better and more cerebral than Russell's later LISZTOMANIA --- that may or may not have more to do with the classy screenplay by Melvyn Bragg, but no matter, THE MUSIC LOVERS is a must see for Russell aficionados.