Until you look closely at the scene he bursts in on Roger Daltrey in bed with Nell Campbell and see he's wearing Cowboy boots and his robes look like film celluloid. 😆
The scene with the Jews closing up their houses against Wagner also portrays every single one of them as a pawnbroker; it's what the three golden balls on their shop signs represent.
@@MusicalHell And all of it a mere three decades after the end of the Second World War, no less. (This movie came out in the same decade where 20th Century Fox lost a fortune taking stock footage from that very conflict and setting it to covers of Beatles music. Not a joke. Clearly the entire 1970s was the world's longest bad trip.)
@@MusicalHell How is a scene where we're supposed to be sympathetic towards a victimized community somehow MORE Anti-Semitic than the actual Nazis in the film? Weird.
@@mightyfilm I have no idea; but I feel rather uncomfortable about the castration idea. How is cutting someone’s dick off considered a good thing to enter Heaven? If anything, you’d be in purgatory, or worse, Hell.
@@MusicalHellI'd love to see you condemn The Nuttiest Nutcracker for a Christmas special sometime, it'd be perfect for you to review with its pandering religious scene and bizarre humor.😆
The reinterpretation of history using gratuitous sexuality, vampires, superheroes, and laser beams is something I’m more used to seeing in anime and video games, perhaps Ken Russel was ahead of the curve.
It usually helps when you have a point. Most of the examples I've seen that work are capable of conveying _why_ they chose to use all these things in their historical reinterpretation...and most of the remainder are from Fate, which might also be doing that, but I have watched multiple videos claiming to explain Fate and I still don't understand what's going on.
At least Vox Lux tried to carry out its premise of a pop star being intoxicated by their own fame. I have NO idea what this movie is trying to pull because it keeps making so many left turns in such short notice.
Lisztomania was streaming on SBS On Demand years ago and I checked it out due to late night morbid curiousity. When you're sleep deprived and binge watching weird films before bed, you only have yourself to blame for the fever dreams.
I'm ecstatic that Diva will be ripping apart the third ZOMBIES flick before she hangs her pitchfork up for good. And just in time for Halloween as well! 🦇🎃😂
It’s destiny: Diva can never retire until she finishes the battle with her ultimate antithesis: The 60’s JULIE ANDREWS TRILOGY! 😱 She may have survived Darling Lili, and Thoroughly Modern Millie wasn’t really too bad, but Star! waits for her at the end of the boss level…
I always figured that this HAD to be someone working out his nightmares and personal questions on film. Kinda like the original Rocky Horror. Now, WHOSE nightmares may probably never be answered to ANYONE'S satisfaction.
Mr. Liszt was the original "heart-throb musician whom all the girls loved with all their little hearts". He walked so Justin Bieber, Harry Styles, Park Jimin, and the like could run.
I didn't expect Musical Hell to cover Lisztomania before Brandon Tenold did. He's been using clips from and mentioning it for years, yet never committed to giving it a Cult Movie Review.
And I was about to say that he JUST covered a movie where Roger Daltry (SP?) played a rock and roll alien vampire. The timing of this couldn't be more uncanny.
8:14: I would _love_ to eavesdrop on that conference call. "God, _please_ stop forwarding prayers to me." "But she specifically asked for you! And if you actually went and bought the guy's soul, she-" "I don't just go out and buy any soul that someone puts on the market. You _know_ that's not how my operation works. Jesus fucking christ." "How _dare_ you say that about my son?"
I started watching this at work on break. Even with all the censoring, I felt weird watching the video there. Now I'm safely at home and can enjoy to my heart's content
I started watching it at work too before I realized it was a bad idea. I work in a nursing home where nuns also live. Yeah. Watching this video there would be a bad idea.
After finally getting caught up on all MH episodes i must say, curse RU-vids algorithm for not letting me discover this gold mine of a channel earlier!
In terms of Lisztomania's boob quotient, that's just how European art cinema was in the 70s. They loved to show boobs, bush, butt, and wang. Yeah, a lot of filmmakers took it way too far (Ken Russell was even mocked for it in his time), but on the other hand they were breaking free of decades of very strict censorship and taboos on nudity, foul language, drugs, etc in cinema. Plus pop-Freudianism was all the rage, so it was voguish to sexualize everything.
@@noahbossier1131 I'd recommend looking at reviews of his films from around the time they were put out, I can't remember specific ones. Monty Python had a skit on Flying Circus where it was supposed to be some gardening show but it was directed by KR so it had a bunch of naked people and people in animal costumes.
Honestly I feel like nudity in film is extremely one sided and that male full frontal shouldn’t be considered obscene as it isn’t really fair that you can show women that way in mainstream movies but not guys except if it provides comedy or shock value.
@@kenthuang436Yeah, and the less said about how Japan handles its saucier content the better. I know that's an easy target but I love their culture too much to ignore it, at least they're comparatively tame next to Liztomania here.
My first thought was Wonder Woman. Which is probably what the director or costume designer or whoever ordered that W intended, but it's still an odd pull. Maybe a W in a downward-pointing pentagon would be too unsubtle for...? No, wait, I just remembered the set design.
Something to keep in mind about Ken Russell is he was nearly pathologically anti-Catholic, having been raised in the church. Most religious imagery of this sort is less symbolism or exploration that straight up farce and desecration. It is hard to be "subtle" while giggling with irreverent glee.
I saw Lizstomania in full a while ago and when it was announced as the next Musical Hell case, I was wondering how it was going to be edited with all the nudity.
I'm 11 minutes and 24 seconds in and I have so many questions that I'm sure will go unanswered. Diva as usual is braver than I willing to tackle something so.... baffling.
Was watching this while waiting on a zoom meeting and OF COURSE I got let in just in time for "The hour of the Aryan Superman is here!" to blare through my mic
So I haven’t seen this movie but still like your reviews and explanations. This case though, I am…so confused. Which is not to say the way you presented it was not your usual superb standard, because it was, but… What was this movie trying to be? What was the point the director wanted to convey? Would watching it answer that question or leave me even more confused?
Yes! I remember recommending this to you on Twitter about a year ago and I'm so glad you ended up making it! I only saw it once and it burned into my retinas and yet it was so dull!
Any movie that portrays Wagner as the monster he truly was is fine with me... I like to use it as an anecdote at parties, that there wouldn't have been a Hitler without wagner... I havnt met a single person yet who knew this lol, they just know him as the kill da wabbit guy
I’ve been waiting for this one for years! I watched this movie a lot when I was a late tween/early teen (yeah, I was weird and I was and still am a massive Who fan) and there’s a whole bunch of super weird stuff about the film that only someone with too much time on their hands like I did would know about, so here’s some fun facts: 1. Despite how weird the movie is, it was distributed by Warner Bros. and they were actually really excited for it to come out. But then, it bombed and Warner buried the film. 2. The film was originally supposed to star Mick Jagger as Liszt and Marty Feldman as Wagner, but Daltrey was cast because he was obviously in “Tommy” and Russell thought he looked like the real man. 3. According to Daltrey’s autobiography, doing this movie was the first time he put himself over the Who and did something for himself. 4. Also according to his book, Daltrey kept both of the “bologna pony” props (one of which was cut in half in the guillotine) and propped one up in his yard to deter a Karen neighbor who kept spying on him. The neighbor then proceed to call the police and Daltrey was forced to take it down. He instead just replaced it with the chopped one. I’m also surprised that this wasn’t an angrier review. Not that it was bad at all, but I remembered this film to be “Music”-levels of offensive. Maybe I’m overstating a movie that’s more tasteless than dangerous, but I’m not sure.
Warner Bros. picked up the distribution rights quite late into production. Because the film started with a script only 57 pages long and a lot of scenes having to be made up on the spot, the film went over budget. Producer David Puttnam and his producing partner Sandy Leiberson spent much of the production raising money from private investors, which wasn't going to last. Fortunately for Russell, Tommy opened while Lisztomania was filming and it was a success. Russell, Puttnam and Leiberson went to Hollywood to see if anyone would buy the distribution rights before the whole production collapsed, Warner Bros. stepped in, even though Russell had a beef with them after Warners cut The Devils. Lisztomania did well in London when it opened, but flopped in America. Russell had a deal with Puttnam and Leiberson to do 6 films, said deal was terminated after Lisztomania. Oh well.
I think that this movie only seemed more offensive and on Music levels only because of all the female nudity. Yeah the portrayal of the Jews was in bad taste but it sort of isn’t as bad as it could have been since it was done in 70s slapstick. And they were only in the third and final act where Music was in the entirety of her movie. Take out all of the nudity and sexual innuendos and you’ve got what is basically a Monty Python movie without any of the Monty Python guys.
I love Ken Russell's films for their cartoonishly prurient excesses and their utter ridiculousness. I first saw this film on VHS in the '80's and I could not believe what I was seeing. It never ceases to make me laugh out loud, and I consider it one of my favorite films (for all the wrong reasons).
To be fair to the pope, apparently he was assisting with plans to assassinate Hitler, and vice versa, at the same time...Which is one of those REALLY fascinating rabbit holes I need to go down sometime.
He probably was just getting friendly with the enemy to lower his guard and so that someone could be on the inside to let the assassin be close enough to the target.
The night after I watched this, I had a dream that a somehow stubbly wang was literally coming out of a hole in the floor. 🤦♀️ Maybe it was my brain trying to make sense of the movie. Too bad it didn't work. 😑 Edit: Sooo.... with this upcoming case being her last, are we all in agreement that this is the weirdest movie to find its way into court? With "It Couldn't Happen Here" placing a close second?
I have a soft spot for Ken Russell - his absurdly OTT heavy-handedness just makes me laugh. It's not good film, but it is SO camp. Also the giant kitty almost made me fall over laughing. 🙂
I actually like this movie. Not only it gives Roger Daltry a chance to do a character that talks and sings, but it also covers different aspects of Liszts’s life with Ken Russels signature over the top imagery and metaphors. This movie was released roughly 7 months after the release of Tommy. It is a force of its own. P.s: Roger also work on the who by numbers album during production of Lisztomania, which were both made at the same studio facilities (Shepperton studios in Surrey England ).
That would mean they'd have to acknowledge this pipedream as a competitor... Which, given the recent quality of their films' writing, actually might hit close.
Thank you for covering this musical. I ran into it on some streaming service or another a while back listed as some avant garde masterpiece of art. Glad to know that, although I am also an uncooth clod completely out of step with true art in its many forms, I wasn't wrong about this movie being horrible.
Well, that's a surreal little drug-trip of a film. Made even more surreal for me personally because, right before I saw this video, I had read the section of Good Omens where Crowley reminds Aziraphale that Heaven only has two good composers: Elgar and Liszt. Gives me a whole new perspective on why Crowley had such an easy time persuading Aziraphale to go along with his plan. (This comment has been an offering for the Engagement Fairy. All hail.)
Honestly, even the 'Carry On' movies showed more restraint in the female anatomy on display. Also, given what we're seeing, Ken Russell could not have been sober when writing this movie (then again, it was the 70s and also kind of his and Derek Jarman's schtick).
I love this movie, this along with Tommy and the Beatles' films led me down my path into loving weird movies. There was no greater joy at 14 for me than trying to find a copy of this online, which was very hard, only to finally get it, and watch this batshit masterpiece.
I had forgotten in my previous post that Liszt's best known work, Hungarian Rhapsody, has been in countless cartoons through the years. The Tom and Jerry cartoon, The Cat Concerto, comes to mind. As does Rhapsody Rabbit with Bugs Bunny (also coping with a troublesome, albeit unnamed, mouse). Maybe you could do a Know the Score on the cartoons that featured this work. Just a thought.
This probably says more about my taste for the off-kilter and weird than anything, but up until the r*pey scene and the bit about the goofy Jews running away from Wagner, I was super curious to check this out.
Wait a minute- GOODTIMES is behind this? as in the one that made an insane amount of animated mockbusters?? lol no wonder it ended up here. (timestamp is 3:04)
Ken Russell once said "There is no virtue in understatement.." Agree to disagree. This is easily his most over-the-top movie. And it's better than the BeeGees' Sgt. Pepper travesty. Oo! Ms. Diva, could you please review "Son of Dracula", starring Harry Nilsson & Ringo (as Merlin)??
12:07 To be fair, the German variant slaughtered Catholics too. Not in the same degree as the Jews, but still they killed them for being Slavs and a potentially siphoning away their numbers.
One musical I hope Diva covers before walking away is the 1974 Jack and the Beanstalk anime movie. It’s bizarre, has some recognizable voices if you know anything about pre-80s anime, some nice animation, and a bunch of what the here is going on moments. It’s got everything the best episodes of Musical Hell have had all rolled into one movie.
@@strawberrylime33Yes. Just Imagine Diva’s reaction to that scene alone. It’s going to make her go even more insane than the bizarre party song from Tentacolino.
One of my main time travel fantasies is a Franz Liszt recital. 4:07 She’s giving the historical rundown for fans like me 😂 I wonder when/they’ll mention Wagner marrying Liszt’s daughter?
Having seen this when I was a teen I had asked myself just what the hell I just watched. Thank you for bringing this to court and giving it what it deserved.
I have never seen this movie, but having seen your take on it I might have dodged a bullet on that one. Might I suggest doing a riff on Oogieloves In the Big Balloon Adventure?
The thing is, a lot of the ideas in this are not bad! You can absolutely portray Franz Liszt as a pop idol, you can use Wagner to foreshadow the horrors of Nazi Germany, you can even do crazy off-the-wall things like having Ringo playing the Pope. But there has to be a "why" to it, and that's something this movie doesn't really have.
As for “Why”, even the POSTER brags that it’s meant to be “The movie that out-Tommys ‘Tommy’!” And while I’ll assume that Ken Russell/Roger Daltrey collaboration has been above judgment, I was willing to give the benefit of the doubt that we already knew what we were in for with that one…
There are stories of Russell SCREAMING at many bigwigs around this time- the success of Tommy really made him super hyper over the top crazy-He did some composer bios for the BBC (Song of Summer being the best) and loved to include comic book stuff and be a bad boy. For me, this was a sad end to whatever he had to offer. He has legit "artistic vision" but can be very trashy as well. *Altered States was pretty good-so I'll give him that one. The Devils has really brilliant moments next to porno ones.
@@michaelsliwkowski5897 One of Russell’s earliest, “Billion Dollar Brain”, is actually a pretty good 007 knockoff for Michael Caine’s Harry Palmer spy- For most of the story, you’re thinking, “This can’t really be a Ken Russell film, can it?”, until we get to the big scene where the villain reveals his plan, and then….yep, it’s a Ken Russell film. 🤦♂️
@@MusicalHell Film critic Mark Kermode summed it up best that Lisztomania was made for same audiences that went to see Tommy, rather than those who saw The Music Lovers or Mahler. Ken Russell didn't make composer biopics for the connoisseurs, he did them for the masses. Unsurprisingly, a lot of Russell's long time supporters lost patience with him after this film. Incidentally Kermode was friends with Russell, and helped find the censored cuts from Russell's The Devils in 2002. So yeah.
on the subject of frankenthor, it still will always baffle me that nazis have chosen norse gods as representatives of their disgusting ideology despite the fact the aesir, vanir & giants intermarry constantly in the mythology & one of thors most famous stories involves him being disguised in drag
Plus, Tommy as well, as there's fans of The Who that ABSOLUTELY HATE what Ken Russell did to Tommy, even if it had the band's blessing, and it set the template for what was to come with Lisztomania.
I would give this movie kinda the Tommy treatment which is I'm just here for the fucking ride no need for this to be taken seriously just embrace chaos despite it's flaws
Okay I get this meant to be viewed in drugs sure. But I honestly cannot possibly imagine being willing to do so. It’s already borderline terrifying, I can’t imagine adding mind altering substances would do anything but give me some new phobias.
As someone who lists The Devils as one of their favorite horror films AND one of their favorite historical dramas, I found myself going through this saying "Oh yeah, this has Ken's markings everywhere" but in like the worst way possible. It's kind of fascinating how his style & motifs can work so well in one movie (in my opinion, I'm aware The Devils is a highly divisive film) and bomb so hard in another.
I saw the clip of the locomotive, LBSCR 72 Fenchurch of the famed Bluebell Railway crashing into the exploding piano on twitter. I did not realize that it was the only clip of substance of the source it was from apart from Ringo Starr playing the Pope.
