Lisztomania was written and directed by Ken Russel, so it's his baby for all the world to see. There is, surprise surprise, a lot of nudity. There are a lot of phallic symbols, even in heaven the pillars are giant penises. Richard Wagner is the villain of the piece, complete with vampire teeth to suck the creativity out of Liszt's neck while he plays it out on a piano. Sound weird yet? Maybe it was revenge for Liszt playing Wagner's new piece cut up with renditions of chop-sticks to please his teenage girl fans all screaming like it was The Beatles. In a very risky scene Wagner's reanimated corpse goes after Jews with an electric guitar-machine gun. The whole film is like this. It's worth seeing once, just to experience the weirdness. But it's not really that good. Occasionally boring. The music is middle of the road, both the classical and the electric. Daltry does sing in the film, and that's a bit middle of the road too. Oh, did I mention, Daltry and family, now deceased, fly in a spaceship from heaven made of a giant organ (not that kind of organ, though is a memorable scene with one of those as well) to earth to blow up Wagner in the midst of his Nazi holocaust. So everybody dies, but there's still a happy ending.
Review of Lisztomania
