Lost in music… The Music Lovers (1970), BFI Blu-rau out now!

 

There is a big section of the British press that hated him, absolutely f*ckin’ hated him…

Quentin Tarrentino

Another whirlwind of sound and furious imagery from Ken Russell in a film that picks you up swirls you through Oz and drops you breathlessly back down to ground with a thump. I haven’t seen The Music Lovers since a late night viewing on HTV as a teen and whilst it hasn’t lost its power, I think I understand Russell’s approach far better now with another biography based on the emotional force of its subject’s work and the extent to which it was drawn from life. Ken’s all about the passion, the swings in a life’s mood than the dates and precise actuality. Every biopic is a deception anyway so why not embrace the inability to cover decades in a couple of hours and let your audience experience Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as he sounded and, upon this evidence, really felt.

"Music and facts don't mix. Tchaikovsky said: 'My life is in my music.' And who can deny that the man's music is not utterly fantastic? So likewise the movie! I sought to honour his genius by offering up my own small portion of his courage to create."*

I watched this sparkling new BFI Blu-ray with my Gen-Z daughter and explained that it was not only just a couple of years after homosexuality was legalised but also featured a star who is still getting some stick – a crass YouTuber - for the “mystery” of his sexuality, aged 90. For our Beth, this societal pressure is hard to conceive and she felt that this must have been such an opportunity for Richard Chamberlain to express himself with a freedom so long denied.

Tarrentino quotes Russell in response to a question about whether the critical consensus of his work ever got him down and Ken’s response was as you’d expect, “of course not… because I believe with all my heart in what I’m doing…” or words to this effect. Ken thereby gave permission to Quentin to follow his own path and no doubt was attracted to figures of similar creative resolution such as Lizst, Mahler and Delius. This film was followed by The Devils and The Boy Friend, both in 1971 a visceral golden year for the director.

The summation of critical views on Wikipedia shows that most recognised Russell’s cinematic abilities but felt he was being too self-indulgent and shocking in The Music Lovers, with the long campaign to obscure Tchaikovsky’s sexuality no doubt part of this view. That said, the film starts with a tour-de-force sequence of rapid cuts, single takes and hyper-kinetic character introductions at a fairground in St Petersburg as recreated in the backlot of Bray Studios in Berkshire. It closes with Tchaikovsky’s death and his estranged wife Nina (Glenda Jackson) being sexually assaulted in a lunatic asylum straight out of Russell’s own nightmares, scenes he would revisit for The Devils…

Russell’s son is interviewed by Vic Pratt on one of the extras and he said how his father would call “action!” before the actors were fully prepared and try anything to get them out of their habits and their typical riffs. When you have someone of the discipline and lightening skill as Glenda Jackson this approach brings out an extraordinary performance and one that is not an easy watch as her character arc heads into madness. Jackson acted in Women in Love and a total of six films with Russell, clearly she relished the challenge and she is, as the director said, his dream actress – fearless and so forceful.

By contrast, Chamberlain is less technical and flexible yet creates a superb portrait of a man who in Russell’s words, only really loved himself and his sister (to what extent we’ll never really know even though Ken had made up his mind). The actor does indeed have a quiet dignity as his director noted and that unknowable look that won so many hearts during his Doctor Kildare days is repurposed here in the depiction of the most conflicted of composers who wanted marriage but not a wife. Chamberlain was also an adept piano played and good enough to convince even though he was only hitting silent keys and playing along to the sounds created by Raphael Orozco as conducted by Michael Previn (who like Jackson, also worked with the great playwright Ernie Wise…).

Nina, even his sister Sasha, are attracted not just to the composer but also the power of his music and his relationship with his long-term patron Madame Nadezhda von Meck (Izabella Telezynska) exemplifies this perfectly, she not wishing to meet him in order to maintain the fantasy of a romance conducted almost entirely via written correspondence. Perhaps his only “straight” relationship is with Count Anton Chiluvsky (Christopher Gable, also in Ken's The Boy Friend), who only wants the man and not his music.

The script was written by Melvyn Bragg based on the book Beloved Friend, The Story of Tchaikowsky and Nadejda von Meck, a collection of personal correspondence edited by Catherine Drinker Bowen and Barbara von Meck. The letters contains many frank revelations as does the biography written by Tchaikovsky’s brother Modeste – played in the film by the excellent Kenneth Colley.

We know a lot about Pyotr Ilyich it seems but to get a feel of the great man, this film is as good as anything. It’s an experience that has a nasty turn but so did the lives and, for me, this was still at the point when Russell was controlled and could afford to be making oblique points through spectacular imagery and unsettled acting, pushing both performers and his audience to a reaction beyond their norm.

Another valuable release from the BFI and highly recommended along with another great set of extras which include a wonderful sequence of the great prima ballerina Galina Ulanova in "Swan Lake" in 1940, worth the price of admission on its own: such grace and purpose!

Special features:

• Presented in High Definition
• Newly recorded audio commentary by film historian Matthew Melia
• Interview with Alexander Verney-Elliott (2024, 20 mins): Ken Russell's son looks back upon his father's work, and remembers his own appearance in The Music Lovers
• Charlotte Bronte Enters the Big Brother House (2007, 16 mins): Ken Russell staged, directed and filmed this 'Radical Bronte' ballet for young people, illustrating Jane Eyre
• The Guardian Interview: Melvyn Bragg (1988, 76mins): ten years after the inception of The Southbank Show, Melvyn Bragg discusses his career in television and film writer Ronald Harwood, at the National Film Theatre in London.
• Galina Ulanova in "Swan Lake" (1940, 6 mins): one of the greatest ballerinas of all time is seen performing a dance from Swan Lake, in this rare film held by the BFI National Archive
• Musical Highlights from USSR Today (10 mins): edited highlights from three editions of the Soviet newsreel, gathering items about Tchaikovsky and Russian musical arts
• Costume designs (2024, 2 mins): original sketches by Shirley Russell
• Original trailer
• Illustrated booklet with new writing on the film by Matthew Melia, a new essay by Caroline Langhorst and contributions from Alexander Verney-Elliott and Lisi Russell

 

The booklet is only available with the first pressing only so get yourself over to the BFI’s shop as soon as you can!

 

Over the top, did someone say? Vulgar bombast devoid of fact?*

 

*Ken Russell, writing in The Guardian about the film in 2004