The ringmaster announces a change of scene and costume, as they will now deal with the childhood and youth of Lola Montez. The next morning they part ways and Lola Montez reads up the torn notes, where Liszt says that she at least remains faithful to his music. He tears up the just finished farewell waltz and secretly tries to leave the common room, but Lola Montez catches him and they spend one last night together. Both of them spend the night in an inn and Liszt wants to prevent Lola from leaving. He reckons to be a mere lover, since Lola Montez will go on board the other carriage as soon as she wants to leave him. The question of whether the Countess von Landsfeld still remembers them leads Lola Montez to a first flashback of her affair with the composer Franz Liszt.įranz Liszt and Lola Montez are on their way to Rome in a carriage, but the composer, who writes pieces for Lola Montez to which she dances in front of an audience, notices that their carriage is followed by another. A parade of lovers begins, where the circus performers represent the number of Lola Montez' lovers. The crowd shouts questions to Lola Montez about her waist size and her affairs, but the ringmaster answers them humorously. Each question costs 25 cents, which are not intended as a payment for Lola Montez, as the ringmaster announces, since they will be donated by her to a correctional home for fallen women. She is carried richly adorned into the circus ring to receive questions from the audience. In New Orleans, a whip-wielding ringmaster announces to the crowd the “attraction of the century” and “the most interesting predator” of his circus: the former royal mistress Maria Dolores Porriz y Montez, Countess von Landsfeld, known as Lola Montez. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America by The Criterion Collection in February 2010. Heavily re-edited (multiple times) and shortened after its initial release for commercial reasons, it has been twice restored (1968, 2008). However, it had an important artistic influence on the French New Wave cinema movement and continues to have many distinguished critical admirers. The most expensive European film produced up to its time, Lola Montès underperformed at the box office. A co-production between France and West Germany, the dialogue is mostly in French and German, with a few English-language sequences. Based on the novel La vie extraordinaire de Lola Montès by Cécil Saint-Laurent, the film depicts the life of Irish dancer and courtesan Lola Montez (1821–1861), portrayed by Martine Carol, and tells the story of the most famous of her many notorious affairs, those with Franz Liszt and Ludwig I of Bavaria. But where Ken Russell came up with idea to put Nazis and Hitler in the film…I’ll never understand.Lola Montès is a 1955 historical romance film and the last completed film of German-born director Max Ophüls. ![]() The only redeeming quality is seeing a naked, young Roger Daltrey! I can also say that all of Liszt’s women/lovers in the film actually existed in real life and that his daughter really married composer Richard Wagner. Even Ringo Starr, who plays the part of The Pope and who had been praised for many of his previous acting roles is mediocre at best.īoth the acting and the music in this film are terrible. The posters for Lisztomania even promoted this movies as ‘ Tommy’s Tommy‘! Unfortunately, even with Roger Daltrey as the star in this film too, this movie doesn’t even come close to the genius of Tommy and makes one think that Russell should have quit while he was ahead. Lisztomania, was written and directed by Ken Russell, the same guy who had already directed The Who’s classic – Tommy. Or, if you prefer, here is a video of Bugs Bunny playing Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody: I’ve always enjoyed the music of Franz Liszt and you’ve probably heard it yourself. 1886) was the rock star of his day! In April 1844, while reviewing the European music scene that season, writer Heinrich Heine coined the term ‘ Lisztomania‘ to describe the frenzy and fainting that occurred when Liszt performed. Several months ago, I went to a lecture that compared the Beatles to classical composer Franz Liszt.
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