- published: 25 Mar 2012
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Gustav Mahler (German pronunciation: [ˈɡʊstaf ˈmaːlɐ]; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then the Austrian Empire, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic. Then his family moved to nearby Iglau (now Jihlava) where Mahler grew up.
As a composer, he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.
Born in humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism from Judaism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press. Nevertheless, his innovative productions and insistence on the highest performance standards ensured his reputation as one of the greatest of opera conductors, particularly as an interpreter of the stage works of Wagner and Mozart. Late in his life he was briefly director of New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.
Actors: Serge Feuillard (actor), Pierre-Henry Salfati (writer), Pierre-Henry Salfati (director), Marianne Anska (actress), Éric Frey (actor), Benjamin Yvert (editor), Fanny Piquet (editor),
Genres: Documentary,Actors: Hans-Wolfgang Jurgan (producer), Johannes Silberschneider (actor), Eberhard Junkersdorf (producer), Karl Markovics (actor), Lena Stolze (actress), Eva Mattes (actress), Hubert von Spreti (producer), Percy Adlon (writer), Percy Adlon (director), Karl Fischer (actor), Konstantin Seitz (producer), Jochen Kunstler (editor), Caterina Czepek (costume designer), Michael Rotschopf (actor), Daniel Keberle (actor),
Genres: Biography, Drama,Actors: Merab Ninidze (actor), Johannes Silberschneider (actor), Josef Brandmaier (miscellaneous crew), Andreas Kispert (miscellaneous crew), Stephen Endelman (composer), Vincent Perez (actor), August Schmölzer (actor), Bruce Beresford (director), Jonathan Pryce (actor), Tim Wellburn (editor), Frank Hübner (producer), Norbert Blecha (producer), Wolfgang Hübsch (actor), Simon Verhoeven (actor), Jan Fantl (producer),
Plot: Vienna, 1902: Alma Schindler meets Gustav Mahler. She beautiful, young, plays, and composes: music is her life. She becomes Mahler's lover, then he marries her, asking that she give up composing. She has two children, works as his assistant, does his books, saves him from debt, and feels stifled. In 1910, after the death of a child, she retreats to a spa where she falls in love with Walter Gropius. Will she go with him or stay with Mahler? She conducts an affair with the tempestuous Oskar Kokoschka and is stifled in another way. Then, she marries Gropius, who proves imperious. She leaves him for Franz Werfel: he finds her compositions and insists the public hear them.
Keywords: 1890s, 1900s, adultery, archduke-franz-ferdinand, architect, art, artist, artist's-studio, baby, bare-breastsActors: Leon Askin (actor), Helmut Berger (actor), Peter Kern (actor), Susi Nicoletti (actress), Susi Nicoletti (actress), Karina Ressler (editor), Paulus Manker (director), Paulus Manker (actor), Paulus Manker (writer), Albert Kitzl (actor), Albert Kitzl (actor), Albert Kitzl (actor), Sebastian Blomberg (actor), Nicole Ansari-Cox (actress), Uschi Erber (editor),
Genres: ,Actors: Petr Cepek (actor), Radoslav Brzobohatý (actor), Milan Riehs (actor), Goran Trenchovski (actor), Jan Nemejovský (actor), Ivana Kacírková (editor), Vera Kubánková (actress), Milos Vávra (actor), Gustav Mahler (composer), Dalibor Gondík (actor), Martin Mysicka (actor), Daniel Margolius (actor), Petr Vacek (actor), Marek Brodský (actor), Roman Zach (actor),
Genres: Biography,Actors: Tihomir Stanic (actor), Mira Cohadzic (costume designer), Zoran Milatovic (producer), Branimir Brstina (actor), Fedja Stojanovic (actor), Vladislava Milosavljevic (actress), Slobodan Radovic (director), Nebojsa Dugalic (actor), Varja Djukic (actress), Jelica Zupanc (writer), Branislav Godic (editor), Dusan Zaloznik (editor), Slobodan Ljubicic (actor), Slobodan Jovanovic (actor), Jovan Jovanovic (producer),
Genres: Drama,Actors: Wolfgang Lesowsky (producer), Wolfgang Lesowsky (director), Erika Mottl (actress), Dana Gillespie (actress), Corinne Hochwarter (actress), Reinhard Hauser (actor),
Genres: Biography, Music,Actors: Kay Mander (miscellaneous crew), Rosalie Crutchley (actress), David Puttnam (producer), Lee Montague (actor), Miriam Karlin (actress), Ken Russell (director), Ken Russell (writer), Kenneth Colley (actor), Ronald Pickup (actor), Robert Powell (actor), Oliver Reed (actor), George Coulouris (actor), Michael Bradsell (editor), Peter Eyre (actor), Andrew Faulds (actor),
Plot: Both trifles and structure are tossed out the door by director Ken Russell in this film. Here, historical content matters not so much as metaphors, feelings, emotions, and interpretations, and pay close attention, as every word and frame is intended to be important. The film takes place on a single train ride, in which the sickly composer Gustav Mahler and his wife, Alma, confront the reasons behind their faltered marriage and dying love. Each word seems to evoke memories of past, and so the audience witnesses events of Mahler's life that explain somewhat his present state. Included are his turbulent and dysfunctional family life as a child, his discovery of solace in the "natural" world, his brother's suicide, his [unwanted] conversion from Judiasm to Catholicism, his rocky marriage and the death of their young child. The movie weaves in and out of dreams, flashbacks, thoughts and reality as Russell poetically describes the man behind the music.
Keywords: 1890s, 1900s, 19th-century, 20th-century, accordion, adultery, alma-mahler, anachronism, angel, aunt-nephew-relationship