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starring: Roger Daltrey, Sara Kestelman, Paul Nicholas, Ringo Starr, Rick Wakemandirected by: Ken Russell
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786300268982
Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
ISBN: 6300268985
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: April 15, 1992
Running Time: 106 minutes
Sales Rank: 2628
Studio: Warner Home Video
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
Lisztomania, Ken Russell's follow-up to Tommy (both films were released in 1975) finds him even more in the mood for desultory spectacle than his garish pop artistry adapting the Who's rock opera. Seeking to tell the story of superstar composer Franz Liszt through a freewheeling series of pop allegories, kitsch, quotes, and pastiches, Russell hopes to reflect in contemporary terms the runaway train of Liszt's celebrity, love life, and alleged rivalry with Richard Wagner.
Roger Daltrey, the Who vocalist and star of Tommy, returns to Russell's circus as Liszt, a great pianist nevertheless seduced by the ease with which he can make women squeal by playing flamboyant renditions of 'Chopsticks.' Floating on a sea of groupies, Liszt struggles with the possibilities of real love while also encountering the vampiric Wagner's exotic plans for world domination. Intuitive impressions, not history, are what this film experience is for, and toward that end Russell pulls out all the stops, planting Liszt into a heartbreakingly Chaplinesque short film, casting Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman as a cryogenic viking, and placing the hero in phallic jeopardy when his genitals are subjected to a guillotine. Some of this striking stuff works, some of it doesn't, but all of it is determinedly undisciplined. With Paul Nicholas as Wagner, and Ringo Starr as the Pope (!). --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - List should be on your List!
It's a Ken Russell film that never made it to dvd. Worth a look and just plain fun with Roger Daltrey in tow. Rent or purchase away!
Rating: - Whacked-out trip!
I finally got to see this movie after seeing stills many years ago. WHAT A TRIP!!! I am not a Franz Liszt historian but it is quite clear, early on, this movie is full of . . . well, fancy. The viewer is shown exhibits of bare [...], a guillotined giant male organ, phallic columns, smoking rear ends and other amazingly bizarre visual nuggets. There is more eye-candy than one person probably should take in but it is quite fascinating as an artist's canvas.
The story is strange, and ... Read More
Rating: - FrankenWagnerHitler? What's not to love?!
Oh b'gosh 'n golly, this film is chock full of treats both visual and aural. Given what happens in Princess Carolyne's antechamber, I think we can safely add olfactory to the list as well.
Okay, let's try a little experiment: I want you to think of the most excessive movie you've ever seen. Now, what would it be like if it were twice as excessive? You're not there yet. Make it -more- over-the-top. Getting close.
Ken Russell's Lisztomania makes Ken Russell's Tommy look sedate. ... Read More
Rating: - we need the dvd...we need the dvd
YES...I vote for the DVD....does one of you know how to set up the "voting" ballot type thing on amazon?.... the people demand the dvd. I only have a destroyed second generation vhs of Liszto......p
Rating:  - Suitable to warp young minds....
I rented this film in my youth, and after I had watched it, left it downstairs next to the VCR. My younger sister popped it in, and I heard a mouthful from my older brother about how she shouldn't have been watching it, and I shouldn't have been watching it. Well, it's too late, I already did watch it, and my mind is now officially warped, hehehehe...My brother would freak out at other early favorites of mine, like Joe's Garage and Trout Mask Replica, but he was OK. As for this film, I love Ken Russell's ... Read More
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