Mahler

Mahler is a 1974 British biographical film based on the life of Austro-Bohemian composer Gustav Mahler. It was written and directed by Ken Russell for Goodtimes Enterprises, and starred Robert Powell as Gustav Mahler and Georgina Hale as Alma Mahler. The film was entered into the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Technical Grand Prize. Plot The opening credits begin with a little hut on a pier on an idyllic lake exploding in flames; then a cocooned woman struggles to break free of her white wrappings in an outdoor setting near a rough rock carving of Mahler’s head. The structure of the film is that Mahler and his wife Alma have returned to Europe from his time conducting in the United States, and are on the train to Vienna. People are thronging the platforms to greet him at each station, but he makes Alma draw the blinds and will not listen to the people's speeches or receive their bouquets. Instead, various incidents on the train trigger his memories or visions, and we see them. Alma’s lover Max is also on the train, urging her to leave Mahler and get off with him a couple of stops before Vienna. The idyllic hut on the pier is seen in the first flashback: Mahler is trying to compose in it, and he gets Alma to go around the whole lake hushing the animals and people who are making noise. She succeeds at this by persuasion and giving out beer.