Directed by Ken Russell • 1974 • United Kingdom
Starring Robert Powell, Georgina Hale, Lee Montague

Director Ken Russell revisits one of his favorite motifs—the lives of legendary composers—in this wildly iconoclastic portrait of Austro-Bohemian symphonist Gustav Mahler. While traveling on a train to Vienna, the ailing composer (Robert Powell) recalls scenes from his life and failing marriage to Alma Mahler (Georgina Hale)—realized by Russell in at once staggeringly beautiful and audaciously surreal tableaux that provide a delirious visual counterpoint to Mahler’s overpowering music.