Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Blistering performances.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Ken Russell's audacious take on the life of composer Peter Tchaikovsky will either dazzle or enrage you with its no holds barred presentation of the tortured composer. Utilizing Tchaikovsky's music with both romantic and sardonic abandon Russell paints a flamboyant picture to accompany his score with stunning countryside homes and belle époque surrounding of grandeur while savagely crosscutting squalor, depravity and the horrors of asylum existence. Whether pluming the depths of despair with his Symphony Pathetique (6th) or dark comically putting the 1812 Overture to use Russell eviscerates the man with his music while at the same time sympathizing with his plight. When first released I can recall parents ushering their children from the theatre during the first two reels. It was no Sleeping Beauty. Russell opens his film in bravura fashion at a winter carnival with an energized montage that expeditiously introduces key players in his life. It ends in overt declaration by confirming rather than hinting at Tchaikovsky's homosexuality. With this out of the way he concentrates on his poorly planned and ill fated marriage to Nina (Glenda Jackson)as well as relationship with family and patroness Von Meck who gives him the freedom and ability to write and compose. When she unceremoniously cuts off his allowance without reason he turns to conducting which provides a huge source of income and honors. Meanwhile Nina is rapidly descending into madness.As Tchaikovsky, Richard Chamberlain does a fine job of conveying the highs and lows of the composer's existence as well as an impressive feigning of the First Piano Concerto. Glenda Jackson's Nina is a raw unforgettable powerhouse of madness that few in the business might be capable of rising to. The cast also boasts some strong supporting performances from spot on acerbic foils Max Adrian, Ken Colley and Maureen Pryor.Douglas Slocombe's lush cinematography and wife Sheila Russell's costuming greatly add to Russell's vision of the paradise and hell on earth the tragic composer lived and rather than allow for the mundane tedium and worship that goes along with most bios of great men and women went to it with an unquenchable ruthless energy brilliantly juxtaposing Tchaikovsky's (along with a few perfectly placed bars of Rimsky Korsakov) music with his poetic license to create one disturbing an unforgettable biography of a musical giant.

Ken Russell has always been an interesting director, imaginative, eccentric and his composer biographies are quite unique. Some of his touches can come across as distasteful and bizarre(Lisztomania being one of his worst culprits) but The Music Lovers is an example of the ideas being outrageously surreal but rather beautiful but with an equally beautiful story to tell. Along with his Elgar and Delius biographies-where he shows a restrained and more accessible touch- and Mahler also The Music Lovers is one of his best films. The ending is rather rushed, other than that it is a wonderful film regardless of the lack of historical accuracy. Visually, it is both colourful and beautiful with lush costumes and sets and clever camera work that is very distinctive of Russell's style, though it doesn't feel too much of a music video. Tchaikovsky composed some of the best and most emotionally impactful music ever known to man, the music displayed is phenomenal and beautifully performed. As well as being very well-respected, and The Music Lovers really does have some of the best ever meshing of visuals and music in a biographical drama and maybe even with film in general. This couldn't be more apparent in the 1812 Overture scene, where the very striking images create a haunting and hilarious effect(see the cannons for a prime example). The Music Lovers is a very well-written film too, funny and touching, and with a story that engrosses and moves. Russell's direction does show some eccentricity but there is evidence of him also reigning in and showing some subtle(something that wasn't there in Lisztomania for example). Richard Chamberlain really makes you believe that Tchaikovsky was a tormented genius with the many complicated nuances nailed, Tchaikovsky in my mind has only been played better in the Russian film version of his life where the actor also bared an uncanny resemblance to the composer. Glenda Jackson is unforgettable as Nina, not as big or as pivotal a role but is about equal in the memorability factor. All the acting ranges from solid to very good. In conclusion, wonderful film. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Wow! All the dramatics of Amadeus - and then some! That was Mozart, this is Tchaikovsky.To say Mr Russell has a vivid imagination is an underestimation and a half. Forthright film critic Mark Kermode constantly reminds us that Ken Russell is Britain's (or England's, I can't remember which) finest, living director. Mark Kermode often divides opinion and so I assumed that he was wrong.The Music Lovers will knock the woolly old dears off their perches - classical music being so pure and saintly and all that. BUT, it was the rock'n'roll of its day; its blood, sinew and its sex. People didn't always listen to it dressed to the nines in some chaste church or hall. People orgasmed (or would have, if they'd had a record player), argued and got drunk to it. Their protagonists were the rock stars of their time.So, why not have exploding heads to the crescendo of the 1812 climax? Would Tchaikovsky seriously have expected us to want to fall asleep instead? Richard Chamberlaine never puts a foot wrong and I'm so glad that Alan Bates turned the role down. Chamberlaine is both elegant and troubled and cuts a dash that Bates cannot. Glenda Jackson as his fiery nymphomaniac wife is, as always superb. Her intent, to net a trophy husband is never off her radar and the film follows this theme.Boring moments? No - I was entertained, blown away and exhilarated, often all at the same time. The sound quality (at least on my DVD) was amazing, the Andre Previn conducting the London Symphony Orchestra score having a wide stereo and dramatic range. The way Russell montages the increasingly frantic hand-held camera with the music is breathtaking. To get both Previn and the LSO as well as Melvyn Bragg's script shows the obvious cinematic clout that Russell had back then. These were all big-hitters in 1970. Now (apparently) Russell can barely get funding to make anything.The period feel is always believable and feels authentic.So, why not 10/10? Well, while this is as good as Amadeus, that didn't get 10/10 from me, either.

Ken Russell's "The Music Lovers" might be one of the, if not the best film ever made on the subject of classical music. I emphasize this, because as a historical biography it could be described as merely sensational.Russell portrays Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) as a closet homosexual who is haunted by the past and present. In order to obtain social acceptance, he marries a sexually ravenous young woman (Glenda Jackson). Their marriage, of course, proves to be disastrous, and Peter flees from his wife, isolating himself in the countryside to compose music for Madame Von Meck (Isabella Telezynska), a rich aristocrat and widow. But Tchaikovsky's past comes back to haunt him several times before the film's manic and grotesque conclusion.Russell has constructed images that are beautiful and disgusting (often in the same scene) and the film is a perfect accompaniment to the inspiration and ambiance felt in the composer's music.The best scenes involve the seamless meld between sound and image. A concert at the beginning of the film beautifully transposes images of audience members listening to Tchaikovsky's latest piece, with the fantasies that the music inspires in them. Numerous fantasy sequences throughout the film teeter on the edge of insanity, highlighting the composer's feelings and fears.Which brings us to the film's astonishing and loony climax: an excessive montage set to the "War of 1812 Overture" that must rival any other sequence in the history of film for its inappropriateness. The piece is no doubt Tchaikovsky's most well known work, which brought him wealth and fame. But Russell presents his transition from composer to "star" entirely in fantasy. I could try to describe this sequence for you, but it would be futile. It must be seen to be believed. Let's just say that the climatic cannons from the "Overture" are put to violent and hilarious use.The components of the film come together perfectly. Everyone seems to have been in their element while filming. The cinematography by Douglas Slocombe is absolutely beautiful, and proves to be the best feature of the film. This is possibly the best "looking" Russell film. Glenda Jackson's performance as the nymphomaniac wife is perfectly in tune with Russell's histrionic presentation. And though Richard Chamberlain does not fair as well, he shows some emotional depth that has hardly been seen in his other work.Russell's pyrotechnic camera-work is so breathtaking that it is a wonder why the man cannot find work these days. "The Music Lovers" is an exercise in the pure joy of film-making and the emotions it can invoke within us. Perhaps Russell's career slipped through his fingers in the late 1970's (along with his budget), but this film, like Tchaikovsky's greatest compositions, is a work of genius.