About this product

Product Information

Ken Russell's highly individual view of the more sensational aspects of Tchaikovsky's life.

Product Identifiers

ProducerKen Russell

EAN5060057210352

eBay Product ID (ePID)102143074

Product Key Features

ActorRichard Chamberlain, Isabella Telezynska, Kenneth Colley, Max Adrian, Christopher Gable, Glenda Jackson

Film/TV TitleThe Music Lovers

DirectorKen Russell

LanguageEnglish

Run Time119 Mins

Aspect Ratio4:3

FormatDVD

Release Year2011

GenreDrama, General

Additional Product Features

Number of Discs1

Certificate15

Country/Region of ManufactureUnited Kingdom

ComposerAndre Previn

Production DesignerNatasha Kroll

Additional InformationPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is given the Ken Russell treatment in THE MUSIC LOVERS, which means that there is plenty of music, plenty of passion, plenty of debauchery, and plenty of excess. Tame by Russell's later standards (LISZTOMANIA), THE MUSIC LOVERS nevertheless thrives on creative and sexual anguish. Richard Chamberlain plays Tchaikovsky with a bug-eyed intensity as a composer consumed by his art -- so consumed that his romantic attachments become bisexual and irrational. He falls in love with Nina (Glenda Jackson), the hysterical trollop he marries with dire consequences. As he explodes emotionally, his public performance of Piano Concerto in B flat minor becomes a cue for flashbacks to a series of discomforting childhood events that suggest incestuous relations with his sister. Back in real time, Tchaikovsky has to deal with Nina's outbursts while juggling his homosexual urges and his almost hidden desire for Count Anton Chiluvsky (Christopher Gable). The film also details the curious relationship between Tchaikovsky and his rich patroness, the middle-aged widow Madame Nadedja von Meck (Isabella Telezynska), who loves Tchaikovsky deeply, but refuses to meet him -- their only communication being through letters, even though he lives on her estate. Andre Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra perform Tchaikovsky's music.

ScreenwriterMelvyn Bragg

AuthorBarbara Von Meck, Catherine Drinker Bowen

Sound sourceDolby Digital 2.0

Movie/TV TitleThe Music Lovers

EditorMichael Bradsell

Director of PhotographyDouglas Slocombe