Ludwig (Visconti, 1973): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 6.10pm
This 35mm presentation, also screening on January 12th, is part of the Luchino Visconti season at BFI Southbank. Full details here.
Time Out review:
Interested only in Ludwig of Bavaria as a neurotic individual, Luchino Visconti
centres everything on the king's fears, sublimations and fantasies. He
therefore produces a loving, uncritical portrait of a mad homosexual
recluse, whose passions are opera, fairy-tale castles, and exquisite
young men. Nothing is more sumptuous than Helmut Berger's performance in
the lead, the brooding mad scenes, the deliberately contrived
hysterical outbursts, and it takes only a flicker of scepticism to find
the whole charade risible. But suspension of disbelief has its own
rewards: Visconti's connoisseurship of historical detail and manners is
as acute as ever, and his commitment to his subject is total. The film
was originally released in cut versions ranging between 186 and 137
minutes; this uncut one, obviously more coherent, simply doubles the
interest/boredom rate.
Tony Rayns
Here's a full review by Jonathan Romney in Film Comment.
Here (and above) is the trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment