Editor Reviews:

Amazon.com:
Lisztomania, Ken Russell's follow-up to Tommy (both films were released in 1975) finds him even more in the mood for desultory spectacle than his garish pop artistry adapting the Who's rock opera. Seeking to tell the story of superstar composer Franz Liszt through a freewheeling series of pop allegories, kitsch, quotes, and pastiches, Russell hopes to reflect in contemporary terms the runaway train of Liszt's celebrity, love life, and alleged rivalry with Richard Wagner.

Roger Daltrey, the Who vocalist and star of Tommy, returns to Russell's circus as Liszt, a great pianist nevertheless seduced by the ease with which he can make women squeal by playing flamboyant renditions of "Chopsticks." Floating on a sea of groupies, Liszt struggles with the possibilities of real love while also encountering the vampiric Wagner's exotic plans for world domination. Intuitive impressions, not history, are what this film experience is for, and toward that end Russell pulls out all the stops, planting Liszt into a heartbreakingly Chaplinesque short film, casting Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman as a cryogenic viking, and placing the hero in phallic jeopardy when his genitals are subjected to a guillotine. Some of this striking stuff works, some of it doesn't, but all of it is determinedly undisciplined. With Paul Nicholas as Wagner, and Ringo Starr as the Pope (!). --Tom Keogh

Rating : - The Least Subtle Film In History
I had wanted to see "Lisztomania" since first reading about it in the brilliant "Golden Turkey Awards" in 1980. True to its reputation, Roger Daltrey plays Franz Liszt in a highly stylized (major understatement) manner as an oversexed rock star, singing his way from one predicament to another and making an arch enemy of Richard Wagner, who exists solely to subjugate the world to Nazi Germany, and who is a vampire on the side. I appreciated that Wagner's hat said "Nietzsche," which made his philosophy somewhat evident early on. Nice touch, Ken.

In the midst of this bedlam Pope Ringo (I'm not kidding: Ringo Starr is the Pope, complete with eye patch and cowboy boots) makes Liszt attempt to convert Wagner to Catholicism in exchange for his (the Pope's) permission for Liszt to marry. Confused? Don't be. Director Ken Russell explained in an interview at the time of release that "the past attracts me because when dealing with it you don't have to be historically accurate", then helpfully adds that "Lisztomania" is "pure fantasy based on fact rather than straight factual biography." I'll say.

What this liberty with the truth gives Russell license to do here is stultifying: I am still most amazed by the scene in which Liszt is tormented by noxious flatus from rectum-shaped wall fixtures, then performs a musical number featuring his ten foot long phallus, which meets a guillotine before it's all over. Understated, you say? Well perhaps you will enjoy the death harpsichord, the pipe organ spaceship, and a prolonged familial scene done as Charlie Chaplin. Yes, that's right: Roger Daltrey playing Franz Liszt playing Charlie Chaplin. I would say that this isn't "straight factual biography," although I don't actually know what it is.

"Lisztomania" is absolutely impossible to rate: there are some entertaining moments, and some surrealistic moments of brilliance, but there are also loads of miscues and plain bad acting in abundance. This film is unquestionably for adults only, and I'm giving it three stars as my best guess. Your own appraisal will depend entirely on your viewpoint: there are people who think it's utterly brilliant, while others (probably many more others) find it pretentious and over the top. I think it has value as a touchstone of 1970's overexuberance (and drugs, no doubt.) The one thing I can say without question about "Lisztomania" is that it's never predictable and never boring.