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Rating: 
Summary: Very boring.
Review: Extremely boring narration of some extracts of remeniscences/letters of Mahler and about Mahler, narrated by actors impersonating the authors of the recollections. Total waste of time and money.
Rating: 
Summary: Easier to digest than Russell's pic ...
Review: I have been longing for a good Mahler movie that is not self-consiciously arty and seeks to tell it like it was. Maybe that is expecting too much. This movie is not nearly as pretentious as Ken Russell's film, though at least we can appreciate Russell's passionate committment to his subject. Here, there is less passion and more strict storytelling, yet now and then we are subjected to paroxyms of awkward and studied profundity that seem inevitable given who Mahler was and what he was about. That said, I found my particular video copy of excellent technical quality and perfectly fine as video accompaniment to Mahler's stupendous compositions. A must for Mahlerians everywhere!
Rating: 
Summary: Ich bein eine Berliner?
Review: If you speak German, you may enjoy this. I don't so ... I don't know what else to say... nice pictures? Looks *very* stylized altho not quite as bizzarre as Ken Russell's piece of trash. Not sure if it's a documentary or cinema.
Rating:
Summary: A Vienna Tour Guide?
Review: Sorry, I don't speak German very well, and there is no English subtitle available. I only comment on what I visually percepted.All I saw was spots of Vienna you should go if you are on a Vienna music tour. Some movements of Mahler's symphonies were even entirely played with the pace of the film completely stopped. Mahler himself is vaguely visible. The film put too much focus on Natalie Bauer-Lechner and Anna von Mildenberg; and unforgiveably ignored another two women whom Gustav also considered important: Justi Mahler and Anna Mahler, not to say other musicians like Richard Strauss, Hans von Burlow, Jean Silbelius or Bruno Walter. Mahler's vision of music was also ignored.
Rating:
Summary: Easier to digest than Russell's pic ...
Review: This Austrian documentary about Gustav Mahler tries a few new tricks. To judge from some of the comments from other reviewers, they may be a bit unsettling. I suspect, however, that some of the confusion may result from poor disc interface design. English subtitles are available, but the default is to play the disc in German without them. You have to request the menu screen; otherwise it will play without subtitles. In fact, much of the film uses tried and true documentary techniques: an impersonal voice relating events in Mahler's life over period photographs; shots of locations, such as the Vienna Opera, where he worked; letters from the composer read out loud, and so on. Even some of the deviations from standard technique, such as costumed actors speaking as people from the composer's life, are not that unusual. Peter Watkins's EDVARD MUNCH, for example, shoots the painter's life as if Watkins were a documentary filmmaker in 1880s Oslo. Even some PBS documentaries, such as their recent series on the American Revolution, borrow this convention. (And when you think about it, this is no more bizarre than interviews with historical experts who speak as if, say, they were actually at the Battle of Gettysburg, or who blithely impute motivations to people as if they somehow had access to their historical subject's dead head. It's bad enough when novelists pull this trick; historians should be a bit more circumspect.) The only aspects of the film that may seem a little unusual are things like repeated images of train engines to signify changes in Mahler's life, or the length of time given over to performing his music. (Then again, this is a film about a composer, is it not?) Even here, though, the film is far less radical than the work of, say, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, or Jean-Luc Godard. So, does it provide us with a sense of the composer's life and significance? Yes, at least as well as the average documentary, and considerably better than the PBS series about Great Composers. It is not as conventionally entertaining as a fictional biopic, but it isn't trying to be. On the other hand, because it is a documentary, and because its form is relatively open, it is able to provide a broader context than a standard fiction feature. A good deal is devoted to how Mahler's career was effected by Austrian anti-Semitism, for example. If the film can be said to have a major fault, it lies in daring to mix forms (documentary and drama), something that always makes people nervous. As far as I am aware, however, no law has yet been passed against this, and I don't see why filmmakers shouldn't explore this option if they desire.
Rating: 
Summary: Yes, there are subtitles
Review: This Austrian documentary about Gustav Mahler tries a few new tricks. To judge from some of the comments from other reviewers, they may be a bit unsettling. I suspect, however, that some of the confusion may result from poor disc interface design. English subtitles are available, but the default is to play the disc in German without them. You have to request the menu screen; otherwise it will play without subtitles. In fact, much of the film uses tried and true documentary techniques: an impersonal voice relating events in Mahler's life over period photographs; shots of locations, such as the Vienna Opera, where he worked; letters from the composer read out loud, and so on. Even some of the deviations from standard technique, such as costumed actors speaking as people from the composer's life, are not that unusual. Peter Watkins's EDVARD MUNCH, for example, shoots the painter's life as if Watkins were a documentary filmmaker in 1880s Oslo. Even some PBS documentaries, such as their recent series on the American Revolution, borrow this convention. (And when you think about it, this is no more bizarre than interviews with historical experts who speak as if, say, they were actually at the Battle of Gettysburg, or who blithely impute motivations to people as if they somehow had access to their historical subject's dead head. It's bad enough when novelists pull this trick; historians should be a bit more circumspect.) The only aspects of the film that may seem a little unusual are things like repeated images of train engines to signify changes in Mahler's life, or the length of time given over to performing his music. (Then again, this is a film about a composer, is it not?) Even here, though, the film is far less radical than the work of, say, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, or Jean-Luc Godard. So, does it provide us with a sense of the composer's life and significance? Yes, at least as well as the average documentary, and considerably better than the PBS series about Great Composers. It is not as conventionally entertaining as a fictional biopic, but it isn't trying to be. On the other hand, because it is a documentary, and because its form is relatively open, it is able to provide a broader context than a standard fiction feature. A good deal is devoted to how Mahler's career was effected by Austrian anti-Semitism, for example. If the film can be said to have a major fault, it lies in daring to mix forms (documentary and drama), something that always makes people nervous. As far as I am aware, however, no law has yet been passed against this, and I don't see why filmmakers shouldn't explore this option if they desire.
Rating:
Summary: Autumnal
Review: This is a German documentary touching on a number of events in
Mahler's life, but not a complete biography. It has English
subtitles, but only the German audio track. The film consists
voice-over narration with impersonations of historical characters
combined with footage of landscapes, buildings, railroads, nature
close-ups, period photographs, and documents; all of it accompanied by
Mahler's music. There are fairly long bits with no narration or
speaking. A discussion in a Viennese coffee shop is enacted to
demontrate the anti-Semitism facing. Mahler when he was appointed to
the Vienna opera. Slow and murky, it doesn't have the brio of the
Ken Russel film.
Rating:
Summary: Autumnal
Review: This is a German documentary touching on a number of events inMahler's life, but not a complete biography. It has Englishsubtitles, but only the German audio track. The film consistsvoice-over narration with impersonations of historical characterscombined with footage of landscapes, buildings, railroads, natureclose-ups, period photographs, and documents; all of it accompanied byMahler's music. There are fairly long bits with no narration orspeaking. A discussion in a Viennese coffee shop is enacted todemontrate the anti-Semitism facing. Mahler when he was appointed tothe Vienna opera. Slow and murky, it doesn't have the brio of theKen Russel film.
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