Mahler 1974 Full Movie fmovies

Summary of Mahler Full Movie fmovies

Plot Overview

The opening credits begin with a little hut on a pier on an idyllic lake exploding in flames; then a cocooned woman struggles to break free of her white wrappings in an outdoor setting near a rough rock carving of Mahler’s head.

The structure of the film is that Mahler and his wife Alma have returned to Europe from his time conducting in the United States, and are on the train to Vienna. People are thronging the platforms to greet him at each station, but he makes Alma draw the blinds and will not listen to the people’s speeches or receive their bouquets.

Flashbacks and Visions

Instead, various incidents on the train trigger his memories or visions, and we see them. Alma’s lover Max is also on the train, urging her to leave Mahler and get off with him a couple of stops before Vienna. The idyllic hut on the pier is seen in the first flashback: Mahler is trying to compose in it, and he gets Alma to go around the whole lake hushing the animals and people who are making noise.

A woman who agrees to change compartments with the couple comments that Mahler’s newly composed Ninth Symphony is all about death; this upsets him, as does someone else’s dictum that after Beethoven no composer can ever write more than nine symphonies. He has a heart attack and a doctor on the train tends and revives him, but he has a vision of being alive in a windowed coffin while Alma and Max ignore his pleas, carry on with each other and cremate him. Other flashbacks include a visit to the Emperor of Austria Franz Josef about a music director job.

Emotional and Tense Moments

Alma sadly buries her song in the woods and mourns over it. Mahler’s conversion to Catholicism is expressed by a fantasy sequence in which he undergoes a baptism of fire and blood on a mountaintop, presided over by Cosima Wagner, whose influence as Richard Wagner’s widow means her anti-Semitism is a powerful force in the music world.

In a final flashback, Alma is very upset and attacks him in the hut on the pier because he wrote the song cycle Songs on the Death of Children (Kindertotenlieder). The doctor on the train who tended him tells him he is in perfect health. Mahler tells Alma she has the choice of getting off before Vienna with Max at his stop or staying with him. They arrive at Vienna, where the doctor reports to Mahler’s regular doctor by phone; the latter reveals that Mahler is very ill and only has a week or two to live.

Conclusion

Despite his illness, Mahler chooses to live in the moment with Alma, affirming their eternal love. Watch Mahler Full Movie fmovies to immerse yourself into this emotional journey of love, music, and sacrifice.