Directed by:
Ken RussellScreenplay:
Melvyn BraggCinematography:
Douglas SlocombeComposer:
André PrevinCast:
Richard Chamberlain, Glenda Jackson, Max Adrian, Kenneth Colley, Bruce Robinson, Graham Armitage, Victoria Russell, Harry Fielder, Andrew Faulds (more)Plots(1)
Guided throughout by the swells and dips of Tchaikovsky’s music, Ken Russell’s The Music Lovers examines the tragedies of Tchaikovsky’s life through opulent and fantastic musical sequences running alongside a narrative of the composer’s life between 1875 and 1881. Touching on his disastrous marriage with Antonina Miliukova, his relationship with his patroness Nadezhda von Meck, and his repressed homosexuality, The Music Lovers is anchored by magnetic central performances from Glenda Jackson following her Academy Award for Women in Love, coupled with Richard Chamberlain as a neurotic Tchaikovsky. Forming part of Ken Russell’s collection of experimental composer biopics, The Music Lovers features plenty of his signature provocation and excess, but ultimately takes a sympathetic lens to Tchaikovsky’s life in a repressive Russian society. (British Film Institute (BFI))
(more)Cast
Richard Chamberlain
USA
Best movies:
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Shogun (1980) (series)
Richard Lester's The Three Musketeers (1973)
Glenda Jackson
UK
Best movies:
This Sporting Life (1963)
Marat/Sade (1967)
Mary Queen of Scots (1971)
Max Adrian
UK
Best movies:
Kenneth Colley
UK
Best movies:
Bruce Robinson
UK
Best movies:
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Still Crazy (1998)
The Story of Adele H (1975)
Graham Armitage
UK
Best movies:
Shaka Zulu (1986) (series)
Cry, the Beloved Country (1995)
Zulu Dawn (1979)
Victoria Russell
Best movies:
Tommy (1975)
The Music Lovers (1971)
Crimes of Passion (1984)
Harry Fielder
UK
Best movies:
Andrew Faulds
Tanzania
Best movies:
Cleopatra (1963)
The One That Got Away (1957)
Falstaff (1965)
Imogen Claire
UK
Best movies:
Billy Elliot (2000)
Savage Messiah (1972)
Fame (1980) - a.f.
Maureen Pryor
Ireland
Best movies:
Three Bites of the Apple (1967)
The Music Lovers (1971)
Doctor at Large (1957)
Christopher Gable
UK
Best movies:
A Woman of Substance (1984) (TV movie)
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970)
The Music Lovers (1971)
Ben Aris
UK
Best movies:
O Lucky Man! (1973)
Savage Messiah (1972)
Agatha Christie: Poirot (1989) (series)