BOOK NOW
2011 marks the 100th Anniversary of Gustav Mahler's Death
“Very
witty and erotic…Percy Adlon is up to old tricks in this, delightful,
artistically vigorous and occasionally loony fantasia about Vienna's
cultural elite 100 years ago.” –The Hollywood Reporter
North American Festival Screenings
Orange County Jewish Film Festvial (2012) East Bay International Jewish Film Festival (2012) Las Vegas Jewish Film Festival (2012) Denver Jewish Film Festival (2012) East Bay International Jewish Film Festival (2012) UK Jewish Film Festival (2011) Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival (2011) German Currents, Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego (2011) Colonial Theater New Hampshire (2011) Goethe Institute, Washington DC (2011) Washington DC
Jewish Film Festival (2011) Berkshire
Jewish Film Festival (2011)
September 2011 Update: Winner - Best Film & Audience Award (& Opening Night Film)
at Medias Romania Central European Film Festival
Trailer
Synopsis
This exuberant
imagining of the real-life marriage of Gustav Mahler (Johannes Silberschneider)
and his tempestuous wife Alma Schindler Mahler (the luminous Barbara Romaner)
is a sensory feast of art, sex and celebrity in fin-de-siècle Vienna.
Chafing under her agreement to give up her own musical ambitions, Alma
seeks passion in the arms of the young, dashing architect Walter Gropius,
which sends a tormented Mahler to Sigmund Freud for consultation. “Cameos”
by Gustav Klimt and Max Burckhard. Moving and funny (the sessions with
Freud are sly gems) the film is filled with Mahler’s sublime music
conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Beautifully written and directed by Percy
Adlon (Bagdad Café) and his son Felix Adlon.
"That
it happened is fact. How it happened is fiction." –Percy & Felix Adlon
Based on a true story. August 1910. Devastated and confused by the discovery that his beloved wife Alma is having an affair with Gropius, Mahler travels to Holland to consult with Sigmund Freud, who is on vacation in Leiden. Feeling humiliated and betrayed, Mahler initially refuses the couch, but when Freud wheels a camp bed into the room, he relents. Their encounter stretches into the night as Mahler vividly recounts his seduction of Alma, the beautiful darling of Vienna’s arts scene, their unexpected but passionate love affair and their eventual marital troubles. The next day, the two great men go their separate ways. Overjoyed with what he sees as his cure, Mahler travels to rejoin Alma.
David Ansen of Newsweek on Mahler on the Couch
“Percy
Adlon, who delighted audiences with Baghdad Cafe and Sugarbaby,
is back in rare form with Mahler
on the Couch.
Mahler is none other than the great turn-of-the-century composer Gustav
Mahler; the couch belongs to no less than Sigmund Freud, whom the freaked-out
maestro, desperate for help, tracks down in Holland after discovering
that his beloved wife Alma has had an affair with the young architect
Walter Gropius. Adlon's passionate and witty film, which he co-wrote
and directed with his son Felix, is a portrait of the fascinating, fevered,
and doomed marriage between these two powerful partners. The headstrong
Alma—played by the fiercely sensual Barbara Romaner—both
worships her much older lover and chafes under his domination. Avoiding
stuffy biopic conventions, Mahler
on the Couch honors the complexity and humanity of both of its tormented lovers,
keeping our sympathies in a constant state of flux.”
VIDEO: Behind the scenes with the filmmakers
Huffington Post | Interview with the filmmakers & star by Michael Kurchfeld
Jewish Daily Forward | Interview with Percy Adlon at the New York Jewish Film Festival
Downloads
Press
Kit Press
Kit (Print-Friendly Version) Film
Website (English) Film
Website (German) Percy Adlon filmography
Media Links
“Mahler on the Couch" hit of the German Film Festival | San Diego News
Tell Me About Your Childhood, Mr. Mahler. The Composer’s Visit With Freud Opens the New York Jewish Film Festival | Jewish Daily Forward
"Mahler on the Couch" To Open 20th Annual New York Jewish Film Festival | Indiewire
NYJFF: The Adlons' "Mahler on the Couch" Pairs the Composer with Alma and Freud | TrustMovies
Feminists in Focus: "Mahler on the Couch" Without Jewish Guilt at the New York Jewish Film Festival | Lillith
A Lively Musical Corpus. Gustav Mahler, Almost a Century Dead and Still Kicking | Jewish Daily Forward
Measuring Mahler, in Search of a Jewish Temperament | Jewish Daily Forward
When Mahler Took Manhattan | New York Times
The Persecution of Creativity: Jews, Music and Vienna | Center for Jewish History
Gustav Mahler and the Art of Alienation | Center for Jewish History
Mendelssohn, Mahler and the Jewish Question (Is that a yes or a no?) | Bloomberg News
Is Gustav Mahler's Music Inherently Jewish? | Jewish Voice & Herald
Mahler: Music & the Language of Antisemitism in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna | Book Review
Mahler Gets Sanitized Celebration, Erasing Nazi Cruelty | Bloomberg News
Reading Mahler: German Culture and Jewish Identity in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna | Book Review
Smart Jews in Fin-de-siècle Vienna: "Hybrids" and the Anxiety about Jewish Superior Intelligence | Sander Gillman essay
NYJFF: The Adlons' "Mahler on the Couch" pairs the composer with Alma--and Freud | TrustMovies
Psychotherapy's Jewish Roots. The Author of 'American Therapy' Discusses Freud | Jewish Daily Forward
Mahler's Loves, Rivals, Baton Captivate in Paris Show: Review | Bloomberg News
Interviews (video & transcripts) about Mahler (including the "Jewish Question") with conductors -- Alan Gilbert, Herbert Blomstdt, Simon Rattle, Riccardo Chailly, Manfred Honeck, Antonio Pappano, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson Thomas, Pierre Boulez, Franz Welser-Most, Pierre Boulez, Michael Gielen, David Zinman | Mahler Universal Edition
Cast
Johannes Silberschneider GUSTAV MAHLER (see Where
to and Back trilogy) Barbara Romaner ALMA MAHLER Karl Markovics SIGMUND FREUD Eva Mattes ANNA MOLL Friedrich Mücke WALTER GROPIUS Lena Stolze JUSTINE MAHLER-ROSE (see The
White Rose) Nina Berten ANNA VON MILDENBURG Manuel Witting GUSTAV KLIMT Matthias Franz Stein ALEXANDER VON ZEMLINSKY Michael Dangl BRUNO WALTER Karl Fischer CARL MOLL Max Mayer MAX BURCKHARD Michael Rotschopf ALFRED ROLLER Johanna Orsini-Rosenberg BERTA ZUCKERKANDL Simon Hatzl ARNOLD ROSE Daniel Keberle FRANZ HIR
Crew
Written & Directed by Percy Adlon and Felix Adlon
Produced by Eleonore Adlon, Burkhard Ernst, Konstantin Seitz
Original Music by Gustav Mahler
Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen
Conducting The Swedish Radio Symphonic Orchestra
Director of Photography Benedict Neuenfels
Behind the ScenesDocumentary - Also Available
Music Making with Esa-Pekka Salonen: Scoring “Mahler On The Couch” Germany | 2010 | 43 Min | English and German with English Subtitles | Read More (PDF)
Go behind the scenes with filmmakers Percy and Felix Adlon and acclaimed conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen as they conceive and record the soundtrack for the Adlons’ stirring feature film Mahler on the Couch. Salonen conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Gustav Mahler’s Adagio, the first movement, of the unfinished 10th symphony. The Adlons make the unusual request to record, in addition to the full symphony, isolated moments with single instruments, “moments” they weave into the film’s narrative. The documentary includes scenes from the film, married to the music being recorded.
North American Festival Screenings
Orange County Jewish Film Festvial (2012)
Go behind the scenes with filmmakers Percy and Felix Adlon and acclaimed conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen as they conceive and record the soundtrack for the Adlons’ stirring feature film Mahler on the Couch. Salonen conducts the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Gustav Mahler’s Adagio, the first movement, of the unfinished 10th symphony. The Adlons make the unusual request to record, in addition to the full symphony, isolated moments with single instruments, “moments” they weave into the film’s narrative. The documentary includes scenes from the film, married to the music being recorded.
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