La vie et l'œuvre du compositeur autrichien Joseph Anton Bruckner (Épilogue) AB 130 : Le dossier Anton Bruckner The Life of Anton Bruckner (DVD) (A 1974 film by Hans Conrad Fischer.) This beautiful and rare film documents Anton Bruckner’s entire life in the form of narrative and actual quotations (his triumphs, defeats, joys, passions, friends and enemies) from his birth to his death. It reveals to us the man himself and his extraordinary art. With scenes and footage from his home, his landscapes, his travels and workplaces offers us the rare opportunity to understand and know Bruckner like never before. The film is interlaced with selections and excerpts from his Symphonies, choral and chamber music filmed on location in the beautiful architectural Baroque churches of Germany and Austria. A look at the life of Anton Bruckner, one of the greatest composers whose life and work have received relatively little attention. Explore this composer who influenced Mahler and Schœnberg, featuring performances of Bruckner’s music by the Vienna and Munich Philharmonics, and much more. Original title : « Das Leben Anton Bruckners » . English title : The Life of Anton Bruckner. Kultur Films, Inc. Format : Colour, Hi-Fi Stereo Sound, Dolby Noise Reduction, NTSC. Release dates : 1st presented at the 1974 international « Brucknerfest » , in Linz. Also presented at the Cleveland International Film Festival, on May 1979. VHS format : 1 September 1998 (Europe) . VHS format : 28 September 1998 (USA) . Studio : Kultur Video. DVD format : 1st released in 1974 as a VHS tape, this extraordinary biographical film on Anton Bruckner has by Hans Conrad Fischer's has been fully remastered in DVD format, with a considerable improvement in visual clarity and fuller sound. In my recent review of the very disappointing film « Bruckner’s Decision » (« Fanfare » magazine, 33:3) , I had occasion to lament that Bruckner was excluded from the splendid 1997 BBC TV series « The Great Composers » , which provided excellent hour-long documentaries about Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, Richard Wagner, Piotr Tchaïkovsky, Giacomo Puccini, and Gustav Mahler. Running Time : 131 minutes. Producer and director : Hans Conrad Fischer. Research adviser : Leopold Nowak. Narrators : Hugh Burden and John Sharp. Film Editor : Annemarie Reisetbauer. Directors of photography : Michaël Epp and Kurt Wagner. With rare video and sound footage of : Conductors : Eugen Jochum, Rudolf Kempe, Rafael Kubelík, Kurt Eichhorn and Karl Böhm. Singers : Kurt Moll and Wieslav Ochmann. Instrumental soloists : Amadeus Quartet with Cecil Aronowitz ; and Augustinus Franz Kropfreiter (organ) . ... Hans Conrad Fischer's documentary, « The Life of Anton Bruckner » was initially released in 1974 and premiered simultaneously in Lucerne, Sydney, Linz and London. It has been acclaimed as one of the most fitting tributes to this unique and extrordinary composer. Now, for the 1st time, this film is being released on DVD (viewable on NTSC & recent PAL machines) after a digital restoration. It is a valuable addition to any music lover's video library. Previously available only on VHS, the film can now been seen as it was presented in many music halls and theatres around the world. The sound has also been restored which gives the viewer an opportunity to hear some Classic performances as never before. In almost every case, the extended excerpts presented here were recorded exclusively for this film so these are unique performances not obtainable anywhere else. Anyone who enjoys the music of Anton Bruckner should see this film. The Orchestra excerpts include : Eugen Jochum and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Karl Böhm and the Bayreuth Symphony Orchestra. Wilhelm Jerger and the Bruckner Konservatorium Orchestra. Eugen Jochum and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. Rudolf Kempe and the Munich Philharmonic. Rafael Kubelík and the Vienna Philharmonic. In addition to performances by these past Masters, there are numerous scenes from Bruckner’s life and portraits of the people who influenced him the most. There are tantalizing glimpses of rare scores and manuscripts plus photographs and portraits of Bruckner from throughout his life. The film producer and director Hans Conrad Fischer was born in a rich aristocratic business family living in the district of Berchtesgaden, on 11 March 1926. He transformed the family Estate in a local museum, in 1968. He studied philosophy, German and Art history, Theatre, science and journalism. The subject of his doctorate thesis was on the history of the Salzburg Festival. He inherited the surname of « Doktor Phil » . His 1st publication dates from 1954. In 1959, he started to collaborate with Karl Heinrich Waggerl. Fischer led, for several years, the literature and radio play department of Radio Salzburg. He founded, in 1961, the Fischer Film and television production (FFF) . In 1964, Fischer started working on the project of a film on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was presented to international acclaim at the London Royal Festival, in 1967. In 1970, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of its birth, Fischer presented his documentary on « The Life of Beethoven » , in New York and London. The death of his 22 year old daughter (who was a painter) of leucemia, on 22 January 1977, became the genesis of his 1980 poignant film « Nela » , presented in Salzburg. It shaked the film industry. His productions also approached literary works which were partially translated into several languages. The Strange Affliction of Anton Bruckner A film by Ken Russell (1990) . 2 août 2013 : Bonjour, Christelle. Le compositeur (obssessif-compulsif) Anton Bruckner, lors de son admission en cure d'eau à Bad Kreuzen, au mois de juin 1867. Vu à travers le regard fantasmatique du cinéaste anglais Ken Russell, décédé en 2011. Il faut en prendre et en laisser par rapports aux événements qui se sont vraiment déroulés .... (Gilles) Ken Russell returned to television again after « The Rainbow » to, once again, return to his favourite theme, the artist's biography, this time around focusing on the Austrian composer Anton Bruckner (or, to be more exact, to cast a fictionalizing eye upon Bruckner’s real life stay in a sanatorium due to his « numeromania » , an obsessive-compulsive need to count objects and things ; something that is, arguably, reflected in the almost manic repetitions found in his Symphonies. Television actor Peter Mackriel plays Anton Bruckner. Carsten Norgaard and Catherine Nielson playing Hänsel and Gretel. Both would also appear in « Prisoners of Honour » . The editor is Brian Tagg. Director of photography is Robin Vidgeon with some camerawork by Ken Russel under the name ... Alf Russell. Victoria Russell is responsible for costumes, as her mother did previously for Ken Russell. The script is by Ken Russell. Movie for television : colour, 50 minutes, 14 October 1990 . Filmed in Hampshire and Kent. And the initial sequences at the Rhinefield Hotel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iapA-XYoMw Peter Mackriel : Anton Bruckner. Catherine Neilson : Grete. Carsten Norgaard : Hans Ken Russell : Writer, director, camera operator. Ronaldo Vasconcellos : Producer. Jeremy Bolt : Associate producer. Anne Dalton : Production assistant. Davina Nicholson : Assistant director. Anita Desmarais : Assistant to director. Robin Vidgeon : Cinematography. Brian Tagg : Film editor. Andy Marangone : Video editor. Richard King : Dubbing mixer. Alf Russell : 2nd Camera operator. Steve Parker : Focus puller. Paul Conway : Dialogue editor. Pat Rambaut : Script supervisor. David M. Bosley : Assistant editor. Nigel Galt : Music editor. Ray Beckett : Sound recordist. Saint-Clair Davis : Boom operator. Jack Collins : Gaffer. John Foster : Clapper loader. Victoria Russell : Costume design. Ann Buchanan : Hair stylist. Ann Buchanan : Make-up artist. Ron Allett : Property master. Les Allett : Propman. What’s Ken Russell’s best-known movie ? « Lair of the White Worm » ? « Altered States » ? « Women in Love » ? That one was nominated for an Oscar and it’s an adaptation of a novel by D. H. Lawrence. Maybe it’s « Tommy » , the visualization of an album by « The Who » . I don’t bring this up rhetorically, I ask because I really don’t know. The only Ken Russell movies I had watched before « The Strange Affliction of Anton Bruckner » were « Lair of the White Worm » and « Mahler » , the latter of which, like Anton Bruckner, is an unusual sort of biopic about an Austrian-German Classical composer. The strange affliction mentioned in the title is an obsession with numbers. Ken Russell portrays Anton Bruckner as something like an obsessive-compulsive. The movie begins with Bruckner arriving at a country home where a man and a woman in a nurse’s uniform await him. He has counted the spokes and the rotations of the wheel and tells his new acquaintances. He counts the letters in their names when they introduce themselves. He is then dunked repeatedly in an ice bath. Bruckner has been sent to receive mental health treatment without his consent, but is more upset that that his wards chose to dunk him 4 times. It’s not a good number ... And so, the movie goes, comprised of vignettes punctuated by treatment, which mostly seems to be lots of ice baths and warm broth fed to him by pretty nurse Grete. Anton’s days seem to be spent walking outdoors, communing with nature and counting various parts of it, although on an early sojourn his caretakers bring him to confession, where the priest is clearly nonplussed by Bruckner’s whole person, particularly his funny definition of the term « self-abuse » (Bruckner means that he was abusing himself by reading the music to one of his critically reviled Symphonies ; by the same words the priest intends something rather different.) . The priest pronounces his penance : to play Johann Sebastian Bach’s Fugue in D Minor. Anton walks-out of the confessional, to the church organ, and does exactly that. The real Bruckner was indeed a gifted organist, and a very devout man, as well as a lonely one. In his mind, he linked spiritual purity to youth so concretely that, as a music teacher, he often found himself longing for his teenaged female students.