Omnibus (TV Series) Dance of the Seven Veils (1970) User Reviews

My introduction to Ken Russell

[mlraymond · 7/10 · 4 January 2008]

I saw this production on British television while living in England for a year as a teenager. All the strange, farcical and irreverent themes and style later associated with Russell were fully in evidence in this bizarrely comic movie. I can certainly see how it would have offended the Strauss family, since it was a cartoon like portrayal of the composer as a Nazi supporter.

I have never forgotten it, as the images were sometimes beautiful and impressive, as well as frequently so outlandish as to be absurd. I would never have seen it but for the sheer chance of living in England at the time. This was at the same time that Russell's acclaimed version of D.H. Lawrence's Women in Love was playing all over London, to both controversy and praise.

When The Devils was being condemned by shocked reviewers and scandalized audiences in 1971,the descriptions I read of its wild excesses and over the top imagery and performances sounded strangely familiar, in light of the Strauss television film. Whatever you think of him, there is no denying Russell's impact on modern film and pop culture.

Omnibus: DANCE OF THE SEVEN VEILS (Ken Russell, 1970) ***

[Bunuel1976 · 7/10 · 1 December 2011]

Russell made his name with a series of biopics about several cultural luminaries for the BBC: initially approached in a pretty straightforward manner (ELGAR {1962}), these became increasingly radical, filled to the brim with outrageous ideas teetering on the edge of taste, and culminating in this fantasia (actually referred to as a "comic strip" in a sub-title!) on the life and works of German composer Richard Strauss – which necessitated a disclaimer at the start of the program about the disturbing nature of some of the images that were to follow! While he had already branched out into feature film-making and would famously tackle another trio of composers within that format (namely Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Liszt), this one lasts just under an hour – but the resulting barrage is so potent as to be overwhelming nonetheless!

Incidentally, the presentation is far from optimal: constantly accompanied by a time-code at the bottom of the screen, the colors of the print on display have faded and acquired a reddish hue, there are a number of odd jump-cuts where the film winds back on itself ever so slightly before resuming, not to mention being intermittently plagued with audio glitches! This has to do with the fact that the film incurred the wrath of the Strauss estate, which effectively blocked subsequent showings; the BBC's own banning of it also led to the severing of their long-standing relationship with the director! In any case, Strauss' melodramatic compositions and the turbulent period in which he was active lends itself well to Russell's mad vision – its 7 episodes (hence the title, but not clearly delineated along the way!) being marked by theatricality, hysteria, violence, death and, of course, sex.

Christopher Gable (a recurring presence in Russell pictures around this time) is impressive and versatile in the lead: running the gamut from his concert-engagement prime to being first feted and then denounced by Hitler and his minions (while the former comes across as rather a prancing Chaplinesque figure, Vladek Sheybal – another striking regular in the director's oeuvre – compensates with a decidedly chilling Goebbels!) to old age, but also taking in burlesque interpretations of a caveman (as with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY {1968}, set to the strains of Strauss' "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"!), Macbeth, Don Quixote, a dashing cavalry officer (a scene which resolves itself into an extended swashbuckling routine during a stage performance!), etc. Apart from which, he is also beset by historical women that presumably inspired his music at some point (I admit to not being familiar with Strauss' backstory), namely Clytaemnestra, Salome' (played, in anticipation of Luis Bunuel, by two distinct women{!} and a character he would return to in the Oscar Wilde adaptation SALOME'S LAST DANCE {1988}) and Potiphar's wife.

Even so, perhaps the most memorable moments here involve the debasement of religion (with self-flagellating monks, love-starved nuns and the willful abuse of holy icons) and depictions of the Nazis exerting their terror-filled stranglehold (an elderly Jew has the Star of David bloodily carved on his chest inside a packed cinema!) – both of which would come to be Russell trademarks. The final insult is having George Gershwin's "By Strauss" (which had earlier been utilized for the classic MGM musical AN American IN Paris {1951}) jokingly heard here over the closing credits!

P.S. I have since found out that Russell managed to record an Audio Commentary for a proposed DVD edition of this one before the BBC once again chickened out and pulled the plug on its release!

Hilarious!

[HeatherRaehate · 26 September 2006]

This documentary is BRILLIANT! I had the luck of seeing Ken Russel speak and present three of his films at a film festival last year. My friend and I got an interview with him for a news article, he told us the whole story about the Strauss estate. Apparently he swiped a copy of the original reel, and has been carrying it around ever since the 70's. The film depicts Strauss having a picnic with Hitler (because of his supposed connections with the Nazi party) and letting Hitler ride upon his shoulders as they frolic through a feild, handing out Strauss' records which have a swastikas in the centers.

The music goes so well with the scenes, it was a long documentary but I laughed almost all the way through it. I hope others are able to see it eventually.

Worth the look, but one of Ken Russell's weaker composer biographies and it is easy to see the controversy it's gotten

[TheLittleSongbird · 6/10 · 12 January 2014]

Ken Russell always has been an acquired taste, some will find it clever and unique, others will find him excessive and in a distasteful way. With me, Russell has evoked mixed reactions, there is definitely few directors quite like him but admittedly he does have ideas that fall into controversial excess. I loved his Elgar, Delius- both proof that he can be restrained- and Debussy biographies as well as very much liking The Music Lovers and Mahler(The Devils is a controversial but hugely well done and fascinating), but not his 80s Faust production where his touches were bewildering and distracting and Lisztomania is the very meaning of a difficult-to-rate film, a unique film but often too much of a tasteless one. Haven't seen Salome's Last Dance, Tommy or Women in Love yet, where opinions have been very mixed for all three, but they are high on my to-see-list.

Dance of the Seven Veils is another one of his controversial works, it does have good things as well as things that don't work and of Russell's composer biographies it is one of his weaker ones, Lisztomania being his worst. Dance of the Veils does look striking, beautifully filmed and costumes and sets that are mostly appropriate. The imagery is very over-the-top but is cleverly composed and fascinating to see, tough to pick a standout actually because they are of a consistent standard visually. Standouts if having to choose being the Also Sprach Zarathustra and the swashbuckling during the stage performance sequences. The music is magnificent(worth two stars on its own actually), well it's Richard Strauss you can't expect anything less, and is well-utilised especially Also Sprach Zarathustra(the piece that even non-classical-music fans will recognise most likely). The orchestra play it with power and nuance. It was interesting also to see figures like Don Quixote, Macbeth, a caveman amongst others and also characters that you'll recognise from his operas, Salome being the most familiar. And the acting is good, the best is the chilling Goebbels of Vladek Sheybal, perhaps one of the better interpretations of a figure that has rarely been portrayed wrong. Kenneth Colley is suitably ruthless as Hitler and Christopher Gable enigmatic in the title role.

For all those good things, Dance of the Seven Veils is one of those biographies that has gotten a great deal of controversy and for good reason. The imagery looks good and is sometimes amusing(like Strauss and Hitler at a picnic), however it is also imagery that is characteristic of Ken Russell excess, not just irrelevant at times but also most likely will cause offense- well make that has as I've seen many today still being reviled by it. The ones representing religion is especially true to this, not subtle at all. The script and story also are swamped by the visuals, the script feels underwritten and the story once you leave the imagery out of the equation doesn't tell us a huge amount about Strauss' life or his music. Strauss himself is very one-dimensional and cartoonish here(even for a person deliberately written as one within Dance of the Seven Veils' concept), and I personally don't think he was as unlikeable as he was here, and while well-acted the other characters are no better. There is the feeling that while Elgar, Delius, Debussy were done with restraint and love for the composers(The Music Lovers too, Russell at least seemed to understand that Tchaikovsky was a tormented genius), Strauss here was to Wagner in Lisztomania as composers that Russell disliked. Wagner is to a little extent understandable because, while his music is incredible, it is well-documented that he was a terrible man, but with Strauss it is incomprehensible as to why Russell would treat him like this.

Overall, Dance of the Seven Veils is worth the watch but this is really not Russell at his best. 6/10 Bethany Cox