Wahnfried (3 Stars)

I bought this film because I wanted to find out about the life of Richard Wagner. Okay, I could have read a book or even spent time researching online, but I'm a film fan, and I get most of my information from films. I've already been criticised for this, but it's the way I am.

Unfortunately, the film didn't fulfil my expectations. It concentrates on the affair between Wagner and the married woman Cosima von Bülow, the daughter of the composer Franz Liszt. The film doesn't help any viewer like me with limited knowledge of Wagner's life. It was impossible for me to tell when the events happened. I knew it was over a period of years, because Wagner's son Siegfried became older as the film progressed. There was only one historical event that I could latch onto. Wagner shouted with joy when he heard that Prussia had just declared war on France. "We can finally drive the Jews out of Paris". At this point I paused the film to check the date of the Franco-Prussian War. July 1870. So I finally knew when the film was taking place.

But let's backtrack. The film begins with Cosima and her children coming to live with Wagner in Switzerland. Shortly afterwards Friedrich Nietzsche also arrives to live with them. Why? I'd have to read a book to find out. Cosmia's children, especially her oldest daughter Daniela, dislike Wagner.

For the first half of the film they live in Switzerland. Then they move to Bayreuth, a town that Wagner considers a paradise, because there are no Jews. When they arrive, Wagner has a house built. He also has a crypt built opposite the house, where he intends to be buried. Every afternoon he sits with Cosima looking at the crypt, discussing which one of them will die first.

Richard Wagner is an unpleasant person. He looks down on the people who listen to his music. He says that they don't understand his music, and he accuses them of falling asleep during the performances. He claims to love Cosima, but he yells at her whenever she interrupts him while he's composing. At other times, however, he becomes softer. He suggests they should move to Italy so he can concentrate on her and give up music altogether.

As for Cosima, she's a very stern woman. In the course of the film she never once tells Richard she loves him, not even when he declares his love for her.

Cosima's husband, Hans von Bülow, is a pathetic man. He intends to challenge Wagner to a duel, and he even takes shooting lessons to be sure of his victory, but he backs out at the last moment. He says that he understands music, and it would be a sin to prevent Wagner composing more operas.

Friedrich Nietsche, Wagner's closest friend, is a strange person. He says he's a vegetarian, but he likes to eat meat when nobody is watching. He tells Cosima he loves her, but she turns him down.

Wagner is a womaniser. Despite living with Cosima, we see him having two other affairs in the film. Cosima knows about the affairs and tolerates them. She tells one woman, an opera singer in Wagner's Ring cycle, "I want you to be with Richard because you make him happy, but as soon as the festival is over you should leave".

There are strange scenes in the film. Friedrich Liszt, who lives with the family in Bayreuth, has an affair with his granddaughter Daniela. Did that really happen? It's disgusting.

It's a difficult film for me to rate. It would have been better if the historical background had been explained in more detail, but evidently that's not what the director intended. The film has been made for people who already know about Richard Wagner's life. That's not me. But at least it's inspired me to do some online research into his life.