Alma Mahler is flirting again.
Bride of the Wind (2001)
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Reviews Counted:27
Fresh:0
Rotten:27
Average Rating:2.9/10
Consensus: Bride of the Wind drags for its length, and Alma, rather than being the proto-feminist the film wants her to be, comes across more as a dilettante of mediocre talent.
Theatrical Release:Jun 8, 2001 Limited
Synopsis: In this semi-biographical tale of Alma Schindler (Sarah Wynter), who became Alma Mahler when she married the famous composer Gustav Mahler (Jonathan Pryce), director Bruce Beresford transports... In this semi-biographical tale of Alma Schindler (Sarah Wynter), who became Alma Mahler when she married the famous composer Gustav Mahler (Jonathan Pryce), director Bruce Beresford transports audiences to Vienna at the turn of the 20th Century. The film explores Alma's relationships not only with Mahler, her first husband, but also with architect Walter Gropius (Simon Verhoeven), artist Oskar Kokoschka (Vincent Perez), and the man with whom she remarried, author Franz Werfel. With excellent casting, these intriguing historical figures are brought back to life through actors that bear impressive physical resemblance to them. The joyous but loveless Gustav Mahler is expertly played by Jonathan Pryce, and maintains a significant role in the film even after his death, through both his music and a lifelike bronze bust that Alma displays prominently in her home. The rest of the story plays up Alma's beauty and her clever pickup lines, colorfully illustrating each move she makes as she learns to attract, charm, and enrapture the men she seduces, ultimately serving as their muse. However, throughout her love affairs, Alma maintains her individuality and her interest in her own musical compositions, which she victoriously produces for a grand performance near the end of the film. Thus, BRIDE OF THE WIND frees itself from its quaint biopic packaging, positioning Alma as a harbinger of women's convictions, rights, and creative talents. [More]
Starring: Sarah Wynter, Jonathan Pryce, Vincent Perez, Simon Verhoeven
Starring: Sarah Wynter, Jonathan Pryce, Vincent Perez, Simon Verhoeven, Marion Rottenhofer, Dagmar Schwarz, August Schmolzer, Johannes Silberschneider
Director: Bruce Beresford
Director: Bruce Beresford
Screenwriter: Marylin Levy
Producer: Mario Kassar, Evzen Kolar, Lawrence Levy
Composer: Gustav Mahler, Alma Mahler, Stephen Endelman
Studio: Paramount Classics
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Reviews for Bride of the Wind
As Sarah Wynter plays Alma, it's difficult to see what all the hue and cry was about.
Watching it is like walking, walking, walking down a never-ending aisle.
Levy's bloodless screenplay runs dutifully through Alma's life as though ticking off the points against a checklist.
The script provides a barrage of consistently ludicrously banal and pretentious verbiage.
It's biography as burlesque: a little song, a little dance, a little pastry down your pants.
One of the worst biopics I have ever seen, a leaden march through a chronology of Alma's affairs.
Even though the performers do their utmost to live in the skin of their characters, they're too suffocated to be believable.
For all its sobriety, it adds very little new to the record, and it takes few speculative chances.
Despite all the sturm-und-drang of Alma Mahler's life, Bride Of The Wind fails to arouse much emotion in the viewer.
This is so bad a film, so clumsy and obvious in its dialogue and plot points, one wonders why it's even being released.
The woman who was muse, mother, and a musician in her own right remains no more than a striking beauty with a couple of drop-dead dresses.
Deadly dull when it should pulse with the realities of what was one of Europe's most electric and fecund cultural periods, Bride of the Wind virtually defines the costume drama at its most starchy.
Never convinces you that Alma's story is anything more than that of an amorous dilettante whose artistic bloom was delayed more by intellectual laziness.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 15% 15% | The Ugly Truth |
| 98% 98% | Up |
| 36% 36% | G.I. Joe: The Rise of … |
| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
| 45% 45% | Ice Age: Dawn of the D… |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 45% 45% | Shorts |
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