Mahler [1974] (widescreen) dir Ken Russell

Mahler (1974)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071797/

This torrent was downloaded from www.cinemageddon.org


Mahler is a 1974 biographical film based on the life of composer Gustav Mahler. It was written and directed by Ken Russell for Goodtimes Enterprises, and starred Robert Powell as Gustav Mahler and Georgina Hale as Alma Mahler.

Robert Powell ... Gustav Mahler
Georgina Hale ... Alma Mahler
Lee Montague ... Bernhard Mahler
Miriam Karlin ... Aunt Rosa
Rosalie Crutchley ... Marie Mahler
Gary Rich ... Young Gustav
Richard Morant ... Max
Angela Down ... Justine Mahler
Antonia Ellis ... Cosima Wagner
Ronald Pickup ... Nick
Peter Eyre ... Otto Mahler
Dana Gillespie ... Anna von Mildenburg
George Coulouris ... Doctor Roth
David Collings ... Hugo Wolf
Arnold Yarrow ... Grandfather

The music score of the movie consists of recordings by the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink.

BAFTA Awards
1975 Won BAFTA Film Award Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles Georgina Hale

Cannes Film Festival
1974 Won Technical Grand Prize Ken Russell
1974 Nominated Golden Palm Ken Russell


Writers' Guild of Great Britain
1975 Won Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award Best British Original Screenplay Ken Russell Tied with Ray Connolly for Stardust (1974).

COMMENTS FROM THE CINEMAGEDDON.ORG UPLOADER

If you’re as big a Ken Russell fan as I am, then this is a project I've been working on that I'm sure you'll be interested in.

Poor old Kenny’s films have been appallingly neglected in the DVD market – THE DEVILS, THE BOY FRIEND, THE MUSIC LOVERS, SAVAGE MESSIAH, and FRENCH DRESSING are all missing (LISZTOMANIA is coming in May). Of those films that have been released, some are in the wrong aspect ratio (full frame), and only TOMMY has managed to get a special edition.

MAHLER is now only available on Region 2. The DVD is particularly lacklustre – every review on the Net has slammed the image as being dull, dirty, in the wrong aspect ratio and not much improvement on the VHS, with crackly analogue audio to boot (a UK reissue had a digital soundtrack but the same crummy video). With very few prospects for Ken’s films to reach DVD in fully remastered condition I had no option but to work with what was available on the Net (I looked at four different versions in all), and doctor it up a little myself.

I chose the video from a 25.0000 fps rip which had poor sound but a presentable image. The audio is from a 29.9700 fps rip that I was lucky enough to find containing the digital soundtrack (but an inferior image!!). I demuxed the audio from the 29fps rip and re-encoded the frame rate, enabling me to trim, match and dub the soundtrack in order to get an .avi with the best available sound and picture.

Using film stills and intertitle borders as a reference for the original theatrical framing, it was possible for me to reformat the image accordingly, not exactly at IMDB’s listing of 1:85:1, but closer to 1:79:1, a widescreen standard more commonly referred to in ‘TV screen’ terms as 16:9 (I’ve read a couple of misinformed comments online that the transfer is full-frame pan-and-scan – it isn’t, it’s full-frame open matte, with a slight difference between the framing of the VHS copy and the DVD copy). Unfortunately, due to the sloppy work on the DVD, the matte is out of synch on two occasions, which meant cutting the film into five pieces and reassembling it again seamlessly so the audio/video cuts were not noticeable. That was a day of my life I'll never get back...

I’ve seen all but three Russell films in a cinema and my memory of MAHLER is enough to let me know that it wasn’t as washed-out as the DVD image, so I ran the .avi through filters to boost the colour saturation and deepen the black levels. It was impossible to gauge colour correction by flesh tones as they change completely from scene to scene; also some very dark scenes are 'blocky', but this is a remnant of the original video I was using.

And so, here's MAHLER with vivid colour, widescreen, and "the good audio" track. As you can see by the before-and-after screen caps, the difference in the finished product is quite remarkable, even if it isn't up to the DVD standard we've come to expect. But right now, it doesn't seem there's going to be any official 'good' version forthcoming...

AVI File Details
========================================
File Name .......................................: Mahler.avi
File Size (in bytes) ............................: 1,359,941,632 bytes
Runtime .........................................: 1:50:45

Video Info
Video Codec .....................................: DivX 5.x/6.x
Frame Size ......................................: 584x324 (AR: 1.802)
FPS .............................................: 25.000
Video Bitrate ...................................: 1499 kb/s
Bits per Pixel ..................................: 0.317 bpp
Compatibillity...................................: [B-VOP], [], [], []

Audio Info
Audio Codec .....................................: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Sample Rate .....................................: 44100 Hz
Audio Bitrate ...................................: 128 kb/s [2 channel(s)] CBR
No. of audio streams ............................: 1