Truly Dreadful Film

Brilliant and touching

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

You'd never know from this stifling, woodenly acted, tritely written biopic what an electrifying and singular woman Alma Schindler, by all accounts, really was. As portrayed by Sara Wynter, she's got the allure of a dishrag and may as well have "Serial Victim" stamped across her forehead, her complex life story reduced to a series of oversimplified episodes (Girl Meets Artist, Artist Falls for Girl, Artist Turns Out to Be a Self-Absorbed Jerk, and Girl Meets Another Artist). Not only do you get no sense of what a great composer, architect, sculptor and writer ever saw in her, you don't get much of a sense of what she could have possibly seen in any of them. The movie makes the 22-year-old Alma look either cynically opportunistic or oblivious to find anything attractive about this movie's smug, devitalized old-fogy Gustav Mahler (who could never have written the amazing symphonies the real Mahler composed). Walter Gropius, et al. don't fare much better. Something that looks as though it was made for--and rejected by-- Lifetime Network, despite pretty cinematography, sets and costumes. As a then- member of the Gustav Mahler Society of New York, I attended a free pre-release screening in spring 2001--and still wanted my money back!

I was prepared for an awful movie judging from the reviews and waited until this was on DVD to see it. I wonder if I watched the same film as others.Alma's reasons for cheating and having lovers were very clearly given, she was stifled in her marriage and rather than do nothing she got satisfaction when she wanted it.rather than being some famous groupie, she was the flame and they were the moths. Had it be 100 years latter she would be the famous composer and would have been given the respect that at that time she was only given as a muse.The actress that plays Alma starts off the film well showing some of Alma's passion and intelligence but then seems to give up acting halfway through the film at the very time when in real life Alma was coming into her full power.Jonathan Price is a decent Mahler but the film doesn't show the passion that he had for Alma.Vincent Perez does an excellent job although the characterization of her third husband is far removed from the reality.The movie focus more on the narrative and the atmosphere than on the characterization of Alma who was a talented and intelligent woman who drew people to her with her beauty but also with her intelligence, wit and ability to bring out the talent in people.I wish the film showed more how she was a huge influence on the art and culture of the time. I did love that they played parts of her leiders(poems made into songs).This film is good stimulation for people to learn more about her and I must say the love scenes were very intense and erotic.

As with many biographical narratives, Bride of the Wind meanders more than most stories do. Because of this, one may have to be in a mood to do a little of the work while watching this movie.I think the film has been very well executed. The acting, photography and directing are all beautifully and thoughtfully crafted. The subtle quality of the writing and acting enhances the force of human reality and delineates the truth of emotions in a way that no overly dramatic movie could.One might compare this movie to the French movie, Camille Claudel, in that it is the story of a frustrated female artist whose energies are at least partially consumed by their roles as muses to more famous male creatives. However, Alma Mahler's character is quite different than Camille's.I highly recommend this movie to anybody with an attention span, especially if you have any artistic leanings. 8/10

I went to this movie and I didn't really hear anything about it before and didn't know what to expect from it. I didn't even know what this film was about. All of a sudden I hear a familiar trumpet and horn melody in the opening credits and I was filled with joy. For these were the notes as composed by the late great Gustav Mahler. I quickly realized that this was going to be a film about one of my favorite composers and I was totally drawn into the film. Of course, though, this film is not about Mahler, but his wife Anna. The parts that included Gustav and Anna were wonderful. There was some honest passion going on that very few films I have seen lately have exhibited. The overall communication between the two near the end of Mahler's life was very gentle, bittersweet and very believable. Gorgeous work from Wynter and Pryce together. However the film gets considerably worst with each relationship Anna has after Mahler. Everything seems forced and rushed and consequential. It almost seems that Beresford was out to make a film about Mahler and then right in the middle of production he finds out the Mahler died much earlier than an erroneous script had told him. So he decides to make a film about a confused female 'player' who only went out with successful men before having some success of her own. Oh well. Still though I had a good time with this film. I just wish this was more of a film about Gustav Mahler than it actually was.Elendil