[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0988.JPG]]

Possibly one of the strangest movies you will ever see.

''Lisztomania'' is the story of classical composer Music/FranzLiszt in the context of him being the first big "pop star". Take that and the fact that it's written and directed by Creator/KenRussell of ''Music/{{Tommy}}'' fame, and that Roger Daltrey of Music/TheWho stars as Liszt, and you have one big {{Mind Screw}}.

The film varies wildly among pulp romance, strange dream-like sequences, and intentionally {{Narm}}tastic horror.

----
!!This film provides examples of:

* AnachronismStew: Yeah.
** The least to mention, Music/RichardWagner fights the 1848 uprising with a [[http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Lisztomania#Colt_1860_Army Colt Army Model 1860 revolver]], whose name indeed determines the introduction year.
** Photographers walking around with portable cameras in the 1840s.
** Pictures in Princess Carolyn's places show people with sunglasses including Music/EltonJohn, Music/ElvisPresley, and [[Music/TheWho Pete Townshend]].
** The most blatant example portrays Liszt and Wagner meeting other composers of their era. As Wagner just finished his opera ''Rienzi'', this could take place around 1842. However, Music/JohannesBrahms would be a 9-year-old child, yet he is portrayed full grown with an epic beard. On the other hand, Music/FelixMendelssohn is shown as a 33-year old elderly man.
** Hell, at one point Liszt finds a ''computer'' and asks Wagner if he was going into electronic music.
** However, this is a Ken Russell movie, so what'd you expect?
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Liszt uses his music to stop Richard Wagner, the Antichrist who later becomes Hitler.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Cosima, Liszt's daughter and Wagner's wife, turns against her father and kills him through a voodoo doll. Afterwards, they are surprisingly reunited in Heaven, as Liszt's religious music saved her soul anyway.]]
* TheCameo: Several, as some actors of prior Russell films make uncredited appearances.
* CassandraTruth: After Listz joins an abbey, Pope Ringo Starr walks (er, rides) in on him in bed with a woman. Listz says that she snuck in disguised as a nun and forced him to have sex with her at gunpoint. The pope naturally doesn't believe him, but it turns out that's exactly what happened.
* CastingGag: Russell cast Music/RingoStarr as the Pope partly due to Music/JohnLennon's famous comment that Music/TheBeatles were BiggerThanJesus.
* ContinuityNod: In Russell's 1974 film ''Film/{{Mahler}}'', Cosima Wagner had already appeared in one notable sequence, being portrayed as one of those Germanic {{Valkyries}} with a ''[[PuttingOnTheReich Stahlhelm]]''. Consequently, the "W" sign on that now appears on the belt buckles of the children.
* CoolStarship: [[spoiler:The one which Liszt uses to kill Wagner the second time.]] A RaygunGothic-style rocket ship modeled a whole after a giant Bird of Paradise, with wings made from organ pipes and armed with multiple laser beams [[spoiler:that is powered by the energies of Liszt's former lovers]]. Woah.
* DisposableWoman: Happens to Countess Maria and her children, aside from Cosima, when they were comedically blown upped during the May Uprising in Dresden.
* FictionalizedDeathAccount: In reality, neither Countess Maria nor any of her children died in the May Uprising.
* GagNose: When the Pope [[KingIncognito disguises himself as a monk]], all that's visible from [[InTheHood under his hood]] is his large nose.
* GagPenis: In one fantasy sequence, Liszt's erection grows so large that five women can ride it at once.
* GainaxEnding: In which [[spoiler:[[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Liszt reunites with his daughter in heaven - even though she was the one who killed him by stabbing a voodoo doll of him after resurrecting Richard Wagner (actually a vampire who Liszt trapped through the power of a musical exorcism) as Hitler through the power of Frankenstein's magic - whereupon they all fly down from Heaven to destroy Wagner-Hitler-Frankenstein in a magical spaceship after he kills all the Jews in Berlin.]]]]
* GroinAttack: Liszt said that he was willing to sell his soul, but he didn't realize his soul was embedded in his "flesh."
* GroupieBrigade: Literally. In concert, the (mostly female) audience goes completely nuts. One special woman climbs the stage and presents ecstatic Liszt a child, which allegedly is his.
* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: While it's true that Music/RichardWagner held antisemitic views, the movie turns him into a proto-Hitler.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler: Cosima gleefully helped her husband brainwash children into becoming Nazis, resurrected him after Liszt had barely managed to exorcise him, happily led the brainwashed children into following Hitler-Wagner on his genocide of the Berlin Jews and then murdered Liszt, her own father, via voodoo doll seemingly just because. Nonetheless, she is reunited with Liszt in heaven and is not held accountable for everything she did when she was alive in the slightest, because Liszt's music apparently saved her soul.]]
* MadeOfExplodium: When a train runs over a piano. [[StuffBlowingUp Guess what happens]].
* MindScrew: The End. [[spoiler:Liszt kills Wagner, Cosima resurrects Wagner (as Hitler) and kills Liszt, father and daughter are reunited in Heaven and Liszt kills Wagner a second time, now by help of Cosima and his former lovers. Not to mention the ''ways'' all this takes place and what it looks like...]]
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: [[spoiler:Wagner]] becomes a [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]] [[Franchise/{{Frankenstein}} Frankenstein monster]] [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler]].
* OneWingedAngel: Wagner turns into a grotesque vampire during his final showdown with Liszt.
* {{Patricide}}: [[spoiler:Liszt ends up being killed by his daughter Cosima with a voodoo doll.]]
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Wagner virulently hates Jews and [[spoiler:ends up leading a massacre of Berlin's Jewish community]].
* ThePowerOfRock: Wagner wreaks mass destruction on the world with the dark side of the power of rock, firing a guitar that is a machine gun. Franz Liszt saves the world by blasting off in a fighter jet whose controls are a musical keyboard, and destroys Wagner in an aerial assault with the power of rock, then flies off into heaven singing "Liebesträume."
* PuttingOnTheReich: Played with, but up to eleven. While Wagner's castle is modeled after a ''Stahlhelm'' and the [[spoiler:resurrection procedure]] factually ''is'' a Nazi rally. On the other hand, the Wagner-educated children don't wear uniforms, but appear in [[SuperheroesWearTights superhero tights]].
* TheRockStar: The historical Liszt has a reputation for having been a rock star long before rock and roll even existed, and this movie heavily leans into the tropes of the character type. Bonus points for being played by a rock star.
* ShoutOut: Some.
** The soundtrack by Music/RickWakeman operates many themes of Liszt and Wagner. Would you have expected something else?
** The blockhouse sequence is a tribute to Creator/{{Charlie Chaplin}}'s movie ''Film/TheGoldRush''.
* TakeThat: At one point, Liszt puts out some arrogant boasts against Music/JohannesBrahms:
** "Liszt, my dear old fellow!" - "Oh, piss off, Brahms!"
** "He's a right wanker!"
** "I've always felt that people who like Brahms prefer to listen to no music at all."
** Also, Wagner calls Mendelssohn "The jid who only makes music on a cash register"
* ThoseWackyNazis: Hitler himself makes an appearance.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: In that this movie will make only slightly more sense if you watch it while reading Website/TheOtherWiki on Franz Liszt. Although one could make the argument that the psychedelic imagery are just insane metaphors for what happened in real life.[[note]]For example, the real life Cosima and Wagner were very much into the whole racial superiority craze getting big in Germany and after Wagner's death, Cosima took control of his legacy, including creating a festival dedicated to his music. Said festival eventually evolved into a Nazi rally by the 20th century. You can maybe find that in this movie if you squint.[[/note]]
* VoodooDoll: Franz's daughter Cosima makes one of her father, [[spoiler:using it to kill him as the movie approaches its climax]].
----