Dance of the Seven Veils (1970)
59m
Running Time
February 15, 1970Release Date
Dance of the Seven Veils (1970)
59m
Running Time
February 15, 1970Release Date
Network & Production Companies
Plot.
Russell's composer biopics were usually labours of love. This was the opposite: he regarded Strauss's music as "bombastic, sham and hollow", and despised the composer for claiming to be apolitical while cosying up to the Nazi regime. The film depicts Strauss in a variety of grotesquely caricatured situations: attacked by nuns after adopting Nietzsche's philosophy, he fights duels with jealous husbands, literally batters his critics into submission with his music and glorifies the women in his life and fantasies. (BFI Screenonline)
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Wiki.
Dance of the Seven Veils is a 1970 British television film about German composer Richard Strauss. The film, which was directed by Ken Russell, was only screened once by the BBC. After it was condemned for its gratuitous sex scenes and the depiction of the composer as a Nazi sympathiser, the Estate of Richard Strauss took out a legal injunction banning the use of the composer's music on the film's soundtrack. In February 2020, with the expiration of the composer's copyright after more than 70 years since Strauss died, the film was shown at a special screening event in Cumbria, England hosted by Ken Russell's widow.