Mahler (1974)

Essentially a biographical film based on the life of composer Gustav Mahler, this is a Ken Russell film through and through - what that means is it’s equal parts genius, blasphemous, absurd comedic nonsense and at times plain awful. The best parts were told through a series of flashbacks and fevered dreams as the titular composer sits ill at ease on a train journey; it had me enthralled for much of the time and cringing at others.
I'm half convinced that Russell purposefully makes parts of his films excruciatingly bad so the good bits seem really good in comparison.

3½ fiery hoops out of 5