Mahler

The film opens with a small hut on a pier burning dramatically as opening credits roll. A cocooned woman struggles to break free of white wrappings in an outdoor setting near a rough rock carving of Mahler's head. The image hints at themes of transformation and mortality that will thread through the story.

On the train back to Europe, Mahler and Alma journey toward Vienna while crowds throng the platforms to greet him. Alma's lover Max is aboard, urging her to leave Mahler and run away with him. Across the moving carriage, memories and visions begin to interrupt the journey.

A flashback reveals the idyll of a hut by the lake where Mahler tries to compose. Alma persuades and hushes animals and people around the lake, giving beer to keep them quiet. The memory frames their creative and personal dynamic at the root of the story.

A woman changing compartments remarks that Mahler's Ninth Symphony is all about death, unsettling him. The notion that after Beethoven no composer can write more than nine symphonies haunts his self-image. The moment foregrounds the fragility and pressure surrounding his art.

Mahler experiences a heart attack, and a doctor on the train revives him. He then imagines himself alive in a windowed coffin while Alma and Max ignore his pleas and carry on with their relationship. The vision deepens the tension between life, death, and desire.

In a flashback, Mahler seeks a music-director job with a figure presented as Emperor Franz Josef, who is far too young for the era and makes outrageous demands while pressing his Jewish identity. It turns out the 'Emperor' is Mahler's friend Hugo Wolf, impersonating the ruler in an asylum. The scene plays with delusion, status, and anti-Semitic pressures in the music world.

Alma longs to compose, and Mahler's lead singer performs her song, but Mahler tells her her job is wife and mother and that composition is too stressful. He cites their mad friend and his brother's failed artistic career as cautionary tales. Alma buries her song in the woods and mourns its loss.

In a fantasy sequence, Mahler undergoes a baptism of fire and blood on a mountaintop as Cosima Wagner presides. Cosima's influence and anti-Semitic attitudes loom over the music world, depicted through goose-stepping imagery and loaded symbols. The surreal sequence signals a crisis of faith and artistic identity.

In a final flashback, Alma attacks Mahler in the hut on the pier after he wrote Kindertotenlieder, conflating it with the death of one of his children. The scene links personal grief to his music and reveals strains in their marriage. The event foreshadows tragedy within the larger story.

A doctor on the train declares Mahler to be in perfect health, creating a stark contrast with the looming illness later revealed. Mahler tells Alma that he will live forever with their bond and music, resisting medical verdicts. The moment heightens the tension between mortality and artistic immortality.

Mahler gives Alma the choice to disembark with Max or stay aboard with him. He proclaims that all his music is for her and that she is his music. They kiss as Max exits the train, leaving Alma and Mahler together.

They arrive at Vienna, and a doctor reports to Mahler's regular physician that he is very ill with only a week or two to live. Mahler declines to hear the prognosis, telling Alma they are going to live forever. The film closes on a defiant note of mortal defiance.