"MAHLER"
An Original Film Script
Maurice Rowdon


CHARACTERS
GUSTAV MAHLER
ALMA MAHLER


EXT. VIENNESE STREETS. DAY
GUSTAV MAHLER in casual modern clothes, without the 'Mahler
spectacles', is hastening through the streets of Vienna in a mont-
age of SHOTS. He is in his early forties. A rather small man,
pale and slim, with an unusually sloping steep forehead. His hair
is intensely black, his eyes strikingly aware and penetrating.
He has an irregular way of walking, he tends to stamp his feet,
to stop suddenly and then rush forward headlong again. Some
force always seems to be pushing him forward or pulling him
back. A man who burns the candle at both ends. Amid the
harsh traffic noises he seems to be searching for something.
He constantly stops at doorways, looks up at houses, as if
trying to recognise some feature from long ago. He screws up
his eyes, peering, then is disappointed and hurries on. The
sound of his steps is sharp, denoting purpose, even panic.
CUT:
EXT. VIENNESE SUBURB. DAY
The street sounds are suddenly cut off. GUSTAV is now on the
outskirts of the city, in the neighbourhood of Grinzing. Here he
seems to believe that he will find his destination. The same
searching goes on, the same disappointment. He stops, turns and
looks back. Everything is quiet, unnaturally So. The streets are
quite deserted. He walks on. He disappears round a corner.
CUT:
EXT. VIENNESE SUBURB. DAY
GUSTAV suddenly seems to recognise a house on the other side
of the road. He runs across. He stops before a fine detached
house with steps leading up to the entrance.
CUT:
EXT. VIENNESE STREETS. DAY
The harsh traffic noises again. ALMA MAHLER a handsome
blond young woman of twenty-two, taller than GUSTAV, her hair
loose, is picked up among the PEDESTRIANS, strolling along.
Her step is slower and more self-assured than GUSTAV's. But
she too seems to be on a search. She too pears round about her,
though less obviously than GUSTAV. She too is dressed in casual
modern clothes.
CUT:


EXT. VIENNESE SUBURB. DAY
GUSTAV stands gazing at the house. He walks forward. He walks
up the steps to the entrance. He searches for a bell but does not find
one. To his surprise he finds the door open. He pushes at it
gingerly. Then he is bold and walks in. We stay on the door.
CUT:
EXT. VIENNESE SUBURBS. DAY
In the same area ALMA MAHLER strolls along as if remembering
something, piecing it all together, sometimes stopping to look
round her in a musing way which contrasts with GUSTAV's nervous
hurry.
CUT:
EXT.. VIENNESE SUBURBS. DAY
ALMA turns into the road where GUSTAV found his house. She
looks from side to side. She too seems to recognise the house
and stands gazing at it from outside. She walks towards it slowly.
She cherishes it all - the windows, the steps up to the entrance,
the trees, the gravel path. She walks to the steps. She touches
the geranium urns on either side, remembering them with pleasure.
She gazes up for a moment, just before she mounts the steps.
As she walks up, the introduction passage of the 'Alma theme',
the second subject of the first movement of the 6th Symphony,
comes over. It suits her mood, reminiscing, tender, expectant.
She too finds the door open. She hesitates. Then she too walks
into the house.
CUT:
INT. THE HOUSE, UPSTAIRS LANDING. DAY
The music is still over, GUSTAV is gazing round him with a
certain awe. This is a modest yet comfortable house with the
furnishing of 1901. He starts as he hears a sound on the stairs.
He too hears the music. He watches ALMA come up the stairs.
She stops with astonishment when she sees him. He gazes down
at her.
GUSTAV
Alma!
ALMA
Gustav! It is! Oh, Gustl!


Contd.
They remain staring at each other. She then rushes up the remain-
ing stairs. They are about to embrace but something stops them.
They stand quite still.
GUSTAV
Oh, Almschili -
She puts out a hand very slowly to touch his modern clothes. We
watch her hand tremble, almost withdrawing again. She touches
him. The hand comes away again quickly. They go near to each
other. They seem to be about to kiss when polite laughter makes
them turn with astonishment. We follow their P.V. to find L.S.
a room where a late afternoon reception is going on. The GUESTS
are clothed in the style of the early 1900's, though not too formally,
these men and women are the artistic, the liberated of Vienna.
CUT:
CLOSE SHOT OF GUSTAV AND ALMA
They gaze at each other in wonder. They look down at their own
clothes. They seem to become alarmed, in case they will be seen.
They want to get away. He sees a door and takes her hand, leads
her towards it. It is a bedroom. They go quickly inside.
CUT:
INT. THE MASTER BEDROOM. DAY
They come in, still holding hands. It is a large bedroom with an
ornate dressing table and wardrobe of the period. They look round.
The bed is properly laid, indeed turned back as if a couple were
expected. Laid on the bed are the costumes which GUSTAV and
ALMA are to wear. For him there are tails, as for the concert
platform. They turn towards each other again. They inspect each
other's hair and clothes in a strange detached way. He puts his
hand through her hair. She slightly tugs at his unfamiliar clothes.
They smile. It seems a lifetime since they saw each other. He
takes her hair and draws it up at the back, in the style that was
characteristically ALMA's. She smiles and looks sideways towards
the dressing table mirror. She is reflected there, with her hair
Her hair falls again as we move in to the mirror and her reflection.
They go closer together. He sits on the bed and draws her towards
him, still in the reflection of the mirror, growing vaguer. Her
hair falls over his head as he lies down and they kiss. On the
dressing table MAHLERS spectacles are taken in for a moment.


Contd.
Then it seems that their bare flesh is shining in the mirror, with her
hair still enveloping his head. The music has ceased. We hear their
slight crooning together. She is on top. The mirror becomes brill-
iant with light as we draw closer to it. Like the mirrored foyer of a
concert hall. The tuning of an orchestra bursts over. There is the
sound of talk and laughter among the concert-goers. The foyer-
picture almost becomes defined for a moment.
CUT:
11. INT. CONCERT HALL. EVENING
A dressed ORCHESTRA. It is the moment before the concert.
This is the Grosser Musiksvereins-Saal, Vienna. GUSTAV MAHLER
briskly mounts the rostrum in tails. He taps with his baton three
times and raises his arms.
REVERSE ANGLE
CLOSE SHOT of GUSTAV. His arms raised, his expression warm,
stern and workaday. He now has the 'Mahler spectacles' on. He
brings his arms down for the opening bars of his First Symphony.
ANOTHER ANGLE
The audience. We pick out the twenty-two year old ALMA
SCHINDLER, not yet married to GUSTAV. She now has her hair up,
and is wearing a lovely décollecté dress. From her P.V. we see
GUSTAV's energetic cutting motions. She is absorbed in the music
as if it were speaking thoughts to her: clearly a musician herself.
This particular new music seems to call for careful attention.
CUT:
INT. CONDUCTOR'S DRESSING ROOM. EVENING
Loud talk bursts over. GUSTAV's dressing room is crowded
after the concert. Among his guests are GUSTAV KLIMT the
Painter, SIEGFRIED LIPINER and HIS WIFE, together with his
MISTRESS and the Singer ANNA VON MILDENBURG.
GUSTAV is laughing with LIPINER and ANNA VON MILDENBURG,
a robust woman in her thirties. He constantly kisses ANNA's hand
with delight at what she is saying.


Contd.
ALMA SCHINDLER is standing with her mother FRAU MOLL and
her stepfather KARL MOLL, in a separate group. ALMA glances
across the room at GUSTAV and ANNA. GUSTAV looks back at
her.
ANNA picks these glances up and moves towards ALMA. We move
in to a CLOSE SHOT of ALMA and ANNA.
ANNA
(patron-
isingly)
Well, how did you enjoy Gustav's
First Symphony ?
KARL MOLL joins the conversation to save ALMA embarrassment.
KARL MOLL
I love the linden tree theme don't you
- in the third movement - ? 'By the road
stood a linden tree where I could lay my
head and for the first time sleep'
CLOSE SHOT of ALMA gazing across at GUSTAV as the 'linden
theme' takes over and rides the talk.
CUT:
INT. CONCERT HALL CORRIDOR. EVENING
GUSTAV and ALMA, both dressed for the street, hurry along
among parting MUSICIANS with violin-cases, etc. She finds
difficulty in keeping pace with him. He constantly turns round
to talk to her, only to find that he is addressing one of his
own ORCHESTRA. The 'linden theme' is still over.
GUSTAV
(suddenly
turning)
You don't mind if I don't give you a
wedding ring do you?
ALMA
(catching him up,
and speaking with
great disappoint-
ment)


Contd.
GUSTAV
I think it's bad taste. I mean we're
already married - always have
been -
ALMA
(breathless)
Spirtually you mean?
GUSTAV
(impatiently)
With the whole of ourselves - not
just spiritually - with the whole of
our destinies - before and after life
- everything - :
ALMA
Yes!
GUSTAV
And you can't seal that with a ring.
I hate the idea!
He walks on.
GUSTAV (contd)
(suddenly turn-
ing again)
You don't care for rings do you ?
ALMA shakes her head.
I adore rings!
GUSTAV
(to himself,
hurrying on)
After all, it's only a stone.
From her P.V. behind, GUSTAV hurrying along.
And look at his trousers
CUT:


INT. THE MASTER BEDROOM. DAY
GUSTAV's untidy trousers are no longer walking. He is standing in
the dressing room adjoining the master bedroom. He is making
notes on a score while trying to dress. His tails are half on his
shoulders, half off, and his attempts to complete the operation are
unsuccessful. His concentration on the music is absolute. He
pencils in his remarks. The First Symphony is still over.
We PULL BACK and find we are seeing him from ALMA's P.V.
She is sitting at the dressing table in the master bedroom, her hair
up, the décolleté dress on, watching him. She fingers her beautiful
wedding ring with a smile, looking down at it.
(with repeated
glances between the
ring and GUSTAV)
He's the director of the Vienna State
Opera and I'm his wife! I touch him!
I kiss him! Feel his breath on my
hair!
From her P.V. again we see GUSTAV searching for a phrase in his
mind, still struggling with coat.
GUSTAV
(subsiding into
a chair)
Yes!
CUT:
17. WE TAKE A MONTAGE
a) GUSTAV sitting in a horsedrawn
carriage still making notes, his hat
Cabbies recognise him in
at the back of his heàd, jogging along
the street!
towards the Opera in Vienna.
b) GUSTAV getting out of the cab
and paying, The CABBY touches
his hat.
CABBY
Thank you, Mr. Mahler!
GUSTAV strides off, watched by the
CABBY.


Contd.
PASSERS-BY stop and bow to him as he goes towards the Opera
House, but he is unaware of them.
c) GUSTAV striding through the
empty corridors of the Opera
And he's old enough to be
House, his overcoat-tails trailing,
my father, which I don't
holding his hat now, in busy conver-
care about because no man
sation with three or four other
in my age could be that
MUSICIANS.
successful! It takes a life-
time to build an empire!
d) GUSTAV entering a conference -
room at the Opera House, still in
their company. Takes off his over-
coat, throws it down. The sound of
practising singers and instrumentalists
drifts over from outside.
EXT. GRINZING WOODS. VIENNA. DAY
GUSTAV and ALMA are strolling in the woods together, arm in arm.
She is in coquettish mood.
ALMA
What I love is a man's achievement!
GUSTAV
(stopping)
But that's a terrible thing to say!
You should love a man for himself!
ALMA
And the more achievement there is,
the more I love him!
GUSTAV
What if somebody came along with more
up his sleeve than me?
ALMA
I'd love him more! I'd have to!
GUSTAV
Well, I've got nothing to worry about
for the time being. I'm only in my
forties, and there's nobody in the world
with more to offer than me!


Contd.
They walk on. She skips, picks off leaves.
What a
mind
has. But
cheap
she
that's what I love. She's like an
animal. Thank God Mozart isn't
alive. She'd marry him like a
shot. But perhaps she wouldn't.
He wasn't successful enough.
(his face darkening)
His bitch of a wife married somebody
else a few weeks after he died.
He gazes before him.
CUT:
INT. VIENNA STATE OPERA HOUSE. DAY
Onstage during practice a TENOR is singing the Papagheno piece
from The Magic Flute, with ORCHESTRA. He is interrupted by
a tap on the desk, and the ORCHESTRA finishes untidily.
ANOTHER ANGLE
On GUSTAV at his desk.
GUSTAV
You're trying to drag it. This isn't
Wagner, old chap.
(looking down
at the
ORCHESTRA)
I don't like the sound from the cellos.
(rather fiercely)
You play like stones! All right -
(raising his arms)
But instead of The Magic Flute -
CUT:
EXT. MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK. DAY
Swing music from the fifties. ALMA MAHLER, now in her
seventies, is getting into a taxi with a TEENAGER grandchild.
The TEENAGER carries a violin and some sheet music.


Contd.
ALMA wears purple, her favourite colour, with a collar of pearls.
She is still a great and even beautiful lady, not at all shrivelled
by age.
CUT:
INT. THE TAXI. DAY
ALMA sits down and makes herself comfortable in a most
leisurely way. The DRIVER glances round at her
She takes a tiny Whisky flask from her bag and swigs it with a
contented, healthy gasp. The TEENAGER watches her with some
awe.
ALMA
I remember in this very street, the
Gibson girl she was called, sat next
to me in a car like you're sitting next
to me now, she stank of money, no
brains at all but very beautiful, if
that's possible - she asked me, "What
made you marry that hideous old man ?"
I admit he wasn't looking very good at
that time. It was a year before he died.
I sat in her gold-plated car and talked
and talked - I tried to say all of Gustav's
music, as my reason for marrying him.
The 'Linden Tree' subject steals over again.
She gazes before her, remembering. The DRIVER turns round
slowly.
DRIVER
That was very interesting, ma'am.
Now where do you wanna go?
ALMA
But of course it didn't me ean a thing
to her. After all, he was only fifty
when she said that.
TEENAGER
(to the DRIVER)
20 East 88th Street.
The taxi jerks away.


Contd.
ALMA
He looked So beautiful when he died.
Pale, so pale! Like a god! Burning
black eyes - so huge! I married
twice after that, apart from a near-
marriage with a painter. That would
have made four.
TEENAGER
It was rather a. lot of husbands wasn't
ALMA
(like telling a
fairy story)
A composer, an architect, a novelist,
and as I say a painter. And every
one of them world-famous. Somebody
once said that every artist needs a
woman behind him. Well, four of them
needed me! Do you know I was hardly
turned twenty-one when I met the great
Mahler for the first time?
CUT:
EXT. VIENNA ON THE RING IN 1901. DAY
A clatter of horses' hoofs as
carriages pass along the Ring.
(still in her 70's)
Background of trees and the Hofburg.
One day on the Ring, who
People are strolling along, dressed
should bump into me and
in the styles of 1901. We pick up
my mother but the
the young unmarried ALMA
Zuckerkandls! They
SCHINDLER with her mother. They
asked me to come and
meet another couple, the
meet the great Mahler!
ZUCKERKANDLS. HERR
And I didn't want to!
ZUCKERKANDL kisses their
(laughing)
hands in a sumptuous Viennese way.
I hated the way he conduc-
They talk, and he chucks ALMA under
ted his First Symphony.
the chin. They all laugh.
And I hated his First
Symphony! But Mahler
cancelled the date anyway.
When they asked me a second
time, for another Sunday, I
said yes! I accepted! I
accepted! Oh Gustav I
accepted!


INT. A VIENNESE HOUSE. EVENING
A hurdy-gurdy playing Ach Du Lieber Augustin! bursts over with
the clatter of dishes and much loud talk and robust Viennese
laughter among twenty-odd GUESTS seated round a long dining
table in candlelight. GUSTAV MAHLER is seated towards one
end of the table, ALMA SCHINDLER at the other. He is utterly
mute, paying no attention to his neighbours. ALMA glànces at
him, laughing with the other GUESTS. It is the beginning of the
love between them.
On either side of ALMA sit GUSTAV KLIMT and MAX BURKHART
the theatrical director. They are enjoying a joke, though her
enjoyment does not interfere with the attention she is giving
GUSTAV.
GUSTAV throws gingerly glances in their direction. He takes an
apple from the centre of the table, turns it round, polishes it on
his sleeve, smells it, while his neighbour tries to talk to him.
As we come further into GUSTAV, concentrating on his apple,
the hurdy gurdy comes up as if drowning his thoughts and in some
way identifying with the harsh laughter. He casts more penetrating
glances in ALMA's direction.
(as the young
girl)
I wish he'd take his eyes off me! No I
(she laughs with
her neighbour)
GUSTAV
(suddenly)
Can't we share the joke down at the end
there?
(but no one
seems to hear.
He cranes
forward to hear a
GUEST on the
other side of the
table)
You've just been to a violin recital?
Jan Kubelik? I think he plays like an
angel, yes.


Contd.
ALMA
(suddenly address-
ing GUSTAV)
I don't like soloists' recitals!
GUSTAV
(after some
surprise)
Nor do I: Nor do I:
They are gripped by each other's eyes for a moment. Then
GUSTAV is dragged unwillingly into conversation by another
GUEST though he is still gazing at ALMA.
GUSTAV (contd)
Beauty ? I think Socrates was probably
beautiful.
(rising and wand-
ering down to the
other end of the
table with his apple,
to the surprise of the
other GUESTS)
And I suppose you'd call him old and
ugly. Well, he was - -
ALMA
(to GUSTAV)
I think the composer Alexander von
Zemlinsky beautiful for instance.
GUSTAV
No! That's going too far. He's the most
atrociously ugly man I've ever set eyes
on, even for a musician.
(the GUESTS
round ALMA
laugh)
ALMA
Why haven't you ever done his ballet
'The Golden Heart', Mr. Mahler?
I happen to know you promised him you
would!
MAHLER
(startled)
Because I can't understand it!


Contd.
ALMA
Would you like me to explain the
whole thing to you?
He gazes at her. She becomes increasingly confused.
GUSTAV
(with a chuckle)
Very well.
What lovely white teeth he has
GUSTAV
I believe you study music?
ALMA
Yes, under the ugliest man you've
ever set eyes on!
GUSTAV
Alexander von Zemlinsky ? That's
why you love him! Would you like
to bring some of your work along to
the Opera one day and show me?
ALMA
When I have something.
GUSTAV
Come to my dress rehearsal tomorrow
morning - The Tales of Hoffman!
KLIMT
(playfully)
Be careful, he's a much older man:
ALMA
(to GUSTAV)
If I can get my work done first!
GUSTAV
(ironically, as
he walks away)
Under Zemlinsky ?
CUT:


INT. VIENNA STATE OPERA HOUSE. MORNING
The ORCHESTRA is assembling, tuning, for dress rehearsal.
The scene is set for The Tales of Hoffman. The tabs are up.
A drop is flown, and redropped. The waiting PRINCIPALS try
their voices.
ANOTHER ANGLE
In the auditorium. GUSTAV is talking to ALMA, who is seated
in her outdoor clothes. He is sitting on the back of a seat with
his knees clasped up to him, in a precarious position which he
doesn't seem to notice. She tries to pay him less attention than
she really wants to. There are other GUESTS dotted about the
auditorium, including SIEGFRIEDLIPINER, his current wife,
his EX-WIFE and the singer ANNA VON MILDENBERG. They
are talking animatedly.
GUSTAV
This soprano of mine's quite good.
You know, the Schoder girl. But she
makes Antonia die of consumption!
That bloody cough of hers!
(imitating her cough
loudly, to the alarm
of ALMA who fears he
will be heard onstage)
Antonia does NOT die of consumption!
She gives up her personality, her body,
which we are all trying to do - it may
take a lifetime, and it may take
millions of lifetimes. Antonia's an
artist, you see.
(bending forward so
that he almost topples
into her lap)
She melts away!
(as he gets down and
walks away towards the
Orchestra pit)
I'm glad you came!
(shouting it)
You can really learn something about
music today!
ALMA
(to herself)
Oh! Generous of you!


Contd.
GUSTAV
(returning)
Do you know how I'm going to celebrate
our engagement?
ALMA
(almost jumping
out of her seat)
What engagement?
GUSTAV
I'm going to give you a dress rehearsal
of The Magic Flute. There's a man
I've put on the map - Mozart! Nobody could
stage him before! What about that? Just
you - the only audience!
ALMA
But, Mr. Director!
Taking no notice, he walks towards the orchestra pit again.
GUSTAV
(turning suddenly)
Will you be there?
ALMA
Oh, yes, yes!
He keeps turning round to look at her. She looks away. A CLOSE
SHOT of GUSTAV as he climbs to his desk.
Mr. Director, she calls me. Chills
me to the bone! How could she do it?
(opening the music
before him and
taking up his baton)
A girl of twenty!
(turning to look at
her again, over his
spectacles)
Her stepfather, Karl Moll, the old
bastard, told her not to marry me.
He said I was ugly and poor in health
and unpopular at the Opera and
Jewish and badly in debt and anyway
my music stank.


Contd.
GUSTAV (V.O.) (contd)
(triumphantly)
And still she wants to marry me! Can
you beat that?
(peering at her
again)
Or does she want to marry me? Am I
too old then? Am I too short? I don't
know what to do with someone so young
- look at her - : If only she'd had an
affair or lost a husband or something!
STAGE MANAGER
Ready to go, Mr. Mahler?
GUSTAV
Yes, yes.
The front tabs are rung down.
GUSTAV raises to his arms to begin conducting. The orchestra
ceases to tune. Everything is ready, the house lights dim but
GUSTAV suddenly turns round and hisses:
GUSTAV (contd)
Miss Schindler!
In great alarm that he has other secrets to blare out she leaves
her seat and runs towards him.
GUSTAV (contd)
(bending towards
her and whispering)
Why the devil do you want to marry
ALMA
Marr - ?
GUSTAV
You don't want to marry me! Do you
remember Faust when he sings about
God's creation being beyond our under-
standing
(singing)
'and lovely as at the birth of light'?
It's my music! That's what you want
to marry!


Contd.
ALMA
(angry now)
But I still don't like your Fourth.
I like it as little as your First.
(walking back to
her seat)
GUSTAV
(calling after her)
Liking has nothing to do with it: All
that 'good' and 'bad' nonsense! That
only applies to inferior art! You make
the real art like you make babies -
with love, not the will: You don't
will a baby! You just make love and
that's it!
(raising his arms
again for the open-
ing bars)
You don't say the baby's good or bad:
It's alive! And that's all there is to it!
His hands fall with tremendous energy for the first beat and the
opening bars of the overture.
ANOTHER ANGLE
C.U. of ALMA in her seat again with the Overture over. She is
furious.
Marrying him because of something
in Faust? What do these men think ?
And he's got the most horrible friends!
There's that Pole Siegfried Lipiner
(she turns round to
look at him, and he
is registering rapt
attention to the music)
with his beastly bald skull.
(stay on a CLOSE
SHOT of LIPINER)
His eyes are SO close together they're
like cufflinks threaded through his nose
sideways! Nietsche thought him very
fine, So did Wagner, so does Gustav
Mahler. Well, he doesn't interest me!


Contd.
I - can see right through him to the seat
of his dirty pants! And it isn't as if
there's just one of him: There's his
first wife,
(on the LIPINER
group)
his second wife, his mistress who
Gustav Mahler is supposed to share!
Yes, they mount the same whore and
think I don't know! The cat!
(on ANNA VON
MILDENBURG)
The cow! The look she gave me - and
Mahler nibbling at her hand every time she
said something stupid, the poor trussed-up
overdressed sallow-faced bitch!
CUT:
INT. THE SCHINDLER APARTMENT. MORNING
ALMA SCHINDLER's bedroom. She is standing in front of a full
length mirror naked, trying on a string of pearls and admiring
her body.
ALMA
Well,I know one thing, there won't
be any of that crew near him in a
month from now!
(as she slips
on a petticoat)
I know how to deal with great artists,
young as I am - I've got the hang of
it already! All you do is see they
have a room ready for them, and peace
and quiet, and meals on time, and the
rest you organise yourself! His life's
going to have a huge DON'T DISTURB
notice written right across it from now
on! We'll see who's the better bitch
of the two, that tired instrument on which
so many Viennese musicians have played
or me, a virgin! I've never been played
on, and she's already out of tune!


Contd.
ALMA (contd)
(posing in front of
the mirror, chin up)
My little jewel's intacta, and so it
remains until the greatest man in
Vienna seizes hold of it.
The door bursts open. It is her mother.
FRAU MOLL
Quick! He asked you to rehearsal!
ALMA
(grabbing her
clothes)
I know! But it's only his First
Symphony again!
CUT:
INT. CONCERT HALL. MORNING
The rehearsing orchestra is in shirt sleeves. GUSTAV is at his
desk, seated. We see them from the gallery. Silence. The
gallery door opens and ALMA, dishevelled, her hair not quite in
place, steals in like a naughty girl. She stands gazing down at
him, the door still half open.
Oh look! He's like a king! So small
and still, and everybody silent round
him. They're supposed to hate him
- they call him a tyrant! And he
dares to ask me why I'm marrying
him:
(aloud)
I'm marrying you for love, you
absent-minded fool! I love you, oh
how I love you, my little prince of
music!
CLOSE SHOT of ALMA as the orchestra begins the Second Move-
ment of the First Symphony. Her body swings to the happy danc-
ing rhythm. She is delightfully happy.
CUT:


INT. RAILWAY COMPARTMENT. DAY
The clatter and bustle of Vienna's main railway station at the
beginning of this century. The compartment is in the plush upholstered
style of the period, with curtains. GUSTAV clambers in from the
platform in a fur overcoat and hat, carrying a small book. He sighs
and settles down in his seat, takes his hat off and at once begins
reading with concentration.
The compartment door bursts open and a harrassed ALMA, now Mrs.
Mahler and pregnant, begins lugging up suitcases and hat-boxes and
a travelling hamper, with vicious glances at the unperturbed GUSTAV.
She stumbles and the hat-boxes fall in a heap before her on the compart-
ment floor. With an imperceptible kick she makes sure that they
reach GUSTAV's feet. He looks up pleasantly.
GUSTAV
Ah, there you are.
(returning at once
to his book)
ALMA
(as she settles
the boxes, etc.,
on the racks)
No porters! Everybody's travelling to
Russia, it seems!
He is deep in his book. She pauses from her work and gives him a
long studying look. There is something to admire in his self-
absorption! She returns to her work more easily. At least she
throws herself down at his side. She undoes her travelling coat.
GUSTAV
(looking at her
over his glasses)
Can I help?
ALMA
(nestling towards
him)
Darling, why are you always too late
to help - and never too late for a
concert - or a rehearsal - not a second
too late!
They catch each other's eyes and laugh. They suddenly hug each
other and kiss. They can't stop laughing. With great relief ALMA
unclips her skirt, and the corset underneath.


Contd.
ALMA
There! I needn't play the virgin any
more!
GUSTAV
You played it well.
ALMA
Do you think mummy suspected anything?
GUSTAV
Of course. Mummies always do.
ALMA
(touching her
tummy)
He feels happy to be leaving!
GUSTAV
(also touching
her tummy)
And his mamma - what about her?
ALMA
Oh! You tell me! Look in my eyes!
GUSTAV
I read a certain - well I suppose it
could be happiness.
They hug and kiss again.
ALMA
People outside are looking.
GUSTAV
And you love it. You're cheeky, you're
impossible! I saw you laughing when I
fell up the altar steps this morning.
ALMA
It was funny! Even the priest laughed:
GUSTAV
(gazing out of
the window)
Do you think all these people are
going to St. Petersburg?


Contd.
ALMA
(busy with
the hamper)
I don't know. All I know is, we three
are!
GUSTAV
(half jokingly,
to himself)
Perhaps they're all going to my concert.
ALMA takes out bread and sausage, a flask full of coffee, lace
napkins, etc.
GUSTAV (contd)
(watching her)
I didn't know you brought all that
stuff.
ALMA
You talked to me while I was packing
it. You poured the coffee yourself.
GUSTAV
Good God.
(ALMA offers
him some food)
I'll just have coffee. You haven't
got an apple have you?
ALMA
(pouring his
coffee)
(to herself)
Always apples!
GUSTAV
(again looking out
of the window)
We're off!
The train lurches forward with massive puffs.
ALMA
(handing him
his coffee)
Here. Your coffee.


30: € - Contd.
GUSTAV
ALMA
'Ah'! Well I'm going to eat.
GUSTAV
(taking his over-
coat and balancing
the coffee at the
same time)
It's so hot in here!
ALMA eats ravenously.
ALMA
GUSTAV
They overheat these compartments.
(loosening his
jacket as he
sits down again)
ALMA
Oh, Gustav! I do hope you don't start
a sore throat!
(glancing out
of the window)
Wouldn't it have been nice if somebody
had waved us goodbye? Mummy for
instance? Or Karl Moll?
GUSTAV
To hell with Karl Moll. I see him
every day.
ALMA
But not to hell with mummy?
GUSTAV
I'm sick to death of them all: I get
masses of people every day - orchestras
of them, chorusses! And I'll have them
as soon as I step off this train at St.
Petersburg!


Contd.
ALMA
(her mouth full)
Yes I suppose so!
GUSTAV begins reading again, but then raises his eyes and stares
before him, concentrating on some thought. An ominous phrase
from the Ninth Symphony comes over. His mouth is open. He is
conducting slightly with his right hand.
ALMA gazes at him, a piece of bread poised.
ALMA
Are you composing?
GUSTAV comes to suddenly and the music fades away.
GUSTAV
It'll be years before I write anything
like that.
ALMA
Anything like what?
GUSTAV
It's in the tragic mood - it's for later
- later in life -
ALMA
Tragic? Is the future going to be
tragic?
GUSTAV simply gazes before him again. ALMA finishes eating
and settles deeper into her seat. She leans her head on his
shoulder and closes her eyes.
Again the phrase from the Ninth. Symphony steals over, like an
unwanted thought. Softer now. His right hand comes up slightly,
twitching. He shakes his head to the music, beguiled, drugged
with it.
It fades again, leaving the clatter of the train. He gazes at her.
GUSTAV
You like a bit of glitter don't you?
ALMA
(blinking
awake)
What?


Contd.
GUSTAV
I mean, you like dinner parties a bit,
don't you - and little men like the
President of the Society of the
Friends of Music?
Silence between them. Battle is brewing. She slowly levers her-
self away from him.
ALMA
Isn't that Siegfried Lipiner's story,
that I flirted with the President ?
GUSTAV
Why do you hate Lipiner?
ALMA
Hate him ?
(with an expression
of hatred)
I adore him as a matter of fact!
GUSTAV
He doesn't think so!
ALMA
He never think! Nietzsche and all
sorts of other writers think for
him - he gets all his talk out of
their books.
GUSTAV
It's marvellous talk, though.
ALMA
I agree. That's why I adore him. So
why does he spread a lot of horrible
stories about me?
GUSTAV
He doesn't!
ALMA
He told you I flirted with the President
of the Society of the Friends of Music
all through your Fourth Symphony
the other day.


30. Contd.
GUSTAV
But that has nothing to do with what I
said - I said you liked the big world -
I didn't say you shouldn't - I meant
that the President represents that
world perfectly -
ALMA
In other words the President's an idiot
- and I'm an idiot = and all your friends
are geniuses!
(bursting into
tears)
He's been a friend of my family for
years! Years!
GUSTAV
Oh for God's sake don't cry! I can't
stand the sound of a woman crying!
ALMA
Oh yes! It's always what you can't
bear isn't it? I mustn't cry because
you can't bear it: It's always you!
GUSTAV
Alma, I meant I couldn't bear the
suffering behind it - :
ALMA
Oh, suffering! It's natural! You've
got to face up to it - you talk just like
Dostoevsky! - and you're both egoists!
Egoists can never bear the thought of
suffering!
She sobs herself to dry eyes.
GUSTAV
Well, instruct me then. Help me
make sense of it all. We murder
millions of animals for our food,
mothers go through agonies in child-
birth, the animals kill each other with
frightful cruelty, there are hordes of
poor people who can't even clothe their
children, and there are the rich who
are much less happy than anybody.
What do you make of it all? Nothing's


30. Contd.
GUSTAV (contd)
settled for a moment. There are quarrels
all the time, assassinations, bankruptcies,
suicides. We're making love one minute
and quarrelling the next.
ALMA
(as they
embrace again)
We wouldn't have quarrelled if you hadn't
started it.
GUSTAV
(with a laugh)
So you won't tell me what the answer is!
(settling back
again and gazing
before him, then,
with extreme
sadness)
Perhaps He will one day.
ALMA
Who ?
MAHLER gazes out of the window.
CUT:
31. INT. RAILWAY COMPARTMENT. NIGHT
ALMA is fast asleep, leaning against GUSTAV as the train
roars on. They are passing through a snowy landscape now.
GUSTAV too is nodding, with sweat on his brow and upper lip.
A frightening passage from the Seventh Symphony comes over.
He starts awake. He stares before him tensely, as it were
aghast at these tremendous sounds.
The music melts into the screech of the train as it slows down.
He seems terrified, and looks out of the window. The music
ceases. He subsides: it is just a railway station.
ALMA still sleeps. He unleans her from him gently. He mops
his brow. She goes on sleeping. He rises and leaves the
compartment in panic haste, without his overcoat.
CUT:


32. EXT. RUSSIAN COUNTRY STATION. NIGHT
The platform is deep in snow. GUSTAV paces up and down taking
deep draughts of the icy air, clasping himself round the shoulders
against the cold and making a strange swaying motion. Suddenly
ALMA's yell comes over:
Gustav! Gustav!
33. INT. RAILWAY COMPARTMENT. NIGHT
ALMA is all but pulling GUSTAV back into the compartment.
A little furred crowd of Russians has gathered outside, murmuring.
GUSTAV is nearly a frozen carcass. She throws a coat round him,
rubs his hands in hers. Noticing the crowd, she pulls the door to
again.
ALMA
Gustav! How could you? It's 30
below outside! Gustav! Do you
want to die?
He is shivering now - on the way to recovery. The little Russian
crowd has gathered at the windows now, noses pressed against the
glass.
ALMA (contd)
(to the ONLOOKERS)
Oh go away and stop giggling you silly
people!
(attending to
GUSTAV again)
My darling!
(to the
ONLOOKERS
again)
If all Russia's like you it's a zoo!
He gradually recovers himself. The signal is given for the
train to start again, and it lumbers out of the station, the
ONLOOKERS dropping off one by one.
GUSTAV
Such a painful throat. These trains
are overheated, terribly overheated.


33. Contd.
ALMA
You've got a fever. And you go out
in the freezing cold! Gustav, look
at me. You're always talking about
nature, then why aren't you closer to
your own body' ? You don't seem to know
what to do with it!
GUSTAV
I do what I feel I ought to do. I
needed the air. And I do feel better.
No, I don't understand my body.
She dabs the sweat off his upper lip and brow.
CUT:
34. INT. ST. PETERSBURG HOTEL. BEDROOM. DAY
A snowy courtyard seen from an upper window. Three or four
CHILDREN are playing there, capped and furred. They have
balloons on strings. They chase each other, trying to burst
the balloons or cut the strings. One of the strings gets cut and
the balloon goes floating up into the sky. We PULL BACK to
find ALMA standing at the window watching its upward flight.
She is in a loose dressing gown. The cries of the CHILDREN
come over, muffled.
GUSTAV
(hoarse)
Alma!
35. ANOTHER ANGLE
GUSTAV is in bed, leaning up against his pillows. He is gazing
towards her sleepily, having just woken. He smiles at her.
The room is furnished in a warm, rather heavy pre-Revolution
style, with a samovar on the table and a vast tiled stove.
She comes and sits quietly on his bed.
ALMA
However are you going to get through
three concerts with a throat like that?


35. Contd.
GUSTAV
Oh, a sore throat's real. And there's
no such thing as reality! - it's. a magic
formula - He gets it up to make us think
it's real - it's a joke on us! - The soul
- that's the only real thing! -
(kissing her)
So if I've got to do three concerts, the
sore throat disappears! It has to!
And it always will - until I get to the
last sore throat of all -
(she looks at
him with controlled
alarm)
- and then it's time to go, and thé soul
takes over. You see? No more body.
When the soul's used it up, we go - and
become somebody else e
A thunderous banging on the door. ALMA jumps up. Before she
reaches the door THREE RUSSIANS burst in. They are from the
Imperial Conservatoire. They go to MAHLER and shake his hand.
He is swung this way and that. They are talking all the time.
One of them turns and bows to ALMA. All GUSTAV can do is
enjoy himself and keep saying 'Da, da!' The RUSSIANS buzz
round the room, seeing that everything is all right. They
lift the samovar lid, they touch the tiled stove to see that it is
hot. They clasp ALMA's hand and kiss it. They do the same to
GUSTAV. Then they leave. Deep silence.
ALMA
What was all that?
GUSTAV
They said I was the only man in
Europe who could manage an
orchestra. They said they knew my
Second Symphony. They said you
were beautiful. And they said
they'd be waiting downstairs to take
us to the first rehearsal. So I'd
better get up!
ALMA
What you said about becoming some-
body else -
GUSTAV
Yes?


35. Contd.
ALMA
Let's just be you and me - :
GUSTAV
(getting up to
dress)
I meant when we were dead!
ALMA
Dead:
On ALMA, as the sung Finale of the Second Symphony comes up
full: 'Rise, dust of my body, after a brief rest!'
36. ANOTHER ANGLE
From the window, another balloon drifts up into the sky, with
the music still over. 'Thou shalt arise, yea, rise, my heart,
instantly, whatever strength was thine shall carry thee to God! 1
CUT:
37. INT. THE HOTEL FOYER. DAY
The THREE RUSSIANS, with GUSTAV and ALMA, are in a
furred group going towards the exit, watched by peasant-like
hotel staff. We CLOSE IN on GUSTAV, pale and unsteady. He
leans on ALMA.
ALMA
Gustav, you aren't well!
The RUSSIANS gather round, and ALMA points at her throat.
The RUSSIANS shout at the hotel staff with orders, and they
bustle off.
GUSTAV
What's happening ?
Amid a greal deal of loving excitem ent a tray with a bottle,
a small glass and half a lemon are brought, then seized by one
of the RUSSIANS. He pours out a glass, squeezes in the lemon,
then holds it out to GUSTAV with a neat movement and a slight
bow.


37. Contd.
GUSTAV (contd)
What the devil's that?
ALMA
(taking it and
smelling)
It doesn't smell.
GUSTAV
(swigging it in
one gulp, with a
gasp)
Nor does vodka!
The RUSSIANS are delighted. They all move out into the court-
yard, where the CHILDREN are still playing.
CUT:
38. EXT. THE HOTEL COURTYARD. DAY
The group emerging from the hotel exit. A CHILD darts in
front of GUSTAV and almost makes him stumble. They are
yelling. The RUSSIANS take no notice. GUSTAV smiles at
ALMA, as the CHILDREN play round him.
A sled-carriage with two horses is led into the courtyard by
a STABLE BOY. The sleigh-bells on the harnesses ring out.
GUSTAV is about to step into the carriage when, immediately
behind his head, a balloon is burst. C.U. of him shows a
stricken and terrified face, eyes staring. The violent 4th
Subject in the 3rd Movement of the First Symphony bursts over.
CUT:
39. INT. VIENNESE APARTMENT. DAY
GUSTAV's staring eyes become those of his brother OTTO,
lying dead on the floor of his bedroom (1895). We PULL
BACK to show a revolver at his side, and GUSTAV, aged
thirty-five whimpers over him.
GUSTAV
Otto! Otto!
CUT:


40. RESUME 38.
ALMA
It was only a balloon!
She helps him into the carriage. The music continues over.
CUT:
41. INT. THE SLED CARRIAGE. DAY
They all settle into their seats. The music dies away. The
carriage sweeps smoothly away, the bells sounding gaily. GUSTAV
stares before him, frightened. The RUSSIANS try to draw his
attention to passing sights, but he takes no notice. The last
portion of the Tristan overture comes over. He seems to be
listening to it, calmed by it.
CUT:
42. INT. THE HERMITAGE THEATRE. EVENING
From a dark and crowded auditorium, a concert performance
at the Hermitage theatre in St. Petersburg, with GUSTAV
conducting. The Tristan has continued over from the previous
scene. We MOVE IN towards the orchestra and pick out the
various sections. We begin to feel GUSTAV's presence in
the way the orchestra plays, and the attention each section-
leader gives him.
43. REVERSE ANGLE
GUSTAV conducting the Tristan overture, pale and sweating
but completely absorbed in his work, watching the orchestra
not as his instrument of self-expression but solely for the music.
While his arm-movements are vigorous there is no showman-
ship in his conducting.
44. RESUME 42.
The last bars of the Tristan overture. Warm but aristocratic
applause (mostly gloved hands) GUSTAV turns to take his bow,
quickly and jerkily. He then presents the chef d'orchestra.
CUT:


45. INT. THE ROCOCO ROOM. EVENING
The Chinese rococo room connecting the Hermitage theatre with
the royal palace. A reception is in progress after the concert.
Mostly French being spoken. There are a number of grand
uniforms. Outside the windows on either side of the gallery
the canal connecting the Neva and the Moika rivers glitters.
Liveried ATTENDANTS go among the GUESTS with refresh-
ments. GUSTAV and ALMA are the centre of polite attention.
GUSTAV is being introduced to a small RUSSIAN LADY of great
charm, in her sixties, as we ZOOM in to him.
RUSSIAN LADY
(with a smile)
Malheureusement je suis vieille
Monsieur Mahler! Je pense toujours
a la mort! Et votre musique me
sembre avoir le gout de la mort.
Vous pouyez m'expliquer tant de
choses! Tant de choses!
As GUSTAV bends to answer her ACH DU LIEBER AUGUSTIN!
on the hurdy-gurdy drifts over.
GUSTAV
Je n'ai rien a dire madame! Tout
est dans ma musique! Comme homme,
je n'existe pas! Alors je suis déjà
mort!
They laugh together. The nurdy-gurdy stays over.
CUT:
46. INT. HOTEL CORRIDOR. EVENING
GUSTAV and ALMA returning to their room. They stop to kiss.
His hat is on the back of his head. There is snow on their clothes.
The hurdy-gurdy is still over. They beat the snow off on each
other, running. He seizes her. They kiss. She squeals with
laughter. They reach their door.
CUT:
47. INT. THE HOTEL BEDROOM. EVENING
They enter breathless. They throw off their hats and overcoats,
straight on to a couch. Only one oil-lamp is burning in the centre
of the table. It is snowing thickly outside. The hurdy-gurdy has


47. Contd.
ceased. The only sound in the muffled night is that of ALMA's
dress as he draws her towards him on the bed, half sitting.
She throws off her shoes.
GUSTAV
You were the guest of honour, not
(with mock hostility,
through clenched teeth)
You're stealing my thunder! 'The
loveliest woman outside Russia!
I heard someone say!
She lies back, gazing at him. He loosens her skirt for her.
ALMA
It's difficult for me to say 'Gustav'
GUSTAV
(with a laugh)
Did you hear that funny old cow from
Moscow, the archduchess? She asked
me what death was like!
ALMA
Did she find such a lot of it in your
music then?
GUSTAV
I imagine she did. I felt rather
complimented.
ALMA
To have death in your music?
GUSTAV
What's death to you then? Rotting
bones ? It isn't to me!
ALMA
If it's so glorious, death, why are
we alive? What was the point ?
GUSTAV
Death's a human invention! It's
a human sin! Life never stops!
It's all in Dostoevsky! But they
don't read him - their greatest


47. Contd.
GUSTAV (contd)
man! They look down their noses at
him, like the Austrians look down
their noses at me!
ALMA
(militant)
They don't do any such thing!
GUSTAV
Of course they do! They say I use
my position at the Opera to perform
my own music, otherwise it would
never get done! Well, they're right
about that! If I didn't do it, nobody
would!
ALMA
Your Wagner was lovely tonight -
GUSTAV
He fits everywhere doesn't he - the
Russian spaces = everywhere!
ALMA
You don't look tired any more.
GUSTAV
He pulled me through - Richard
Wagner.
ALMA
Not me ?
GUSTAV
(playfully)
But you're alive! He's dead!
They laugh and kiss.
ALMA
When that balloon went bang, what
were you thinking of?
GUSTAV
My brother Otto. He was a mar-
vellous composer, you know. I
found a couple of symphonies in
his drawer! I felt a terrible


47. Contd.
GUSTAV (contd)
remorse, as if my music had stolen
his life and there couldn't be two
of us. Then why was he born at all?
And Ernst, my other brother -
(in a kind of chant)
- I loved him So much - he died of
heart trouble - and five of the others
died - all children - and now, the
rest of the family - So many debts.
ALMA
I'll settle them all. I'm going to put
everything in order.
GUSTAV
How much do I owe by the way? ?
ALMA
Fifty thousand crowns.
GUSTAV
That? S a heavy debt to marry.
ALMA
You're the biggest capital I could
think of.
The Funeral March in the Manner of Caillot (the third movement
of the First Symphony) steals over.
GUSTAV
Do you hear that?
ALMA
What?
GUSTAV
The Funeral March - I wrote it when
I was thirty-three -
ALMA
Sometimes you frighten me!
GUSTAV
Do you hear?
(catching her)
Listen to that! And the critics call
my music sterile, trivial, extravag-
ant, an unholy bloody, noise! They


47. Contd.
GUSTAV (contd)
say it belongs to the circus! They
say it isn't even music!
(as the bright
clarinet inter-
polation in the
Funeral March
com es over)
You know, I thought I'd never be able
to love properly - give everything I
I often tried but something always
went wrong - you lifted me out of
that!
ALMA
Why funeral marches then?
(suddenly
angered)
It's true what Max Burkhart said -
you're going to put out my flame
with yours! You wrote me that
terrible letter, forbidding me ever
to compose a song again!
GUSTAV
(jumping up in
fury, pacing
the room)
Nobody can forbid you to compose!
Composing pours out of the skin!
It can't be stopped! Do you think
my composing could be stopped ?
It goes on all the time!
(consoling her
suddenly, as she
all but cringes
before him)
I was harsh like that with my mother.
I used to play the piano and if I saw
her stealing into the room to listen
I used to stop and sit stock-still
until she'd gone again. In case
I gave her any pleasure . And
your little face reminds me of her.
Only it's healthier.
ALMA
Is that wrong?


47. Contd.
GUSTAV
I suppose I like to see the mark
of sorrow =
ALMA
It's there - on your face. I saw it
tonight - during the Wagner.- :
GUSTAV
I did exactly the same as my father
did - I loved her but I didn't show
her any feeling!
CUT:
48. INT. THE IGLAU HOUSE. DAY
The house of GUSTAV's youth in Iglau, Moravia, a small
country town. We are upstairs in the music room, and
GUSTAV, aged about twelve, is practising at the piano a rather
difficult baggatelle by Beethoven. The playing is superb for
a child (MAHLER was a child prodigy) We open behind his
head, facing the door on to the landing. He is interrupted by
the raging voice of his FATHER below. He stops playing. He
sits listening, fascinated, immobile. He rises slowly and
tiptoes to the door, which is open. He goes out on to the
landing. We follow him and see from his P.V. the parlour
below where his MOTHER and FATHER are standing, dim,
silhouetted figures, dressed in the style of the 1870's. His
FATHER is shouting in Austrian German, with violent move-
ments of the hands. His voice is plaintive, not entirely aggressive.
It echoes in an uncanny way. Suddenly the FATHER strides
towards the MOTHER, making terrible booming steps that
seem to sound from under the earth. He is about to strike
her. The CHILD GUSTAV panics and runs - all but slides -
down the stairs, past the parlour and out into the street.
CUT:
49. EXT. THE STREET OUTSIDE. DAY
A hurdy-gurdy is playing ACH DU LIEBER AUGUSTIN immediately
outside the house. The CHILD GUSTAV almost tumbles into
the withered hand of the OLD MAN playing it. The OLD MAN
smiles at him benignly. The CHILD GUSTAV pants, wide-eyed,
pale. He stares at the withered hand, then smiles back at the MAN.
The music is loud and gay, and begins to influence him. He
walks away. We stay on him.


50. ANOTHER ANGLE
The CHILD GUSTAV walking. He begins to forget. Silence.
He glances back. The hurdy-gurdy is being wheeled away,
in the opposite direction.
He walks on. He walks towards the barracks. There are TWO
SI ENTINELS. His attention is caught by a distant military trumpet.
He stops. It is vaguely like the trumpet opening of the Fifth
Symphony. He looks back towards the house. He seems to want
to return. He seems torn between the barracks and the house.
He decides to walk back to the house. He begins walking back,
with a secretive expression. A distant echo of the opening bars
of the Fifth Symphony accompanies him back.
CUT:
51. INT. THE IGLAU HOUSE. DAY
The CHILD GUSTAV steals back into the house. Silence.
He peeps into the parlour. No one there. He tiptoes upstairs,
listening all the time. He goes to one of the doors on the landing.
He stands there listening. He is fascinated. From inside the
room there is the sound of kissing and sighing. We hear the
FATHER gasp, and the MOTHER's 'Nein! Nein!', which is
compounded of complaint and deep physical enjoyment. The
music is still over.
The CHILD GUSTAV raises his eyes. From his P.V., gazing
at him from the nursery door, are his sister JUSTINE (aged 4)
his brother ALOIS (4), his brother ERNST (10), his sister
LEOPOLDINE (8). They seem to understand his fascination.
The shuddering post-coitum conclusion of the trumpet theme.
CUT:
52. RESUME 47.
GUSTAV
I always had them on my shoulders -
brothers, my mother, my sisters!
Especially my sister Justine - Oh, my
God! Marrying you was like divorcing
her! She used to put candles round her
bed when we were children and lie
down and play dead!


52. Contd.
ALMA
Always dying.
GUSTAV
Being Jewish means some ething rather
dark for me - Alma, if you see me
gesticulate too much, always correct
me, won't you? Thank God I became
a Christian! They say I did it so as
to get the job at the Opera but it isn't
true! If only they knew! It's the
light I was after - the Christian light!
All that hell of belonging! If I love
you, my child, it's because of the
Christian light in you - which
(with a
chuckle)
you know nothing about.
(kissing her)
Do you remember that morning you
came to the Tales of Hoffman dress
rehearsal? - The second time we
saw each other? - And you wouldn't
look at me?
ALMA
I was feeling malicious.
GUSTAV
You little cat!
(as they
embrace)
And I called out to you from the desk,
'Miss Schindler, how did you sleep
last night ?'
ALMA
And I said, 'Perfectly - why shouldn't
GUSTAV
And I said, 'I didn't sleep a wink all
night'. I need you - I ache for you all
day - when I'm away from you I feel
sick! I hear your name all the time
- Do you feel the same.


52. Contd.
ALMA
Oh, Gustl!
They begin making love. She kisses him urgently, very much the
young girl. C.U. of GUSTAV gazing before him, still with
thoughts in his head. He puts his hand over her hair protectively.
From his P.V. the swirling snow outside the windows.
CUT:
53.. EXT. RESTAURANT BALCONY, CREFELD. DAY
The 2nd subject from the 3rd movement of the First Symphony bursts
over, a jolly 'military band' theme, as brisk GERMAN WAITERS
bustle to and fro with spotless napkins over their arms. The
restaurant balcony is under brilliant spring sunshine. At one of
the tables are GUSTAV and ALMA. (She is dressed in the Reform
style of the period, as well to conceal her pregnancy) with a
local IMPRESSARIO and a CRITIC. They are on the fruit course,
and in earnest conversation as we ZOOM in. The IMPRESSARIO
is dressed in a flamboyant way, contrasting with the seedy
CRITIC with his village-genius look.. They both feel, without:
saying so, that GUSTAV cannot hold a candle to Brahms, Wagner
or Strauss as a composer. Only GUSTAV is clear about this
feeling that they have.
GUSTAV is eating an orange. He has peeled it and is tearing off
pieces, concentrating more on this operation than on the talk.
CRITIC
Do you realise you've written the
longest symphony in history?
GUSTAV
I never measured it.
IMPRESSARIO
(to ALMA)
The audience wasn't a bit bored,
was it?
CRITIC
I think their interest might have
been because your Third is such a
departure from your First and Second -
GUSTAV


53. Contd.
CRITIC
Well I mean, without those changes
of tempo, solo violins = those
familiar sounding themes -
GUSTAV
You mean it isn't in my usual
strudl-pastry line! Isn't that why they
call my symphonies, apfel-strudls?
GUSTAV holds up his sticky hands helplessly, tries wiping them on
his napkin but this doesn't work, So he seizes the water-carafe and
walks to the edge of the balcony with it, watched by the others.
The IMPRESSARIO leans forward in conversation with ALMA while
GUSTAV pours the carafe over his hands, leaning over the
balcony. Under the balcony there are other tables. Alarmed cries
from below!
54. ANOTHER ANGLE
The tables below: fashionable LADIES and TWO GENTLEMEN.
They look up, shielding themselves from the water. GUSTAV
makes deprecating and apologising smiles down at them.
LADY
Oh, it's only Mahler!
They are all on their feet now. As GUSTAV disappears above they
call the WAITER and move to another table at the other end of the
balcony. The WAITER looks up at the balcony in some puzzlement.
He is trying to reconcile rain with bright sunshine.
55. RESUME 53.
GUSTAV returns to the table with the empty carafe.
ALMA
What happened?
GUSTAV
(with a shrug)
Some people down there. Curious!
CRITIC
I've heard the word 'pot-pourri' used
about your symphonies but not strudl-
pastry I must say.


55. Contd.
CRITIC (contd)
(the idea obviously
appeals to him)
But the Third - this surely a Nietsche -
Imean shot through with his universal
spirit - much more of a whole - :
GUSTAV
Shot through with his spirit?
(taking up
his orange
again)
It's shot through with mine!
CRITIC
But Nietsche's words - :
GUSTAV
It isn't his spirit or even mine! -
it's something in us all - that's
what the Symphony's all about -
that's what the last movement's
all about - peace and being - the
power in stillness
(again in diff-
iculties with
his hands)
that's the greatest power of all -
what doesn't move but is - :
He jumps up again and seizes a carafe of water from another -
table. He walks to the balcony with it.
ALMA
Oh, Gustav, do be careful:
The CRITIC and the IMPRESSARIO exchange glances. GUSTAV
registers ALMA's cry and decides to do his washing at the other
end of the balcony this time.
56. ANOTHER ANGLE
The fashionable LADIES and the TWO GENTLEMEN are peacefully
conversing when there is another avalanche of water from above
that makes them scatter a second time. Great shouts. The
GENTLEMEN all clenched fists and duel-faces.


56. Contd.
We find GUSTAV peeping over the balcony again, this time with
rapt astonishment all over his face, at discovering a second table
with precisely the same people round it as one 20 yards away.
He makes an enormous pleading shrug, as if to say that fate has
been against him.
57. RESUME 55.
ALMA is running towards him. She seizes the now empty carafe
and marches him away like a child.
ALMA
Really, Gustav!
The IMPRESSARIO and the CRITIC watch his return as if they
find his behaviour and his music all of a piece.
CUT:
58. EXT. A CREFELD STREET. DAY
GUSTAV and ALMA are walking along in outdoor clothes. He has a
stick. He walks ahead of ALMA, gazing on the ground. She tries to
keep pace. Some SMALL BOYS sight them and think they are a
funny sight. They run after ALMA and pluck her Reform clothes.
She turns and shoos them away. GUSTAV doesn't even see. The
BOYS return to the attack again, and this time ALMA gets really
angry.
ALMA
Gustav!
He turns, alarmed. He sees the BOYS and runs after them, his
stick raised. But when he stops, they are back again. He
renews the attack but they have his measure and almost surround
him and ALMA in a kind of Maypole dance. GUSTAV decides to
plunge ahead, and seizing ALMA by the arm strides off down the
road with the BOYS cheering.
CUT:
59. INT. CREFELD HOTEL FOYER. DAY
GUSTAV and ALMA enter the chase out of breath, coats hanging
open. In the sedate and solid atmosphere of the foyer they make
a distinctly unusual impression. The PORTER looks at them as
they cross before him, pulling his glasses down over his nose to
get the focus.


59. Contd.
PORTER
(to himself)
Oh! It's only Mr. Mahler!
He returns to his ledgers.
GUSTAV and ALMA throw themselves down in armchairs with
fearful glances at the door. All however is quiet here.
GUSTAV
Why does everybody stare at us so,
for God's sake?
ALMA
(with pregnant
irritation)
Because we look funny, that's why!
GUSTAV
But even in St. Petersburg, driving
in an open troika?
ALMA
It was 30 degrees below zero and open
troikas aren't for that sort of weather!
It nearly killed me!
(with a vast
sigh)
What a lot of travelling we seem to do!
St. Petersburg, Crefeld! - where's it
going to be next?
GUSTAV
Are you tired, my treasure?
ALMA
Tired? I feel twice as old as you!
I seem to have been through So many
experiences! And those walks you go
in for!
GUSTAV
It does you good, my darling. Shall
we go upstairs!
ALMA rises. They walk towards the staircase. She is behind
GUSTAV. We follow them. Suddenly ALMA stops.


59. Contd.
ALMA
Gustav!
GUSTAV
(turning)
Yes, darling?
ALMA
Why do you look shabby in the most
expensive clothes?
He gazes at her for some time.
GUSTAV
I'm always in love, my darling - with
you - with Mozart - with the Rhine
Maidens - Yes, that's how I am!
CUT:
60. INT. APARTMENT HOUSE STAIRCASE. VIENNA. DAY
We are looking down the well of the stairs in a Viennese apartment
house. Footsteps sound out on the wooden steps. GUSTAV comes
into view, in hat and overcoat, humming to himself.. We hear him
marking musical passages to himself, pum-pum-PUM-di-di-da'; as
he rises. He makes snapping movements of the fingers and a
sudden prolonged growling noise to denote a passage with percussion.
All of a sudden the performance is over. He coughs, and continues
to the top landing in perfect silence.
He reaches his door and puts in the key. As he does SO he leans
forward to listen. Behind the door a cracked record is playing an
old waltz on the piano. He pushes the door open, in alarm.
CUT:
61. INT. THE MAHLER APARTMENT. DAY
The full blare of a cracked record, deafening.
We are on the entrance hall as GUSTAV rushes in, panic-stricken.
He throws off his hat and coat, dives through the apartment.
CUT:


62. INT. THE MAHLER LOUNGE. DAY
This is GUSTAV's neat bachelor lounge.. It is simply furnished,
with thé bare necessities.
GUSTAV rushes into the room.
GUSTAV
No, no! Take it off! Take that
record off! No, no!
He plunged towards the other corridor, but stops short of entering
it and instead flings himself up and down the room, gesticulating.
GUSTAV (contd)
Stop that noise! Stop that - 1
ALMA, even more pregnant than before, rushes in from the hallway.
ALMA
What is it?
GUSTAV
It's that blasted captain - the one
who share the apartment!
ALMA
(shrieking)
Captain ?
GUSTAV
He's got a room at the end of the
corridor!
ALMA
A what ?
GUSTAV
A room!
ALMA
A woman?
GUSTAV
No, a room, a room!
ALMA
And what's that got to do with this?


62. Contd.
GUSTAV
(still girating
wildly)
What?
ALMA
Why-this-noise?
GUSTAV
Because he hates me! He knows I'm a
composer and I can't stand noise! He
thinks my music stinks! So he puts
this on when I come in!
ALMA
Oh he does does he?
He stands watching as she storms across the room and into the
other corridor, to the CAPTAIN's quarters.
He waits for the outcome.
The music ceases abruptly.
GUSTAV
Good lord. She's killed him.
He goes to his table and tranquilly takes up the score he is working
on, absorbed instantly as if nothing in the world has happened.
CLOSE SHOT of his pencilling in notes rapidly, humming.
ALMA's shadow falls on the table. He takes no notice.
ALMA
He's out.
GUSTAV
(still at work)
Out? Who?
ALMA
The Captain. It's his batman puts
the record on. He has orders to
start it up whenever the concierge
sees you downstairs. She phones up
to him. She thinks it's for him to
open the door for you.


62. Contd.
GUSTAV
(impatiently,
still at work)
I know. I told you that myself.
ALMA
No you didn't. You said the Captain
put it on. Anyway I guaranteed the
batman a little income for not doing
it. He'll just put the record on when
the captain happens to be in.
GUSTAV
Well, you seem to have established
yourself already.
He works on. She sits in one of the armchairs. Her silence is
clearly one he ought to take notice of.
He looks across at her, over his glasses.
GUSTAV (contd)
Tired?
(no response)
I had a fair rehearsal. Lohengrin.
He shrugs slightly to himself, returns to work, glances quickly
at her again.
GUSTAV (contd)
At least we're not travelling. We're
home!
ALMA
I know.
(looking round
the room)
And I think it's lovely.
GUSTAV
What?
ALMA
Your apartment.
GUSTAV


62. Contd.
ALMA
I don't know why you needed me.
She turns her head away. He gets up and walks round her, to look
in her face. She promptly turns it the other way.
GUSTAV
You've got tears in your eyes! Why ?
(taking her)
Tell me why.
ALMA
(leash gates
open)
I thought it wouldn't be nice. You're
famous for your absent-mindedness
and I thought it would be a dirty
bachelor's den sort of thing. Then I
could have done lots of things to it.
You have to be on top all the time!
You and your sister Justine! I
suppose she was here all the time,
cooking and cleaning!
GUSTAV
But don't you see you're the only thing
the apartment lacked? And therefore
it had no light until you came in? So
of course you call it lovely because
you've brought your own light in,
your light and your truth! You've
brought the spring in: It was always
winter before! And the captain's
hoping to eat out of your hand, like
his batman did!
ALMA
And then you'll accuse me of flirting.
GUSTAV
Only if you do flirt.
ALMA
When our house on the lake's ready we'll
go there, won't we, all the summer, and
be alone, and you'll compose, and I'll
orchestrate your scores, and we'll work
and work, and forget everything else
except our baby - . 1


62. Contd.
GUSTAV is about to reply when the awful cracked waltz blares
out again.
GUSTAV
I though you'd - :
ALMA
What?
GUSTAV
I thought you'd stopped him!
ALMA
(at the top of
her voice as,
she strides
towards the
captain's quarters)
The captain's come back!
GUSTAV
What?
ALMA
(stamping her
foot with rage)
The captain! The captain's come
back!
She disappears down the corridor toward the CAPTAIN's quarters
leaving GUSTAV going through the same frantic motions as earlier,
almost running up and down, hugging himself, pleading.
Suddenly the racket cuts off.
GUSTAV
He strolls quietly to his table as if noise had never been invented.
He takes up his score page.
GUSTAV (contd)
(as he begins
to write)
And now she'll find out how charming
the captain is.


62. Contd.
We see him composing, transferring the sounds to the page, as the
Adagietto from theFifth Symphony comes over.
63. EXT. CARINTHIA, AUSTRIA. DAY (HELIVISION)
With the Adagietto still over, a Helivision SHOT of the distant Alps
seen from above the Carinthian lakes. The CAMERA gradually PANS
down to take in the lakes, ,and then, ZOOMING in, the MAHLER summer
house at Maiernigg, on the Worthersee lake. Take in GUSTAV's
little hut close to the water where he composes. Pick up ALMA
walking down from the house towards GUSTAV's hut. She is no
longer pregnant. She has a towel over her arm. She walks past the
hut to the landing stage. The CAMERA PANS down over the water
and picks up GUSTAV swimming. He waves to ALMA.
CUT:
64. EXT. THE MAIERNIGG PROPERTY. DAY
ALMA in CLOSE SHOT waiting at the edge of the lake, towel in
hand. The music is still over but mixed now with the sound of
CHILDREN and birds in the distance. ALMA is considerably more
mature. Ten years or So have passed.
65. REVERSE ANGLE
GUSTAV swimming towards the shore.
66. RESUME 64.
ALMA
Gustl! That's enough!
(breathless)
It's so good!
Another CLOSE SHOT of ALMA showing her concern. A village
bell strikes noon.
GUSTAV clambers on to the landing stage.


66. Contd.
ALMA
Why do you go out so far?
(as he gasps
with pleasure
and takes the
towel)
Gustl!
GUSTAV
How's my little Putzi?
ALMA
Asking for you.
He glances towards the house with pleasure, drying himself
vigorously.
ALMA (contd)
You always have to sacrifice yourself
GUSTAV
(still out of
breath)
A sacrifice? Swimming?
ALMA
You had a haemorrhage a year before
we married!
He shrugs and they stroll off towards his hut.
CUT:
67. EXT. GUSTAV'S HUT. DAY
They stroll towards his hut. He enters and begins changing back
into his clothes. ALMA gazes at him from outside. As he changes
he glances at the score he has been working on.
ALMA
Let me have the towel.
He hands it to her. She takes it and pegs it on to a line rigged
from his hut to a tree.


67. Contd.
ALMA
(quietly)
You give your attention to everything
except me. You hardly look at me.
GUSTAV
(quiet like her)
But it's different now. We're together
- we're side by side - not looking
at each other - we're working side
by side.
ALMA
It's different because I'm working in
the house all day! And there are two
children to look after! And everything
has to be on time! If your breakfast
isn't here at seven sharp -
GUSTAV
Oh for God's sake don't cry over
trivialities!
ALMA
They're NOT trivialities for me, because
I DO them! Don't you understand that?
I change the nappies - I order the food -
and stand over the maid - and arrange
the house - and keep people away from
you!
GUSTAV
Don't you remember how I am in the
winter, at that blasted 'Ministry of
Music' night and day, and aren'tI
supposed to be here for a rest? And
you know I never take a rest, aren'tI
working at my music here - ? Alma!
Isn't my music the best devotion you
could wish for? I though we were closer
than that!
ALMA
Yes, yes! I know.
GUSTAV
If I didn't plunge ahead with the work -
would there be money?


67. Contd.
ALMA
I know!
They sit in silence.
GUSTAV
Explain to me more - what you mean.
ALMA
You give your singers more attention
that you do me!
GUSTAV
(laughing)
Well - what sort of opera would we
get if I didn't?
ALMA
I'm afraid of losing you every time you
go to rehearsal.
GUSTAV
And when I'm working here, with the
Opera miles away, what are you
afraid of then ?
She shrugs.
ALMA
Gustl, I looked at the Adagietto.
(nodding towards
his score)
GUSTAV
Did you like it?
ALMA
Oh, Gustl!
GUSTAV
Would you like to copy it for me?
ALMA
Yes!
GUSTAV
It's only a sketch - you can fill
in the gaps - only you can do that -


67. Contd.
He is dressed. He emerges.
ALMA
Go to your Putzi.
GUSTAV
Do you mean that nicely?
ALMA
Oh yes!
He leaves for the house.
CUT:
68. INT. GUSTAV'S HUT. DAY
GUSTAV strolling towards the house from ALMA'S P.V.
GUSTAV
(calling back
to the hut)
Will you come soon? Is lunch on
the table?
ALMA
Yes! Yes!
(half to
herself)
Lunch is on the table. Everything's
ready! It always is! On the dot!
Oh, Gustl, you've eaten me up! I
don't exist! But you don't either!
From her P.V. GUSTAV and the two children seen vaguely and in
SLOW MOTION in the distance, near the house. In fact all three
seem to be floating.
ALMA (contd)
Your music exists, not you! So I'm a
slave to that too now! I have to shush
the children quiet all the time. No
noise! Not even a dog!
GUSTAV and one of the children move close together, still floating,
leaving the otherchild apart, watching them.


68. Contd.
ALMA
You love little Putzi but not me! There's
something between you - a sort of
silent message - closing me and you out!
We stay on those almost dancing figures, shimmering in the
distance.
CUT:
69. INT. THE MAHLER HOUSE, MAIERNIGG: DAY
ALMA enters the hall of this pleasant converted farmhouse, a
batch of sheet music under her arm. She looks round. Silence.
ALMA
Gustav!
The maid GRETEL appears.
GRETEL
He's with the children, M'm.
ALMA
Would you call him for lunch, Gretel ?
(as GRETEL
leaves)
Have the children eaten ?
GRETEL
Oh yes.
ALMA walks on into the dining room where places for two are laid.
She gazes out into the garden. She sits in one of the places and
begins reading the music she has brought from the hut. There is
the sound of children's laughter outside, muffled, vague against
the other country sounds.
GUSTAV
You've been stealing from my hut.
She looks round startled. GUSTAV is there, smiling at her. He
looks over her shoulder at the score.
ALMA
(tapping the
page)
This is a terrible noise. You've
gone mad with the percussion.


69. Contd.
GUSTAV
(a beat)
You're angry? Can music make you
angry? I can cut the damned thing.
Here
(taking the
script)
- the side drums out, half the
percussion instruments - it's easy!
(kissing her)
Now let's have lunch. Oh what a
lioness you are, Alma!
ALMA
(gazing at him)
And sometimes a bitch?
GUSTAV
I didn't say so.
ALMA
You don't call me nice things in the
old way. You called me the spring
once -
GUSTAV
But it isn't spring all the year round,
darling.
(as he goes to
his place at the
table and begins
eating the first
course of melon)
You've got to move with life - with
the seasons - marriage has its
seasons like everything else in
nature!
ALMA continues gazing at him, her melon untouched.
ALMA
And then you make such a fool of me
at dinner parties. You always have
to come in half way through and take
an apple out of the bowl and start
smelling it!
GUSTAV
I love apples!


69. Contd.
ALMA
And then they stop and stare at us in
the street, everywhere we go - 'Look,
there's Mahler and his wife! But he's
not with anybody! His wife's just
trailing along!
GUSTAV
So what do I do? Come to heel like a
good male dog just because of what they
feel! To hell with them! Don't try and
tell me you give a damn what people
think! Now eat your melon.
He continues eating. But the fact that she does not eat makes
him stop again.
GUSTAV (contd)
Remember the first movement of my
Sixth? That's for you! That's my
Almschili music!
The 'Alma theme' (second subject of the 1st movement) steals
over.
ALMA
I'm not good enough for it. After
I've been working in the house all
day I feel just a body - I don't want to,
Gustl!
GUSTAV
Does it help you to work on my
scores - as if we were one spirit -
not one body - one spirit - doing
the same thing?
ALMA
(after a sad
pause)
Yes.
She looks at another of his scores while he goes on eating (ravenous
after a stout morning's work).
GUSTAV
(ready for the
next course)
Gretel!


69. Contd.
GRETEL comes in with a large tray of covered dishes as if she had
been waiting for the signal.
ALMA
Gustav! What's this? 'Songs on. the
Death of Children'? What children?
What death? Oh, Gustl!
The heart-rending Songs burst over. GUSTAV jumps up from his
seat. GRETEL, setting out the dishes looks aghast.
GUSTAV
(going round
to ALMA)
It's a setting on Ruckert.
ALMA
He lost his child: It was the most
horrible loss of his life! Gustl!
(with the harr-
owing Kindertot-
enlieder still over)
How could you do it! How could you
tempt fate like that?
GUSTAV
But listen to it! Listen!
(showing her
the place on
the score)
Listen to that!
ALMA
Oh, Gustl!
She throws the score down. And he throws himself down on
an armchair.
GUSTAV
They don't understand my music, the
Viennese, the Germans, nobody!
Their cheering doesn't fool me!
(implying with
contempt that
ALMA is among
those who don't
understand)
And when you come to think of it
what could they make of all these


69. Contd.
GUSTAV (contd)
primeval sounds ? These worlds that
surge and crash down again one after
another -
(as the music too
surges up)
And there are thousands of faces
going by -
CUT:
70. WE TAKE A MONTAGE.
The Judgement Day' movement (5th) of the Second Symphony
surges up over the Kindertotenlieder.
a) Undefined impression of
faces pleading for pity,
- An endless procession - it's
crying, radiant, etc.
like a judgement day - but there's
no judgement - no punishment -
b) WOMEN and CHILDREN,
no heaven or hell - nothing but
and MEN of all conditions,
light - a vast still light - that's
walking, plodding.
what you have at the end of life -
just an ocean of light.
c) The sky seeming to break
open above them.
d) Light flooding them.
The music reaches the chorus 'Thou shalt arise, yea, arise':
'judgement' cancelled out, the music says.
CUT:
71. INT. THE MASTER BEDROOM (see 10) DAY
ALMA and GUSTAV in casual modern clothes again. Her hair is
down. She is sitting by the dressing table, leaning against it,
smoking. His spectacles are on the dressing table at her elbow.
GUSTAV is gazing out of the window.
GUSTAV
So we did die then.
(with a chuckle)
It happened even to Alma, mm ?
(turning to look
at her)
Fifty years after me, imagine that!
1964, wasn't it? Considering all
the Benedictine you drank it should
have been earlier.


71. Contd.
ALMA
(amused)
Your apples and your wholemeal
bread didn't seem to save you.
GUSTAV
And, like I always told you, we
became somebody else -
(chuckling to
himself)
All that sorrow and pain, and
jumping about on a bed, it was like
a symphony, wasn't it? That's
why I tried to build a whole world
in each of my symphonies - coW-
bells, military bands, ecstasies,
confessions! Because nothing in
life is ever wasted! Nothing lost!
CUT:
72. ANOTHER ANGLE
From GUSTAV's P.V. a view through the window of the road
outside. A sportscar has driven up. It skids to a halt. The
DRIVER, a man curiously like KARL MOLL, except that he is
now dressed in a polo neck sweater with flashy trousers, jumps
out and pulls up the bonnet. A glossy version of THE MERRY
WIDOW waltz for full orchestra comes over from the car radio.
KARL MOLL II inspects the engine.
GUSTAV
Look, it's your stepfather.
ALMA joins him at the window. He puts his arm round her, and
they kiss modern-style, French and fruity but without the
carnal attention previous generations gave it.
ALMA
(gazing down
at MOLL)
Mad about sportscars now!
They laugh together. GUSTAV hums the MERRY WIDOW waltz.
They begin swinging from side to side with it. They begin to
dance. The music comes up louder. She still has her cigarette.
They begin to whirl round.
DISSOLVE:


73. INT. FABULOUS STAIRCASE. DAY
ALMA and GUSTAV are still dancing but the scene has changed
round them to a vague and brilliant staircase of a great house,
perhaps an Opera House foyer. She still has her cigarette alight.
Its smoke grows and grows until it envelopes their bodies. The
smoke-cloud unravels slowly as they come waltzing down the
stairs, and it unravels on their naked bodies. They whirl and
whirl down the stairs in a fantastic dance where their feet seem
hardly to touch the steps and they really are flying. The gay
waltz takes us all with it. Down and down the stairs they come,
whirling fantastically, a miraculous tour de force of dancing that
seems impossible to our eyes. They are faster than humans can
be, they float as humans cannot, their steps are integral with
the music in a way we cannot believe.
CUT:
74. EXT. THE ROAD OUTSIDE. DAY
BANG: KARL MOLL II lets the bonnet down. He strolls round
to the driver's seat. He glances up at the house.
CUT:
75. INT. THE HOUSE. DAY
GUSTAV and ALMA, still in modern clothes, are at the foot of
the staircase now, in the hall. They are out of breath from the
dance. KARL MOLL II's sportscar revs up outside. They kiss
each other quickly and leave the house.
CUT:
76. EXT. THE ROAD OUTSIDE. DAY
KARL MOLL II is waiting for them as they come out. The waltz
is still blaring from the car-radio.
KARL MOLL
I thought the piston rings were
playing up.
GUSTAV and ALMA treat this as a joke, getting into the car at
the back.
KARL MOLL (contd)
(as he jumps into
the driver's seat)
No, it could have been serious.


76. Contd.
He speeds off, almost shooting them out of their seats.
ALMA
Not so fast!
MOLL slows down with a childish look of disappointment.
ALMA (contd)
with a sigh,
to GUSTAV)
If only we'd danced like that when we
were alive!
GUSTAV
You don't think we could have danced
like that, do you? I never tried to
express myself in the body. I
wanted that eternal - what was
Goethe's phrase in Faust - eternal
bliss or something?
ALMA
Did you find it?
(as he shrugs)
I just went from day to day. I had
no time to live!
GUSTAV
Except in the body, and that's no
life at all! You needed many more
journeys after me, didn't you -
many more men? You had to go
through all that!
ALMA
Yes!
GUSTAV
But did you get a hint of the bliss in
the end - the light that seems to lift
you up - ?
ALMA
Not like you. The way you used to
come out of your room with joy all over
your face!


76. Contd.
The car approaches a Viennese theatre. The Merry Widow waltz
comes over again and GUSTAV and ALMA laugh together.
KARL MOLL
What the hell's the matter with you
two this morning?
CUT:
77. EXT. VIENNESE THEATRE. DAY
The sportscar draws up at the theatre.
The foyer and the
entrance doors are crowded. GUSTAV and ALMA jump out and
join the crowd. Posters announce THE MERRY WIDOW.
KARL MOLL II drives off, looking for a parking space.
The car-radio Merry Widow becomes -
CUT:
78. INT. THE THEATRE. EVENING
The last moments of the Merry Widow onstage. The curtain
rolls down. Applause.
79. REVERSE ANGLE
On the audience. We pick out GUSTAV and ALMA, back in period
costume, her hair up, he with spectacles. She has clearly been
having the time of her life. He looks at her with pleasure.
CUT:
80. EXT. ROAD OUTSIDE MAHLER HOUSE. NIGHT
A horsedrawn cab brings GUSTAV and ALMA home. She jumps
down, laughing. GUSTAV pays off the cabby. The house is well
lighted. The front door opens before GUSTAV and ALMA reach
it. GRETEL is there, waiting for them.
CUT:
81. INT.. MAHLER HOUSE. NIGHT
GUSTAV and ALMA come in and give their coats to GRETEL.


81. Contd.
ALMA
(calling up
the stairs)
Mummy!
GUSTAV hums a theme from the Merry Widow. ALMA walks up
the stairs.
CUT:
82. INT. MAHLER HOUSE. NIGHT
On the landing above. FRAU MOLL comes from the reception
room where we saw the GUESTS at the beginning of the film.
ALMA is walking up the stairs.
ALMA
Are they asleép ?
FRAU MOLL
Yes but the little one -
ALMA
(with a caution-
ary glance back
at GUSTAV)
Sssh!
FRAU MOLL understands and smiles good evening to GUSTAV as
he too comes up the stairs.
GUSTAV
Well, your daughter had the time of
her life!
CUT:
83. INT. RECEPTION ROOM. NIGHT
Cups have been set out for an after-theatre tisane, with cakes
and canapes. They all come in.
GUSTAV
That looks cheerful! -


83. Contd.
He takes FRAU MOLL round the waist and kisses her on the cheek.
They are clearly on affectionate terms with each other.
ALMA throws herself into a chair with a sigh. GUSTAV begins
pouring the tisane.
ALMA
I'd love to see the score! You've
got it somewhere haven't you -
the Merry Widow score?
GUSTAV
What? You don't imagine I've got
any Franz Lehar in the house do
you ?
FRAU MOLL
But you enjoyed it too, Gustl, I can
see that!
GUSTAV
Every minute. I don't care how it
was done, I loved every awful
singer, every cardboard tree -
ALMA
Our one night out in five years! It
ought to be written down somewhere
for the historians. And the Merry
Widow, not Lohengrin or Parsifal!
GUSTAV
I tell you what, we can go to
Doblinger's tomorrow and I'll ask
about the sales of my music and
buy you a copy of the Merry
Widow
(with a wink)
- if my sales run to it =
ALMA
I had the impression we floated - and
you were holding me - dancing - 1 e
GUSTAV
(with a smile)
Dancing ?


83. Contd.
They are all seated, sipping their tea. Silence.
A child's cry - disturbed sleep - in the distance. GUSTAV starts.
GUSTAV
Almschili - what's that ?
ALMA
Gustav! Don't look like that! Gustav!
GUSTAV
Who is it for God's sake, who is it?
ALMA
It's the little one. The English nurse
scalded her fingers this morning.
GUSTAV
It's more than fingers! Go and see!
She gets up, under the influence of his wild eyes. A CLOSE SHOT
of GUSTAV staring before him as if very cold all of a sudden, rigid,
as he waits for ALMA's return. A savage phrase from the Songs
of the Death of Children comes bursting over.
84. ANOTHER ANGLE
Across GUSTAV we watch the landing as ALMA emerges from the
nursery. He does not turn as she comes back into the reception
room, though he is aware of her.
GUSTAV
It's a fever.
ALMA
Yes.
GUSTAV
The doctor's coming.
FRAU MOLL
(leaving)
I'll call him.


84. Contd.
GUSTAV
And Putzerl?
ALMA
She's asleep.
GUSTAV
Calm ?
ALMA
Yes.
GUSTAV
Not flushed?
ALMA
GUSTAV
(still without
looking at her)
Come and sit down.
She returns to her chair, frightened to make the slightest sound.
He seems to relax suddenly.
GUSTAV (contd)
The Lord Chamberlain called me
into his office today.
ALMA
Yes?
GUSTAV
Somebody stole my appointments book
and took it to him. It said, 'After
Easter, three concerts in Rome.'
He said I wasn't allowed to do concerts
in the Opera House's time. He told me
box office receipts always fell off when
I'm away. I told him this wasn't true.
They want me out. It has nothing to
do with Rome. They've finished with
me! The Germans are finished with
me too! They've had enough of my
standards! When you're as demand-
ing as I am you tread on too many toes
and in the end they surround you - they
need a lower level, you see, it makes


84. Contd.
GUSTAV (contd)
them feel more at home. I've been
there ten years near enough. It's
time to go.
ALMA
It's because you stood by Alfred
Roller. You stand by him whatever
he does.
GUSTAV
Because he's the finest designer in
Europe.
ALMA
Yes, but making the Rhine Maidens
sing from hanging baskets - 1 -
GUSTAV
(with a shrug)
It's only because they's SO fat - they're
afraid the rope'll break -
They are about to laugh when the child's cry interrupts again.
GUSTAV (contd)
(to himself)
There! The second blow! I said
there were three blows of fate! The
first my dismissal - no money -
nowhere to go - And then
(staring towards
the landing)
- the second -
ALMA
Don't make it happen! You should never
have written those songs on the death of
children!
GUSTAV
(to himself
again)
The three blows of fate that lay the hero
lay!
The 'three blows' from the Sixth Symphony crash over, like an
explanation of his words.


84. Contd.
Silence.
A bell rings.
GUSTAV
What's that for God's sake?
ALMA
Gustav!
(getting up)
It's only the doctor.
She hurries out.
85. ANOTHER ANGLE
Again across GUSTAV's profile we see on to the landing where
FRAU MOLL is just coming up the stairs with the DOCTOR, as
ALMA waits for them. They hurry together into the nursery.
GUSTAV
(calling out in
a strange way)
I've never heard that bell before!
86. CLOSE SHOT OF GUSTAV
Gustav! You're making it happen!
Gustav!
He talks to himself.
GUSTAV
I've never been able to talk to you.
Is this your only way?
87. - RESUME 84.
ALMA reappears suddenly in the room.


87. Contd.
ALMA
He says Putzerl has a fever.
GUSTAV
It's diptheria.
ALMA
Yes.
GUSTAV
And there must be a tracheotomy! No!
(she stares at him
as he begins talk-
ing to himself
again)
Why do you want her so soon? I
could have stood dismissal from the
Opera House - that was right - you
must take me away from the centres
of power, yes! I agree with that!
But my child! You aren't just!
The bell sounds again.
FRAU MOLL (V.O.)
Alma!
Her cry freezes them.
ALMA
(hurrying out)
It's my child!
GUSTAV strides about the room agitatedly, still unable to go along
to the nursery himself, but continually approaching the door.
GUSTAV
(in a strange
crooning way)
I willed it, yes. I suppose I must
have done. I must need her to die.
Little Putzerl must need it too. She
never belonged here. It was only a
visit. The earth wasn't for her, you
see. I'm only on a visit too! And she
decides to go before me. She doesn't
need to stay, to go through all this.
She needs the light sooner!


87. Contd.
ALMA screams at the end of the corridor.
CUT:
88. INT. NEW YORK APARTMENT. DAY
A gay Italian barrel organ bursts over, strong at first and then
distant. This is the eleventh floor of the Majestic Hotel in
Manhattan in 1907.
We track through the empty apartment.
We establish New York and the ample room slowly. The sound
of the barrel organ is mixed with that of gay street noises.
ALMA is leaning out of the window, listening to these noises with
pleasure. She is a changed woman. There is little trace now of
the young Viennese girl. She is dressed smartly in black, in the
American style of the period.
FRAU MOLL (V.O.)
Alma.
ALMA doesn't move. She closes her eyes with pleasure.
FRAU MOLL comes in, dressed for the street.
FRAU MOLL
Alma.
ALMA turns and looks at her:
FRAU MOLL (contd)
Shouldn't I get that barrel organ
stopped? Isn't he composing ?
ALMA
I suppose so! Ask the man at the
desk.
FRAU MOLL leaves.
CUT:
89. INT. HOTEL FOYER. DAY
Take in the foyer to help establish New York, with a glimpse of
the barrel organ outside on the sidewalk beyond the glass doors.


89. Contd.
FRAU MOLL comes down the stairs and goes to the HALL PORTER.
They talk together. He glances in the direction of the barrel organ.
CUT:
90. RESUME 88.
ALMA is still by the window, drinking in the sounds. The barrel
organ ceases, and her face undergoes a tightening of disappointment.
There are tears in her eyes. She listens to the other sounds that
drift up now - horses, the 'Woa!' of the CABBIES, snatches of
'classical' jazz - Buddy Holden or Jelly-Roll Morton or Bunk
Johnson.
91. ANOTHER ANGLE
One of the doors leading into the lounge opens slowly. It is
GUSTAV. He is in a dressing gown. He looks round the room
for ALMA. He comes into the room with deliberately slow steps.
GUSTAV
What a lovely sound -
ALMA
(starting)
What?
GUSTAV
That barrel organ. It reminded me
of my childhood.
(and then he
suddenly stops.
Sitting down on
the sofa carefully)
The moment I lean back to remember a
which means to forget -
(he stops. Look-
ing at her)
Why are you at the window all day?
ALMA
To hear New York down below.
GUSTAV
You' could take a lift downstairs, sit
in the foyer.


91. Contd.
ALMA
My duty's with you.
GUSTAV
(musing)
And mine's with the Metropolitan
Opera House! These Met designers
are bloody awful. We need an
Alfred Roller here.
ALMA
He's having trouble, you said - he
wrote from Vienna - the savages are
collecting round him - ?
GUSTAV
Yes. They'll send him packing soon.
But the whole menagerie won't last
long - the royal opera house, royalty
itself - none of it.
(the traffic sounds -
1907 klaxons - drift
up again)
You like those noises?
ALMA
Yes.
GUSTAV
You like this city, don't you ?
ALMA
It's divine.
GUSTAV
(chuckling)
They built it against the divine. That
was the whole idea. They ran away
from divine right - of kings, arist-
ocracies. So how is New York
divine?
ALMA
The bigness. The free way they have
of talking. Nothing scratching and
nibbling at me like in Vienna. I feel
unknown - everything feels positive -


91. Contd.
GUSTAV
With everybody knowing that the Mahlers
live on the eleventh floor of the Majestic
- you feel unknown' ?
ALMA
We're respected.
GUSTAV
More than in Vienna ?
ALMA
We were worshipped there. And it
doesn't make you feel good. The slave
can turn. The Viennese didn't come
to your last concert.
GUSTAV
You look a woman.
ALMA
What?
GUSTAV
A woman. Dazzling attractive I the kind
of woman awful men get excited over -
ALMA
Life's simpler. No Ministry of Music
at the back of everything.
GUSTAV
You're even happy.
ALMA
You must change for the Met.
GUSTAV
(sitting up
carefully)
What made me ask that damned doctor
in Maiernigg to examine me? Do you
remember I laughed when I asked him ?
And he gives me a sentence of death!
The steps of a slow procession from the street below.
ALMA
Look!


91. Contd.
GUSTAV
(joining her at
the window)
A procession. Nothing supernatural
happens here. It's a rally or some-
thing.
He leaves the window.
ALMA
It's a funeral. There's a huge crowd.
The tap of a drum hushes the crowd. We hear a MAN addressing
them. We cannot make his words out. They echo in a strange way.
CLOSE SHOT of GUSTAV shows him listening intently, almost
beating time to the drum. Gradually the terrible opening bars
of the Finale of his Tenth Symphony take over, as if he were
thinking them out then and there.
ALMA
I think it's that fireman who died
heroically. It was in the papers.
GUSTAV
(about to leave)
I shall use that drum -tap one day
(stopping)
A great change came over you in
Paris. When Ossip Gabrilovitch
fell in love with you. The dear man.
It brought you back to life.
She does not move. For the first time we are conscious of a
woman choosing her own life, and capable of choosing other men, not
just flirting with them. He leaves.
CUT:
92. INT. GUSTAV'S HOTEL BEDROOM. DAY
There are photographs of the two children on his table. GUSTAV
comes in slowly and thoughtfully, takes off his dressing gown,
begins dressing for the Metropolitan. We follow his movements,
as the street noises continue to drift up. He prepares himself
for the evening performance, in tails, dressing carefully; there


92. Contd.
is less absentmindness about him these days. He looks at the
photograph of his dead child. He sits on the bed. The Songs of the
Death of Children come over. He stares before him, remem-
bering her.
CUT:
93. EXT. MAIERNIGG GARDEN. DAY
A vague and slow-motion impression of GUSTAV with the two
children as ALMA saw them from his hut (see 68). The music
is still over.
For a moment GUSTAV floats alone with the dead children.
CUT:
94. RESUME 92.
GUSTAV recollects himself and finishes dressing. He puts on his
elegant overcoat and white silk scarf, then claps a top hat on his
head. For the first time we see an elegant man. He leaves.
CUT:
95. INT. THE LOUNGE. DAY
He returns to the lounge. ALMA is still at the window. He stands
gazing at her. Then he walks softly across the room and out into
the lobby. He leaves the apartment. She is unaware of him.
ALMA does not move. The Songs of the Death of Children
is still over.
ALMA turns. She looks round the room. She seems to see someone.
She smiles. She wants to tell GUSTAV.
ALMA
(running towards
GUSTAV's door)
Gustav!
She turns quickly, stops. From her P.V. the empty room. But she
is convinced of seeing someone.


95. Contd.
ALMA (contd)
Gustav, I can see Putzi! It is!
(runs towards
her imagined
daughter)
Putzi, Putzi! Your father's in
his room- darling - quickly - .
She stops again. She wants to get Gustav. She
rushes to his room. She throws the door open. No one is there.
Recovering, standing quite still.in the doorway of GUSTAV's room,
she looks across the empty lounge with enormous sadness, and
bursts into tears, moaning.
CUT:
96. INT. METROPOLITAN OPERA HOUSE. EVENING
GUSTAV, a gesticulating silhouette against the lowered curtain,
conducts the Tristan overture for his premiere.
CUT:
97. ANOTHER ANGLE
CLOSE SHOT of ALMA, dressed in a beautiful black dress with
pearls, in the audience. She is gazing before her, head slightly
lowered, tears in her eyes, far away from the music.
CUT:
98. EXT. NEW YORK STREET. NIGHT
A horsedrawn cab in a tremendous blizzard rendering the
surrounding street invisible. The CABBY is a huge red-faced man.
He is bawling at the top of his voice, half-singing, half-shouting
at the horses. The storm induces a kind of horrible ecstasy in hi m,
and he is drunk anyway.
CUT:
99. INT. HORSEDRAWN CAB. NIGHT
GUSTAV, on his way home, being rocked and thrown in the cab by
its progress through the blizzard. He does not seem to be afraid.
His thoughts too are far away.
CUT:


100. RESUME 98.
The blizzard makes the progress of the horse almost impossible.
Suddenly the cab rolls over on its side, and the CABBY falls
with it, yelling with some ething like joy. The snow continues to
play round the cab as the CABBY sits up and looks round him,
still singing. The horse remains upright and unperturbed, the
shafts of the carriage twisted up. The free door of the cab
opens slowly and GUSTAV's astonished face peers over, taking
in the scene. He and the CABBY look at each other. The
CABBY begins to roar with laughter. GUSTAV crawls out of
the cab, losing his glasses in the snow. He staggers round to
the CABBY, blind, pointing to his eyes. The CABBY continues
roaring with laughter. He sings happily, rising on his knees
to clasp GUSTAV round the middle, swinging him to and fro.
To the CABBY's surprise GUSTAV takes command of the
situation. (he is used, after all, to singers)
GUSTAV
(at the top
of his voice)
Find my glasses!
CABBY
(silenced)
You lost ya glasses ?
He pulls him self to his feet, using GUSTAV to steady himself,
and together they begin fishing round in the snow. They are
close together on all fours, fishing together.
CABBY
(suddenly, with
triumph)
I got 'em: I got 'em! I got the
fuckers!
He roars with laughter again.
CUT:
101. EXT. GRAND CENTRAL PARK. NIGHT
The blizzard continues to rage, obsuring all but the railings
and a few trees. GUSTAV comes staggering through the snow,
clutching the railings, his hat gone, one hand steadying his
glasses.
CUT:


102. INT. THE HOTEL APARTMENT. NIGHT
The sound of the blizzard outside. GUSTAV staggers into the room
covered with snow, his overcoat trailing open. He throws it off,
gasping, still reeling from the storm. He stumbles through the
room to the bathroom.
CUT:
103. INT. THE BATHROOM. NIGHT
He grabs a towel and begins rubbing his hair dry, gasping. He
takes off his glasses and dries them on a hand towel carefully.
He puts them on and inspects himself in the mirror.
ALMA is suddenly at the door, in her nightdress, like a ghost.
ALMA
Gustl! It's past two o'clock.
GUSTAV
ALMA
Were you that man stumbling about -
clutching the railings - falling in a
heap -?
GUSTAV
(aware of a
certain revulsion
in her voice)
Yes. I was that man.
ALMA
You see, dangers everywhere! On us
all the time!
GUSTAV
(coming towards
her)
I was warned about these New York
blizzards. Go to bed, darling.
The doctor said you mustn't leave
your bed.
She stops him at the door.
ALMA
I saw her again. In this room.


103. Contd.
GUSTAV
I hear her voice.
ALMA
(touching him)
Your poor hands!
He walks her into the lounge, his arm round her waist.
CUT:
104. INT. THE LOUNGE. NIGHT
GUSTAV
(as they walk in)
I left Karl Bitter's just after mid-
night. They all got drunk. I was
disgusted. Why do people have to
do that ? I got a cab. Alma - it
blew over! Can you imagine it?
(as they sit
together on
the sofa)
And I crawled from underneath.
And the Cabby was drunk too =
ALMA
(beginning to
laugh)
GUSTAV
I lost my glasses. We were fishing
around in the snow for them. The
snow stings you like wasps here.
I had to cling to the railings.
They laugh together. Silence.
ALMA
Conried died then.
GUSTAV
Yes. They offered me the Metropolitan.
I turned it down. They're giving it to
Toscanini - he's a good man but do you
know what - he wants to conduct Tristan.


104. Contd.
GUSTAV (contd)
After a production like mine! It was
the finest I've ever done - ever heard
about! All those cuts I made. And
ghastly sets. But still it was the best
ever - miles ahead of any Tristan I
did in Vienna.
ALMA
You take things so much easier now.
You'd never have agreed to cuts in
Vienna. And I remember how you were
if anybody came in late.
GUSTAV
Our little girl taught me such a lot - by
dying. Nothing's so important any more,
on this side of death.
ALMA
We should sell Maiernigg. Too heavy
with memories. Mummy and I found
a lovely old farmhouse at Toblach when
we were last in Europe.
GUSTAV
I liked what Max Burkhart said the other
day - 'Death exists if you believe in it,
and I don't.
ALMA
He's dying.
GUSTAV
(suddenly his
old self again)
That old trout - what was her name? -
the wife of à shipping magnate from
Maine - she said is it true that Wagner
treated Listz with appalling ingratitude?
'What's that?' I said 'So Wagner has
a bad reputation' ? And what does
Tristan mean to you?"
ALMA
Yes, we all heard you. A woman asked
me, 'Does he always make a scene at
dinner?'


104. Contd.
GUSTAV
You see, I made the scene. Not her,
with her lies about how Tristan moved
her so much she couldn't sleep at
nights! Not the lie but the truth
makes a scene. That's how their
minds work - from the Balkans to
Philadelphia.
They quieten, after this flare-up of the old way of talking and
arguing.
ALMA
People are So light here. They take
you to their hearts. I see you never
miss a dinner party nowadays. And
you dress so beautifully.
GUSTAV
We must give up the flat in Vienna too.
ALMA
Yes.
GUSTAV
And live in Toblach you said? A nice
farmhouse?
ALMA
Yes.
GUSTAV
Does Anna miss her sister?
ALMA
It must be dawn, look.
GUSTAV
I feel I'm sinking further and further.
And you look fresh for the voyage -
back to Europe! - Bursting - young!
ALMA
Bodansky came to me with tears in
his eyes. He said 'I shall never love a
woman like I love Mahler'.


104. Contd.
GUSTAV
(laughing
suddenly again)
That night I arrived for my First
Symphony I found that the good
ladies of the orchestral committee,
honest Daughters of the Revolution,
had massed the brass all round my
feet and the strings in a circle round
the back, to get a pretty effect!
Still, it didn't matter, they didn't
get a thing anyway!
ALMA
You took the orchestra to a night club
afterwards, and came back at three
in the morning, radiant.
GUSTAV
They felt like my children. And their
critics are SO nice. Unlike the
Viennese. And the French. Remember
the time Debussy walked out of my
Second Symphony with his friends? Said
it was all too Schubertian for them, too
Viennese, too foreign, too Slav! What
nonsense people do talk! Trying to make
it seem there's a right way of doing
things - one way! - on this side!
ALMA
Still, they enjoyed your conducting of
Fidelio.
GUSTAV
Oh, conducting; that's nothing. Music's
little enough. Music fades. What doesn't
fade is what you are inside. Almschili,
you must always try to exert that inner
force of yours - spread yourself - never
stint your beauty - always try and bring
out the light inside -
He yawns. They seem to sleep. The blizzard continues to rage
outside.
CUT:


105. INT. THE TOBLACH HOUSE. AUSTRIA. DAY
The garden room of their new house in the Salzkammergut. From
outside, the sound of hammering, dogs barking, voices across the
lake, summer noises.
GUSTAV is lying on the divan, a blanket over his feet. He has
been dozing. He opens his eyes, blinking against the dazzling
light from the lake. He looks round the room. He begins to be
alarmed. He sits up. He listens.
GUSTAV
Alma: Alma:
(with increasing
alarm)
Alma!
ALMA comes in from the garden, dressed in a bright dierndl.
GUSTAV (contd)
I - I thought you had gone.
ALMA
Gone ?
GUSTAV
(slumping back
again)
I need you here. In case I want
the boat.
ALMA
(quietly)
Yes.
GUSTAV
You were in the garden ?
ALMA
With the child, yes.
GUSTAV
Help me please!
(she comes to
him slowly, and
he puts his arms
round her)
My Almschilitzili! I've got this
terrific yearning for you - it's
when I'm travelling, even when


105. Contd.
GUSTAV (contd)
I'm working in the hut a few yards
away. It's in my head all the time,
ALMA
Gustl, I can't bear this tense life
any more.
GUSTAV
There, it won't last much longer -
ALMA
(in alarm)
What won't last' ?
GUSTAV
(after gazing
at her)
I mean the Symphony, it'll be
finished soon.
ALMA
You work too hard! Always work,
work!
GUSTAV
And then we'll be free, take a holiday -
(getting up)
I'll go for a dip.
ALMA
Don't swim out too far!
GUSTAV walks off out into the garden, seeing not to have heard
what she said. She looks after him.
CUT:
106. EXT. THE TOBLACH GARDEN. DAY
GUSTAV is strolling down towards his new hut at the edge of
the lake.
Suddenly the front door bell sounds from the house. He turns
round, staring, panic-stricken. He dashes back towards the
house.
CUT:


107. INT. THE GARDEN ROOM. DAY
The garden room is now empty. GUSTAV rushes back in, looks
round with wild alarm. He hears something in the garden. He
swings round as if shot.
From his P.V. we see the ARCHITECT standing in the garden,
staring at him. The ARCHITECT is bullet-headed with fierce
unflinching eyes. Seeing GUSTAV, he disappears at once again.
GUSTAV is panting with alarm.
GRETEL comes into the room behind him. He swings round
again, almost falling with panic. She hands him a letter.
GRETEL
A gentleman called with this, sir.
GUSTAV
(taking it with
trembling hands)
Thank you.
She leaves, gazing at him with curiosity.
He tears the envelope open with frenzied hands. He reads it,
horrified.
ALMA walks into the room with a bath towel, on her way down
to the hut to find him.
GUSTAV
Look:
(holding out
the letter)
It's from the architect who fell in
love with you at the Tobelbad sanat-
orium. When you were ill. I said
at the time you were hiding some-
thing - look, he's addressed it to
me! He's come here himself!
(swivelling round
towards the garden
but the ARCHITECT
has gone)
He wants my wife! What can I say ?
He wants to come in here and talk it
over! Is that the kind of impression
he gets of your closeness to me, your
need for me, your loyalty, kindness,
the poor dead child - :


107. Contd.
ALMA
I was tired and broken down and he
sympathised! He sympathised!
Yes!
GUSTAV
Sympathised with the fact that you're
married to me, instead of to a popinjay
who designs brick walls! I told you
didn't I, it won't last much longer, it's
almost finished, and then you'll be free!
ALMA
Why only me?
GUSTAV
Both of us, yes - both of us free!
He stalks off, through one of the inner doors.
ALMA
And don'towalk so fast! The doctor said
not to!
GUSTAV
(returning)
To hell with doctors, and architects
too, and all the dead professions!
ALMA
(with a fury
she has never
shown before)
Do you remember how you said spring
couldn't last for ever? So you pushed
me into winter! You didn't even look
at me! It was the Fifth and the Sixth
and the Seventh and the Eigth = the
Song of the Earth - the Song of
Children - dead children - before it
happened - never a song about me!
Always music - not me! Not even your
own life! Do you wonder I needed a bit
of warming sunlight? And he was there!
He looked at me! He showed me who I
was, with his eyes!


107. Contd.
GUSTAV stands staring at her. He lowers his eyes, still horrified
but at the same time compassionately alive to what ALMA is saying.
CUT:
108. EXT. TOBLACH HOUSE. DAY.
On the front door as GUSTAV opens it. He looks out. From his
P.V. the front side of the garden. The ARCHITECT is standing
behind a bush. GUSTAV walks forward. The ARCHITECT comes
forward too. The ARCHITECT seems less fierce than GUSTAV's
first impression of him. A M.S. shows them shaking hands.
They begin walking up and down, talking together. The
ARCHITECT keeps glancing towards the house, and GUSTAV
seems to restrain him.
CUT:
109. INT. ENTRANCE HALL. DAY
ALMA is gazing out of the window. From her P.V. we see
GUSTAV and the ARCHITECT. They walk towards the lakeside
road, still talking, and disappear.
CUT:
110. EXT. TOBLACH. DAY (HELIVISION)
After this group of dramatic scenes without music, the 1st
movement of the Sixth Symphony, the so-called 'protest march'
with its promise of conflict, breaks over a Helivision L.S. of
the lake and then the MAHLER house. We ZOOM in to GUSTAV
and the ARCHITECT strolling along the road towards the railway
station, still talking. Musically we reach the end of the first
subject when -
CUT:
111. INT. THE GARDEN ROOM. DAY
- the 'Alma thene' (second subject) opens: ALMA is sitting by
the table gazing at a pile of telegrams. From her P.V. the
telegrams read 'I ADORE YOU - WALTER', 'AM THINKING
ONLY OF MY ALMA - YOUR OWN WALTER', 'WILL LIVE ONLY
FOR YOU - WALTER', 'YOU GOVERN ALL MY THOUGHTS ALL
MY DAYS ALL MY ASPIRATIONS - WALTER', 'I KNOW YOU
ARE MINE - WALTER'.


111. Contd.
She gazes into the garden.
GUSTAV
Are you in love with him ?
The CAMERA PANS to find GUSTAV in an armchair. She shakes
her head mutely.
GUSTAV (contd)
He seems harmless enough. You
won't come to Munich ?
She again shakes her head.
GUSTAV (contd)
(getting up)
I'll be conducting for you. I feel
the same as your architect, except
in one thing. I don't know you're
mine.
CUT:
112. INT. MUNICH CONCERT HALL. EVENING
A Mahler concert. We OPEN ON the trumpeter for the first
bars of the Fifth Symphony which we remember from the
episode in GUSTAV's childhood near the barracks of Iglau.
(see 49) We TAKE IN the subsequent percussion, before
PULLING BACK behind GUSTAV who is conducting.
113. REVERSE ANGLE
GUSTAV in CLOSE SHOT conducting with a kind of defiance.
He is pale, clearly weak. He seems all but crushed by the
dramatic weight of his own music.
CUT:
114. INT. TOBLACH GARDEN ROOM. EVENING
The curtains are drawn and ALMA has settled herself comfort-
ably in a corner chair close to the bookshelf, with a small round
table before her. She is reading. The Fifth Symphony is still
over. She lifts her eyes slightly from the page, seeming to
hear it.


114. Contd.
The front door bell rings. She takes no notice. She attends to
her book again.
GRETEL comes into the room with a telegram. She puts it
down silently on the little table before ALMA. She.leaves.
ALMA opens the telegram. From her P.V. we see 'I SHALL
ALWAYS BE YOURS - WALTER'. She lets it fall from her
hand. She does not take up her book again.
CUT:
115. EXT. BAVARIAN WOODS. DAY
GUSTAV strolling alone, sometimes leaning on his stick. He
gazes round him. He finds a bench and approaches it with some-
thing like joy, remembering.
Alma, does it hurt you greatly if you
don't compose any more songs?
(after a
pause)
Ic can't quite explain it. Composing
eats you up. You can't do it by
halves! It's too great a flame!
he gazes before him with regret in his eyes.
CUT:
116. INT. CONDUCTOR'S DRESSING ROOM. EVENING
The music has ceased. A buzz of talk has taken its place.
GUSTAV, hat and coat on, is trying to get to the door through
a mass of people trying to shake him by the hand, etc.
He shows no impatience, but keeps on moving absently forward.
CUT:


117. INT. HOTEL FOYER. MUNICH. EVENING
GUSTAV comes in from his concert and goes straight to the
HALL PORTER.
GUSTAV
A telegraph form please.
The HALL PORTER takes a telegraph form and a pen, dips it
into the ink, hands it to GUSTAV.
HALL PORTER
A pleasure, Mr. Mahler.
GUSTAV begins writing with sudden passionate concentration.
The HALL PORTER looks on with curiosity as GUSTAV begins
filling the whole form with words.
CUT:
118. EXT. TOBLACH. DAY (HELIVISION)
The opening bars of the Sixth Symphony again opens this L.S.
(HELIVISION) of the Toblach lake and house (see 110)
We ZOOM IN to ALMA and GRETEL (suitcase in hand) walking
towards the railway station.
CUT:
119. INT. MUNICH HOTEL ROOM. NIGHT
In the dimness of his bedroom GUSTAV is crumpled on the
floor, still in his concert clothes. The music of the Sixth is
still over.
CUT:
120. INT. HOTEL FOYER MUNICH. NIGHT
ALMA enters the deserted foyer with GRETEL. ALMA hurries
on up the stairs while GRETEL goes to the sleepy HALL PORTER
and books them in.
CUT:
121. RESUME 119. -
GUSTAV is still lying there when ALMA rushes in.


121. Contd.
ALMA
Gustav!
He awakens slowly, groaning, as she kneels down by him.
ALMA (contd)
Gustav, not like this - you're so
hot!
GUSTAV
It's this damned fever - my throat
burns!
ALMA
Why do you always let yourself fall?
GUSTAV
It's better nearer the earth.
(as she undoes his
waistcoat, loosens
his tie)
You decided to come.
ALMA
Yes.
GUSTAV
If you'd left me I should have died.
I'm dead if you don't love me! It
took you a long time deciding. I
went everywhere we used to go -
I remembered every spot we
were so happy - it was like being
with you again -
ALMA
Shall I wake the doctor?
GUSTAV
He's on the other side of Munich.
You're the only one - the only
doctor - you see, the sweating's
stopped. Those damned cars out-
side - they keep me awake -
ALMA
I don't hear anything. You alarm
yourself So much -


121. Contd.
GUSTAV
Only because I believe in it - I'm
not going to control it, I want the
fever to rise - I believe in it -
loving you - I want to give way to
it - until it takes me to God!
ALMA
But why? I'm here!
GUSTAV
It's because you're never really with
me any more. If you're not there in
the front row I ache all over. And
I get a fever, and my throat gets
coated. And I adore the pain! I
know what Tristan means - how can
Tristan die while he loves Isolde?
ALMA
Why do much darkness always, and
dying - ?
GUSTAV
Not always. Only now, because you no
longer respond. What a terrible pain
that is. Will you do something for me?
ALMA
Yes?
GUSTAV
Will you lie there, and sleep? You
caught a late train.
ALMA
Yes.
The music has ceased after the 'Alma theme'. ALMA goes and
lies down on the chaise longue, the rustle of her dress the only
sound. He puts her travelling coat over her.
ALMA (contd)
(as she closes
her eyes)
It worries me So much.


121. Contd.
GUSTAV stands looking down at her. She seems to sleep. The
first bars of the Finale of the Tenth Symphony come over softly-
the drum tap of the New York funeral procession.
She starts awake. She stares up at him.
ALMA
Gustl: You're So white! Don't stand
there!
GUSTAV
I don't want to miss you breathing!
I just want to drink you in!
ALMA
(with a sigh)
It tires me so much!
She falls asleep again. GUSTAV continues to watch over her.
Once more she wakes up.
ALMA
I could never leave you. I couldn't
imagine living with anybody else!
GUSTAV
Ah, you've raised me up again!
He sits down with relief. She sleeps.
GUSTAV (contd)
(to himself)
How desperately she loves him. A
damned architect
CUT:
122. INT. THE TOBLACH HOUSE. DAY
GUSTAV is on the divan, in his summer clothes, being
examined by the DOCTOR. His mouth is open and the
DOCTOR is examining his throat.
DOCTOR
Your throat's full of streptococci.
It's like a marsh full of frogs!


122. Contd.
GUSTAV
(smiling at him)
Is that how love expresses itself, in
streptococci?
DOCTOR
You'll have to cut out work for the
coming season, that's all I know!
GUSTAV
In order not to die? But not working
m eans death for me!
DOCTOR
(getting up)
Well, you'll have to choose between
the two kinds of death won't you?
CUT:
123. EXT. THE TOBLACH GARDEN. DAY
GUSTAV is strolling down towards the lake with ALMA. He is
frail, slightly leaning on her. She has thrown a light spring
coat over his shoulders. They stop to look at the view across
the lake, then walk on, arm in arm.
GUSTAV
I said is that how love expresses
itself - in streptococci?
(stopping to look
at her)
He gave me such a funny look!
ALMA
It's that English nurse! She had a
throat infection and didn't say any-
thing about it! I knew you'd catch
it some time.
They are both silent after this attempt to make the matter seem
trivial.
GUSTAV
(showing her his
hand)
You see, I still have your ring - I
kiss it every day - in the middle
of the night -


123. Contd.
ALMA
You stole it from me.
GUSTAV
I looked at your songs.
ALMA
(stopping)
What?
GUSTAV
They're marvellous.
ALMA
I've carried them about with me for
ten years, my little coffin of unwanted
songs!
GUSTAV
We'll have them performed.
ALMA
(gazing at
him)
You seem to mean it!
GUSTAV
I used to be too single-minded, Alma -
(he is about to
say more but
stops)
Take me to the hut. Your songs are
there!
They stroll towards the hut by the lake. When he reaches the hut
he collapses.
ALMA
(screaming)
Gustav!
She rushes to him.
CUT:
124. EXT. THE TOBLACH GARDEN. DAY (HELIVISION)
Still on GUSTAV and ALMA. The CAMERA PANS upwards
and then rises bodily. It is soon high above the lake, with the
music still over. We gaze across the Salzkammergut, far into


124. Contd.
the mountains towards Berchtesgaden. The CAMERA PANS down
again towards the house and ZOOMS IN to find a black automobile,
a 1911 model, leaving the house towards the road, very slowly.
CUT:
125. INT. THE CAR. DAY
GUSTAV, pale and covered with blankets, is half lying in the back
of the car with ALMA at his side. The DOCTOR is in front with
the DRIVER. They are on their way to the station.
ALMA
(whispering)
You look so beautiful - like
Alexander the Great - your lips are
so red -
They smile at each other. She kisses him lightly on the cheek.
GUSTAV
(also whispering)
When I get better you can go on
looking after me, I enjoy it so
much.
He looks out of the window.
CUT:
126. INT. TRAIN COMPARTMENT. DAY
GUSTAV has a blanket over his knee. He and ALMA are alone.
The train draws in at a station. She jumps up and goes to the
window.
ALMA
(looking out)
There are crowds of them!
The train comes to a halt. REPORTERS run along the platform.
They cluster round the door of the compartment. They try to
take photographs of GUSTAV. They shower questions at her;
'How is Mr. Mahler?' 'Is he planning for next season ?' 'Is
Mr. Mahler composing a new work ?'


126. Contd.
ALMA
He hopes to be back at work soon .
He's composing his Tenth Symphony
e - He's just finished A Song of the
Earth for tenor and contralto e
I'm sorry, he can't speak to you
himself
A STATION GUARD helps her close the window. Their door is
locked against the REPORTERS, who still clamour with their
questions. She draws the curtains, waving goodbye to them.
GUSTAV
It makes me tremendously happy to
have got ill for you.
ALMA
I'd rather have you well!
GUSTAV
And love you less?
ALMA
GUSTAV
Who are you going to marry if I die?
Hans Pfizner, Ossip, Charpentier -
they've all been in love with you at
some time or other! But what an
intolerable lot to live with. There's
not one of them wouldn't drive you
mad in a day! Aren'tIthe safest bet
in the end?
ALMA
Yes!
GUSTAV
(as the train
draws out again)
I'd better stay with you, then, and not
die.
CUT:


127. EXT. THE MAHLER HOUSE. VIENNA. DAY
A car of the 1911 period drives up the house. GUSTAV and ALMA
are in the back, FRAU MOLL in the front with the DRIVER. They
all get out.
GUSTAV draws himself erect, takes a deep breath of pleasure,
gazing up at the sky. He is elegantly dressed.
GUSTAV
Back with the god of the south!
That's what I used to call Veinna in
my Hamburg days! The god of the
south! I used to yearn for him:
CUT:
128. INT. THE MASTER BEDROOM. DAY
The room is a mass of flowers. GUSTAV comes in, stands
looking at them.
ALMA
They're from your Philharmonic.
GUSTAV
That's something, eh? And royal-
ities are beginning to trickle in from
my music. America was a great
help there. So there'll be money
- When I'm better we won't live
the old life again. All that work -
sacrifice! I'll build a villa like you
said - on Capri.
ALMA
(gazing at him)
You look so elegant always.
GUSTAV
All my life has been paper, Almschili.
ALMA
Only because you see it like that
just at this moment.
He strolls rolls round the room humming The Merry Widow waltz.


128. Contd.
GUSTAV
(turning to her)
Remember?
He begins dancing with her, still humming the waltz. There
is no music over.
ALMA
Gustav - Gustav - you've got a
fever!
GUSTAV
I'm all right! It comes and goes!
Just look at me!
They whirl round and round.
ALMA
(giving him
wild kisses)
You're astonishing - an astonishing,
astonishing husband!
They laugh, their dancing takes on a touch of the extravangant,
grotesque. There is no sign of the sick man in him.
Suddenly he stumbles.
ALMA
Gustl!
She manages to get him to the bed.
ALMA
Mummy!
CUT:
129. INT. THE MASTER BEDROOM. NIGHT
The voice of the HIGH PRIEST in The Magic Flute comes over.
GUSTAV is in bed, apparently asleep, propped up against his
pillows. ALMA is in an armchair by the bed. She is nodding
asleep.
He smiles to himself, seeming to hear the music, and his right
hand conducts slightly, with little twitches.


129. Contd.
GUSTAV
(to himself)
Mozart, Mozart
She awakes, smiles towards him. The music dies away.
He has ceased to breathe. ALMA does not realise this. She
leans forward to hold his hand. She realises he is dead.
She screams, rushes to the door.
ALMA
Mummy! Mummy!
The 3rd movement of the Sixth Symphony, tender, reminiscent,
comes over.
CUT:
130. INT. THE LANDING. NIGHT
On the landing outside, FRAU MOLL clasping ALMA to her as
the DOCTOR strides into the bedroom.
CUT:
131. RESUME 22 (TAXI IN NEW YORK)
The TEENAGER now has a full shopping bag. The taxi comes to
a halt. They get out, ALMA slowly and carefully, to the irritation
of the DRIVER.
CUT:
132. INT. NEW YORK APARTMENT. DAY
We are in ALMA's kitchen. The TEENAGER is taking the goodies
out of the shopping bag. The street noises ALMA loves drift
up. ALMA takes down a bottle of Benedictine and pours herself
a glass.
ALMA
(drinking it off)
Ah! You're too young to know about
death. It hits you. Then all of a
sudden you're grown up. Three of
them died in my arms. I remember
people coming to the house for the
Werfel funeral, that was my third


132. Contd.
ALMA (contd)
husband, and I told them, 'I never
go to their funerals'. No, I never
went!
ALMA drifts off into the lounge, watched by the TEENAGER who
with her hair loose like the YOUNG ALMA is not unlike her at
this moment.
CUT:
133. INT. THE LOUNGE. DAY
ALMA walks through her lounge, past a table full of photographs
of her three husbands. She lies down on the divan with relief.
CUT:
134. ANOTHER ANGLE
The TEENAGER peeps into the lounge from the kitchen. From
her P.V. ALMA asleep.
The TEENAGER tiptoes out of the apartment.
135. ANOTHER ANGLE
We ZOOM IN to a C.U. of ALMA asleep. The light grows dim.
Slowly she opens her eyes. From her P.V. we see an empty
lounge. It is night now. She gets up slowly and walks to the
kitchen.
CUT:
136. INT. THE KITCHEN. NIGHT
She looks round the kitchen: the shopping things as they were
taken out of the bag by the TEENAGER, and the bottle of
Benedictine with an empty glass.
ALMA walks back into the lounge, sighing, her shoulders
rather slumped. We TRACK after her. She walks towards her
bedroom door. Instead of finding her New York bedroom she
sees before her the master bedroom of the Mahler house in
Vienna. It is like a discovery. The heaviness seems to leave
her. She walks forward.
CUT:


137. INT. THE MASTER BEDROOM. NIGHT
In the dimness we see that the room is tidy, the bed with its
sheets folded back as if expecting a couple. She gazes round
the room.
ALMA
Where are my children ?
She walks out on to the landing.
CUT:
138. INT. THE LANDING. NIGHT
She comes out on to the landing and goes to the edge of the stairs.
ALMA
(walking down
the stairs)
Putzi!
CUT:
139. INT. DOWNSTAIRS. NIGHT
She comes down the stairs, peering everywhere.
ALMA
Where are the children ?
She listens for an answer. The house is deserted. There is
silence.
She stares before her, at something in the dimness.
ALMA (contd)
It's the English nurse! No!
(screams)
She runs up the stairs, panic-stricken.
We hear her voice echoing upstairs. The opening of the Finale of
the Tenth Symphony comes over, hushed.
ALMA (contd)
I don't want to die! Don't let me
die!


139. Contd.
She screams long again.
CUT:
140. INT. THE MASTER BEDROOM. DAY
ALMA is laid out on the bed.
GUSTAV appears at the door of the dressing room, in modern
clothes again.
GUSTAV
(softly)
Alma.
(no reply)
Alma.
She opens her eyes slowly. She peers round the room. She sees
GUSTAV'dimly.
ALMA
Who the devil's that? Franz! Franz!
Walter! It's Walter - it's e
Gustav! Oh, Gustav!
GUSTAV
Come.
She rises from the bed slowly. Again the 3rd movement of the
Sixth Symphony.
She stands before him. He takes her hand.
GUSTAV (contd)
It's over now.
She smiles as if she had woken from a year-long sleep. She
blinks at him.
She unpins her hair, shakes her head vigorously to get her
hair down.
She goes to the dressing table and sits down. She begins taking
off the old woman's make-up. She becomes a young woman again.
As we go into a C.U. of her the 4th section of The Song of the
Earth (contralto), 'Of Beauty', bursts over. 'A young woman


140. Contd.
GUSTAV stands watching her.
CUT:
141. WE TAKE A MONTAGE
The modern GUSTAV and ALMA walking happily through the streets
of Vienna today in a series of SHOTS as the CREDITS come up,
with the Song of the Earth still over.