While the documentary offers some insights into the pervertion of art for ideological purposes, too much of it simply finds Fry standing in dumbfounded awe of the holy sites that populate his journey.
Wagner & Me
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom, Switzerland, Russia · 2010
1h 29m
Director Patrick McGrady
Starring Stephen Fry
Genre Documentary, Music
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Actor and writer Stephen Fry explores his passion for one of the world's most controversial composers, Richard Wagner. As a life-long fan, Stephen, who is Jewish and lost family in the Holocaust, attempts to salvage Wagner's music from its dark associations with anti-Semitism and Hitler.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
New York Post by Farran Smith Nehme
In addition to the magnificent music, the movie takes its rumpled charm from Fry's unfeigned fanboy manner.
The Hollywood Reporter by Frank Scheck
Patrick McGrady's documentary strains to reconcile its conflicting moods, but Fry's gushing enthusiasm for the subject is ultimately if sometimes queasily infectious.
Slant Magazine by Joseph Jon Lanthier
Even when Wagner & Me seems uneven as an art historical study, it's fairly successful as a travelogue.
For Fry, the music's complexity, ambiguity, innovation and humanity far surpass Wagner's personal limitations. He may not convince his viewers of the rightness of his conclusions, but he certainly makes a fervent case for the triumph of art over biography.
To truly appreciate Wagner & Me, a BBC documentary getting a spotty theatrical release in this country, you have to cherish the music of Richard Wagner with the same quivering intensity as host Stephen Fry.
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