Music lovers have a complicated relationship with Richard Wagner. For some, his music is revolutionary. He is the inheritor of a German musical tradition that includes Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. Alternatively, Wagner is an anti-semite.

To further complicate matters, Wagner’s music was adored by Hitler. Hitler made many trips to Bayreuth to pay tribute to the master and the Wagner family was an early supporter of Hitler.

Stephen Fry, the “me” of Wagner and Me, believes the former but must come to grips with the latter. This, in a nutshell, is the narrative of this documentary.

As a film, Wagner and Me is better suited to the television screen than the cinema screen. Like far too many documentaries, the filmmakers fail to consider the cinematic aspect of the film experience. One would think that a film about Wagner, intended for the big screen, would invoke the grandeur of Bayreuth.

More problematic, though, is Stephen Fry’s fanaticism towards Wagner. We listen to Fry go on about Wagner’s genius, but there is scant attention paid to the basis of this genius. Other than a fascinating scene describing the significance of the Tristan chord (the chord that structures and sustains Wagner’s opera “Tristan & Isolde”), there is little discussion of the music beyond superficial biographical details.

Granted, music is notoriously difficult to speak about, but a documentary about Wagner’s genius should, at the very least, contain a substantive discussion of the music so as to ground the claims of its narrator.

Wagner & Me
Part of the Vancouver International Film Festival
Empire Granville 7
Remaining screenings:
Monday Oct. 11, 3:45 pm
Wednesday Oct. 13, 2:50 pm