Among the severed heads at the base of the broken phallus in Klingsor's castle (symbolizing the self-castration that gave the wizard his powers) are those of Karl Marx, Wagner himself, and also Friedrich Nietzsche, who was one of Wagner's most devoted champions until he broke with him over this very opera. He despised Christianity as a "slave" religion and thought Wagner had caved in to bourgeois morality.
Parsifal was screened out of competition (during a special night) at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival.
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