Copying Beethoven

Actually the film has much less similarities to Forman's masterpiece than expected from a biopic on a great composer. At the moment there's only two comments on it, meaning it hasn't have a wide American release yet. Whoever thinks the audiences can't enjoy the dynamics of two people in a cluttered Dostoevskian room is deeply wrong.

Anyway, just got back from the first screening in Jerusalem. Ed Harris is very convincing as Ludwig Van, and the whole film is paradoxically reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange, with its use of Beethoven's Ninth throughout the score. Another film we're reminded of is Girl with a Pearl Earring - the relationship between the artist and the female protagonist is quite similar at the beginning to what is shown there. Finally, "Copying Beethoven" is directed by a woman, for whom it must have been important to tell a story of a woman's status in a world of Arts dominated by men, especially at those times. A bit boring towards the ending, it's nevertheless captivating.

And parts of it I loved. The casting of Ed Harris in the role of Beethoven was a stroke of genius in itself and like Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ed inhabits every role he's in, extraordinary actors both, without mannerisms or methodisms. He just is. It is a serious misfortune that the script fell far short of his talent.

Diane Kruger for the most part is luminous and believable, I don't know if the picture was filmed sequentially, but in the beginning she appears to be struggling to find her feet, to roll herself into the part, and after a few wobbles, she eventually does.

The interpretation of the Ninth is sublime on many levels, the main one being the absolute sensuousness of Anna Holtz (played by Diane) guiding the maestro through the conducting of the Ninth at its debut. Right up there with memorable movie moments.

The main difficulties I had were with the depiction of Beethoven's hearing (he was totally deaf when he wrote the sublime Ninth) and with the anachronistic dialogue which had me "ouching" far too much. Using terms like "mooning", Beethoven himself no less christening his own Moonlight Sonata - spare us, American accents slopping around, a single woman completely chaperonless running freely around Vienna and on and of course the passionate kissing scenes with her kinda-fiancé, I think not.

As to the "Wash Me" scene, I got it (I think). He was composing in synch to her washing motions. More could have been made of it.

I understand why the director, Agnieszka Holland, would develop the story to highlight and Mozartize Beethoven, but I would have to say the experiment was a failure.

Evocative lighting but a sad little script which seriously under estimated this viewer's intelligence and I believe I'm not alone. 7 out of 10 for the bits that worked.

For a lovely little movie depicting the just about demented from deafness Beethoven composing his Ninth, see the delightful "Beethoven Lives Upstairs."

For those of you who have trashed this film with comments about the music not being accurate for the times or there was no such thing as a female copyist,etc, can't you go along with the fact that it's a fantasy? I saw it at a screening last night, and I thoroughly enjoyed it...for what it is, a made-up story to give us some insight into what might have been in Bethoven's mind toward the end of his life. I felt it did just that. It is well acted, directed, and the screenplay is very inventive. I certainly can't speak for the director, Ms. Holland, but while watching this film, I had the sense that she strongly wanted me, as the viewer, to feel a certain way so that I could get into the heart of what she was portraying. It worked, because several times I was totally drawn into the scenes and forgot I was in the theater. That's a big cue for me that it's a good film. Go see it, and decide for yourself.

Given our modern sensibilities with respect to the role of women in society and, lest we be labeled Calibans, it is no great effort to overlook the anachronism and give the nod to the female copyist at the start of this movie. Not five minutes later, though, we are asked to completely strain the boundaries of credulity and accept that the creativity of the second greatest composer ever to have lived (Mahler being the first) owed its triumph to a twenty-three-year-old inexperienced female "secretary".

It is at this point one realizes that the creation of the Ninth Symphony is a patina, a mere plot device, for the true substance of the movie which is Beethoven's suppressed twentieth century feminist ideology. Alas, if only the maestro himself had realized how truly ahead of his time he was! Is it really only twenty years ago we discovered Beethoven was black?

...and yet, if you love Beethoven, it is all about the music. Whatever the historical flaws in this movie, the anticipation engendered when the Ninth begins and the excitement bursting within as the choristers intone "Freude, schöener Götterfunken" of Schiller's Ode to Joy; any misgivings about the picture are completely over-shadowed by the music itself. Which says more about Beethoven's lasting genius than modern movie-making "talent" ever could.

I was going to praise the other reviewers even as I disagreed with them and then I read a few more and a few more and I started stewing. I am not a professional writer. I neither write movie reviews or movies themselves. However I do understand the idea of "willing suspension of disbelief". No one ever said this was a totally factual account of the life of Beethoven. First of all, we will never see one. No one knows all the facts of his life. It was too long ago. So let us enjoy the movie which does a beautiful job of trying to explain what Beethoven's life might have meant, seen through the eyes of a young woman. Women perceive people differently. They listen differently and pick up on other's inner monologue more easily. I think telling that particular story in any other way would have been a big mistake. I most strongly disagree with the statement that Beethoven tries to speak for God. No, Beethoven tries to explain that God speaks to him and it was only when he became deaf that he could hear her clearly. It is an inspiring movie. If you love the music of Beethoven as I do I think you will enjoy this movie. I have to admit that I started to cry during one passage when a some favorite music of Beethoven's was being clarified and completed. Rent the movie or borrow it from the library. It is worth the price and the time.