copying beethoven premiere

[Peter]

Originally posted by robert newman:

Wonder what lovers of Beethoven such as us will think of it ? That matters too, of course.

I still have a hunch this film is going to do very well.

Hopefully Robert and I shall reserve judgement until then!

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'Man know thyself'

[Nightklavier]

Another review, this time a little more positive, from David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews:

"That Ed Harris actually makes a fairly convincing Ludwig van Beethoven is undoubtedly a testament to his ample abilities, and it's his electrifying performance that keeps the viewer engaged throughout Copying Beethoven's admittedly erratic running time. Set in the days leading up to and following the first public performance of the Ninth Symphony, the movie revolves around Beethoven's effort to break in comely new assistant Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger, who more than holds her own opposite Harris). Director Agnieszka Holland effectively infuses Copying Beethoven with a distinct feeling of authenticity, a vibe that's cemented by the impressively low-key sets (the majority of the movie transpires within Beethoven's shabby flat) and uniformly convincing supporting performances. And although there's no real arc propelling the movie forward, there's just something strangely compelling about the initially antagonistic relationship between Beethoven and Holtz. The film's centerpiece - a truncated performance of the Ninth - is so impressive that everything that comes after kind of feels superfluous, but that's a relatively minor complaint. And if nothing else, the entire movie may just be worth a look for the amazingly entertaining sequence in which Beethoven - after receiving a copy of Anna's own symphony - mocks the girl by comedically playing her piece whilst blowing raspberrys."

[DavidO]

Originally posted by Nightklavier:
"Has there ever been a good movie about Beethoven

Yes, Leslie Felperin from Variety. Unfortunately, it's an old movie--from the mid-1930s--& largely unknown, even among cinéastes. It's directed by the great crazola Abel Gance, & it's called "Un Grand Amour de Beethoven." It's certainly & by far the most interesting film-qua-film about Beethoven. It's fictionalized but it isn't a hamfisted biopic in the Hollywood style. It's more a fantasia, you might say, on themes of Beethoven's creative & psychic life. It's also a mesmerizing & even rather batty (much like Gance's silent "Napoléon") use of the medium. Most important of all, it's ENJOYABLE to watch. If you can find a showing or a video copy, I recommend it.

[sjwenger]

That movie is in French, I assume? Does it have subtitles? Is it dubbed in English?


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[terry]

If you can find a showing or a video copy, I recommend it.[/B][/QUOTE]

Yes it's a nice (even a bit heavy) movie, I have the DVD but I can't record it because we live in different zones. As for COPYING I was in doubt whether such a fictionalized story would have had positive reviews, but I strongly hope it will be successful anyway. Thanks to anybody who's reporting these news, it's hard to find the right sites for someone who doesn't live in USA. Morevore, for you it will be easier to watch it...

[terry]

If you can find a showing or a video copy, I recommend it.[/B][/QUOTE]

Yes it's a nice (even a bit heavy) movie, I have the DVD but I can't record it because we live in different zones. As for COPYING I was in doubt whether such a fictionalized story would have had positive reviews, but I strongly hope it will be successful anyway. Thanks to anybody who's reporting these news, it's hard to find the right sites for someone who doesn't live in USA. Morevore, for you it will be easier to watch it...

[Michael]

Originally posted by DavidO:
Yes, Leslie Felperin from Variety. Unfortunately, it's an old movie--from the mid-1930s--& largely unknown, even among cinéastes. It's directed by the great crazola Abel Gance, & it's called "Un Grand Amour de Beethoven." It's certainly & by far the most interesting film-qua-film about Beethoven. It's fictionalized but it isn't a hamfisted biopic in the Hollywood style. It's more a fantasia, you might say, on themes of Beethoven's creative & psychic life. It's also a mesmerizing & even rather batty (much like Gance's silent "Napoléon") use of the medium. Most important of all, it's ENJOYABLE to watch. If you can find a showing or a video copy, I recommend it.

Coincidentally, I saw this advertised on eBay a few days ago. It's very cheap but does not get a very enthusiastic review even by the person selling it! A few clips from this movie were used in the documentary "Beethoven's Hair". They did not make me want to rush out and buy the movie. It holds a certain curiosity value and a silent film about Beethoven has an ironic interest.

Michael

[Preston]

Personally, I am very glad the movie isn't about love. Now that would make it immature and ignorant, in my opinion. I also, am very glad that the movie is about Beethoven's relationship with God and his spirituality. Very glad. THANK YOU, writers, FOR THAT.

The movie sounds like it is a very serious movie, which I like, also it sounds like it is a very serious side of Ed Harris. Basically, what I am saying, is that it is not for kids.

I feel that Beethoven was a very serious man, who suffered from a lot of very real problems. I feel he was a good man inside though.

Still, I must say that I am glad that it is not about love, and especially, THAT IT DOESN'T HAVE BEETHOVEN FALLING IN LOVE. I already don't like the idea of Anna being in the movie, I would prefer it to be the two male copyist. Then it would be a classic film (not that it already isn't). It would be a film for serious and true fans. Some would say it is boring but I feel that it would be a great piece of art (not that it already isn't), for the patient person.

I think the reviews want a childish love story of some kind. That is not what Mr. Rivele wanted though, at least I don't think. All this talk about a want to be Amadeus seems like a joke to me. I think they are saying that because Salieri was serious in Amadeus and that Beethoven is serious in Copying Beethoiven, although I don't know for sure. Also, Amadeus was a movie for a more mature audience and I feel that Copying Beethoven is, too.

Kind Regards,
Preston

[This message has been edited by Preston (edited 09-25-2006).]

[Nightklavier]

Two more Reviews here for those interested. The first is a pretty positive review and the second is extremely negative:

First, by Harvey Karten of NY Film Critics Online:

"Only one percent of the CD-buying public goes for classical music, so you have to be careful about whom you ask this question lest you meet with blank stares: Who is the greatest classical composer of them all? The two names most likely to crop up are Beethoven and Mozart. Mozart-lovers are likely to point out how their prodigy at the age of three could play a sonata with his left foot while balanced upside down on the bench of his harpsichord. Beethoven-lovers will point out how the maestro broke with the sonata-allegro tradition, putting scherzos in any movement he pleased, belting out a fourth movement composed largely of choral singers who have to stand for three-quarters of an hour before they could chime in. If you like your music stormy and exquisitely romantic, Beethoven would inevitably to be your choice. As for Mozart’s prodigious composition power at the age that other would be crying to their mommies to buy them a cone of cotton candy, you could point out how one of the greatest symphonies ever penned came from a man who was stone deaf and could not hear a note of his work or the thunderous applause of the audience at the premiere.

In “Copying Beethoven,” writers Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson make not a single mention of Mozart; yet one cannot help comparing the way Salieri would feverishly copy notes from Salzburg’s greatest hero while Mozart lay on his deathbed to the style in which a woman copied Beethoven’s score of the 9th Symphony, racing a four-day deadline. There the comparisons end, because while Salieri was going to pass off the Requiem as his own, Beethoven’s copier was plying her trade with the hope that his style, not his actual notes, would rub off on her. In fact the title of the piece has a double meaning; the obvious one being that a person was needed to transcribe smudgy, illegible notations; the other being that the amenuensis was intent on replicating his style as her own.

If this film by Warsaw-born Agnieszka Holland, an assured composer based on her “Europa, Europa” (German-Jewish boy drafted in Hitler’s army), suffers at all it is in comparison with the greatest film about music ever conceived, Milos Forman’s “Amadeus.” Where “Amadeus” is grand opera, “Copying Beethoven” is a chamber work, by comparison small, really a character piece about the relationship of two people in which the supporting characters supply depth like a band of second violas. Filmed in pretty sites in Hungary by Ashley Rowe, the pic shows Beethoven to be as a friend describes him: a beast. When a 23-year-old woman, Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger–best known as the face that launched a thousand ships), is sent to the great man to transcribe his messy notes into something legible, Beethoven scoffs. She’s too young and what’s more, she’s a woman. (Ms. Holtz is a fictionalized creation of the writers based on a real-life composite.) The plot becomes a common one: to transform a relationship in which one person considers the other to be absurdly unqualified, then slowly grows not only to respect the interloper but even to love her (albeit in a non-romantic way, though some sexual chemistry is present despite the three decades’ difference in ages).

Beethoven himself is played by Ed Harris, though you’d not know this if you did not read the credits. Harris is unrecognizable, framed by the maestro’s famous mass of hair which looks strikingly as though it were growing right out the bald actor’s head. Harris storms and pouts, throws the copier out and begs her to come back. Introduced to Anna’s engineer fiancé, Martin Bauer (Matthew Goode “Match Point”), Beethoven pulls no punches in criticizing the model bridge he has created, smashing it to bits as “a favor,” and claiming that “a bridge connects to pieces of land; music connects our souls.” Beethoven is shown also to dote on the wrong person, his parasitic nephew, Karl (Joe Anderson), who steals from his uncle when he cannot get enough voluntarily and gambles the money away to “dangerous men.”

“Copying Beethoven” is that rare gem which, like Forman’s “Amadeus,” actually spends time on the composer’s music, not just in the soundtrack (what a relief after hearing popular glop in movie after movie after movie) but in a full, ten-minute section of a concert featuring principally the fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony. Would that the picture were three and one-half hours in length, allowing us to hear the entire piece...because educated souls in the audience will note right off that the concert piece is a Cliff Notes version that cuts and condenses and gives the impression that several different symphonies have been combined irrationally into one!

Audience members with a religious bent will appreciate Beethoven’s constant allusions to God, as in “Music is God’s language.” Those with a musical bent will eat up the soundtrack and the segment of the concert, while scoffing at the philistines who walk out on the master’s Concerto Grosso, stuck in the 18th century classical tradition with its strict rules on what goes where. Lovers of the field of otolaryngology will wonder how the Beethoven in this picture could not hear even a whisper of a note of his own 9th Symphony or the tumultuous applause that greeted it while he is able to catch words spoken to him when he wears a large, horn-like device somehow attached to his ear.

Holland could have kept the piece down to the present 104 minutes while increasing the amount of time devoted to the concert of the 9th by eliminating the last reel. In fact, why not dump the entire silly scenes of chaste romance between Anna and Martin?"

Second review by Jason Clark of Slant Magazine:

"Will there ever be a decent movie made about any part of Ludwig van Beethoven's life? Bernard Rose's 1994 Immortal Beloved is close to beloved in some circles, but despite some gorgeously arranged musical sequences, it plays mostly like a Prague-infused version of Pink Floyd The Wall. And it wasn't exactly going for the LSD crowd. After about 30 minutes of Agnieszka Holland's woefully underimagined Copying Beethoven, you might be praying for some LSD, because then the movie might take on a life of its own, instead of the pulseless waxworks display it ends up becoming. In this case, hard of hearing Beethoven (Ed Harris) is in his later years, sleazing around Vienna and in his filthy home, when a fair-haired beauty named Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) whirrs into his life, becoming his copyist and eventual caretaker, all the while trying to pursue her own music (which Beethoven likens to farting in one of the more animated scenes) and settling in with an ambitious suitor (Matthew Goode, utterly wasted here) who seems like a swell guy but he has no, you know, passion. Nor does the film, though director Holland occasionally gives you a sense of dank European flavor, as in her once-terrific movies. It doesn't help that Harris's characterization of LVB seems more apropos to Ebenezer Scrooge (if Scroogey had mooned people, that is). But at least it's a characterization, which is more than can be said for the catatonic state of deadwood Kruger perennially inhabits. An actress who has yet to prove why she scores major parts in movies, the picture is continually stopped in its tracks by her inability to show any range as a performer, and since she inhabits virtually every scene in the film, you're left with the equivalent of a composition without words, notes…hell, even the paper it's written on."

[Nightklavier]

Another scathing review here, this time by Emanuel Levy:

"What has happened to the gifted director Agnieszka Holland? The Holland we admired based on films like “Europa, Europa,” “Olivier, Olivier,” and “The Secret Garden”? She can’t seem to find proper subjects to which to apply her considerable skills and thus moves from one disappointing project to another. The latest, “Copying Beethoven,” is arguably one of Holland worst films, worse than “Total Eclipse,” the literary portrait of the French poets, which was both an artistic and commercial flop.

A shallow, cliché portrait of Ludwig Von Beethoven as an old, deaf man, the new movie comes across as bargain-basement “Amadeus” (about Mozart and Salieri) and not only because the two films were Euro-centric, shot in Budapest and Prague, respectively, by European directors (Holland is Polish, Milos Forman, who staged “Amadeus,” is Czech).

Vastly under-populated, “Copying Beethoven” is a musical epic in disguise: most of the drama centers on two characters, Beethoven and Anna Holtz, with some exterior shots that try unsuccessfully to distract attention from the claustrophobic text, an open up the movie so that it has a broader socio-musical context.

Holtz (model Diane Kruger of “Troy” fame), a 23-year old aspiring composer of humble means, is seeking inspiration and career advancement in Vienna, the world’s musical center. A student at the music conservatory, she is recommended for a position at a venerated publisher. In what’s a fortuitous turn of events, she orchestrates an opportunity to work for the most mercurial artist alive, Ludwig van Beethoven (Ed Harris).

Framed by a brief prologue and epilogue, the story begins and ends in a sentimental way, when the young Anna Holtz bids a tearful farewell to Beethoven.

The tale then flashes back to 1824, and the eve of the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, though major parts of the work are not ready yet. Music publisher Wenzel Schlemer (Ralph Riach) urgently needs a copyist to finish the master’s work. The young Anna Holtz offers one advantage—she is eager and available for the job. While knowing that working with a woman in anathema to the ill and cantankerous Beethoven, Schlemmer has no choice but to hire her.

For her part, Anna sees it as a message form God—a calling she tells a nun in the convent—to show the famous composer her work, unaware of his rude and sexist nature.

Laying a contemporaneous feminist streak on this work rings false. Holland goes out of her way to show that in those times, women rarely had careers, and for Holtz to leave her family and hometown to study composition was a courageous step. Perhaps. But how authentic is it in early nineteenth century Vienna?

We have all seen this asymmetric, give-and-take, relationship before. In one of their meetings, learning of Holtz’s career ambitions, Beethoven tries to overawe the eager student, remarking: “A woman composer is like a dog walking on its hind legs: It’s never done well, but you’re surprised to see it done at all.”

Holtz is unafraid to stand up to the master, though she’s naturally intimidated by his eccentric persona. Occasionally offended and humiliated, Holtz remains undeterred. She enters Beethoven’s mesmerizing realm, assisting his manic efforts to tap the deepest recesses of his talents. The experience, we are led to believe, changed profoundly her identity and fate.
Beethoven's relationship with Holtz is virtually chaste. The closest we get to a romantic scene is when Holtz bathes Beethoven.

She's engaged to budding engineer Martin Bauer (Matthew Goode of "Match Point," with nothing significant to do or to say), who's surprisingly open-minded and modern in his support of Anna's own career.
The greatest love of Beethoven's life, we are told, is for his irresponsible, good-for-nothing nephew Karl (British Joe Anderson). Karl refuses to follow in the footsteps of his uncle, and at one point, desperate for money, tries to rob him, only to be caught by Holtz.

The screenplay by Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson (who co-wrote "Nixon" and "Ali") is not too deep, to say the least, and it’s hampered by conventional situations—fights and quarrels are followed by reconciliations, quiet encounters, and work sessions between the master and apprentice, and back again to fights and (temporary) separations.

When the skeptical Beethoven issues an impromptu challenge, Holtz demonstrates her competence and musical insight. Gradually, the maestro accepts her as his copyist, and thus commences a remarkable relationship, which also involves Holtz’s duties as a housekeeper, caretaker, companion—and muse.

Based on thorough research, details about the music world and Beethoven’s innovations are welcome, but the narrative doesn’t bother to explain the whole gender issue beyond one-liners, such as the one noted above.

Holland demonstrates a good ear for musical performance by paying a respectful tribute to Beethoven’s his music, allowing 11 minutes of screen time to the first performance of his Ninth Symphony.

The film reaches its climax with this uninterrupted musical sequence, after which it’s all let down. The picture is not overlong by standards of running time (102 minutes), but it feels long and draggy because everything you need to know about the relationship had already been established.

However, considering her subject matter, Holland’s direction is disappointingly routine and passionless. Most of the scenes, indoor and outdoors are staged in a similarly boring way. Practically every exterior begins with a high-angle long shot, before the camera gets closer to its objects.

The film’s last image of Anna Holtz, walking through the open fields (triumphantly? Where is she going?), with the camera tracking behind her, feels pat and kitschy.

It’s hard to tell whereas Harris’s interpretation is his creation or the result of Holland’s misguidance, but he gives an uncharacteristically hammy and self-indulgent performance, relying on all the stereotypes you would expect from an actor playing a mad, obsessive, temperamental artist. Sporting a long-haired wig and clad in rags, he looks strange and sounds even stranger (what specific accent is he using?).

It doesn't help that Harris's characterization of Beethoven is all clichés. He is by turns the mad-genius artist, the suffering artist in pain, the cruel artist abusing Holtz’s goodness, the sensitive artist who’s sexually attracted to the much younger Holtz--you can add freely other attributes to this list based on musical biopics you have seen.

A model-actress who has yet to prove her dramatic chops, Kruger seems unable to register any deep emotions. That she’s in every scene in the film--with a larger narrative burden than Harris’s to carry on her beautiful slender shoulders--makes things worse.

Major problem is the film’s fictional frame, about a woman copyist helping the maestro complete the masterwork, which is marred by too many false notes. Minor compensation is offered by the blending of studio sets and Hungarian locations, which creates a credibly looking nineteenth century Vienna; the film was shot by cinematographer Ashley Rowe in a palette of grays and blues.

Will there ever be an honorable movie about Beethoven that would do justice to the man, his genius, and his music? As much as I disliked Bernard Rose’s “Immortal Beloved” (1994), at least some of its musical sequences were impressive, even if the narrative was historically inaccurate, and the music staged in a postmodern mode--not unlike “Pink Floyd the Wall--to appeal to young viewers, which it didn’t. (See my review) That movie was a flop, a fate likely to be shared by “Copying Beethoven” as well.

”Copying Beethoven,” which world-premiered at the Toronto Festival, and played in competition at San Sebastian Festival, will be released by MGM in late October."

[HaydnFan]

I would have liked to have seen a movie based on the subject of Beethoven lives upstairs...somehow (from reading the summary of "Copying Beethoven") it seems like it would be a little more realistic?