'Copying Beethoven'

[Preston]

Originally posted by Sorrano:
How soon do you think the availability will expand? I am very anxiously awaiting a viewing in Salt Lake City.

And I am anxiously waiting for a viewing in Atlanta, lol.

Kind Regards,
Preston

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"But well I know that God is nearer to me than to other artists; I associate with Him without fear; I have always recognized and understood Him and have no fear for my music- it can meet no evil fate." LVB

[sjwenger]

It will open in Bethesda, MD this Friday. I tried calling the theater for advance tickets, but I only got a recording with no useful info. I tried Fandango and MovieFone (something like that) and they didn't list Copying Beethoven at all. I'll just have to go down there the day of the movie. I do have the showtimes at least - Weather permitted, I'll go an hour or so early and start a line, just for show!
- Susan

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To learn about "The Port-Wine Sea," my parody of Patrick O'Brian's wonderful Aubrey-Maturin series, please contact me at
susanwenger@yahoo.com

To learn about "The Better Baby" book, ways to increase a baby's intelligence, health, and potentials, please use the same address.

[srivele]

Originally posted by sjwenger:
It will open in Bethesda, MD this Friday. I tried calling the theater for advance tickets, but I only got a recording with no useful info. I tried Fandango and MovieFone (something like that) and they didn't list Copying Beethoven at all. I'll just have to go down there the day of the movie. I do have the showtimes at least - Weather permitted, I'll go an hour or so early and start a line, just for show!
- Susan

Thank you. I hope you like it.

[terry]

[B] And I am anxiously waiting for a viewing in Atlanta, lol.

I can't be anxious because I won't view it... now! Btw, I read that there is some crude humour (something about a "fartissimo" that hopefully won't be translated in Italian!). Beethoven didn't speak dirty as Mozart, as far as i know!

[sjwenger]

Oh, glorious day! I just received an email from radio station WGMS, and I won two passes to a preview performance tomorrow night. The movie opened already elsewhere, I know, but this is the Washington-area preview.

------------------
To learn about "The Port-Wine Sea," my parody of Patrick O'Brian's wonderful Aubrey-Maturin series, please contact me at
susanwenger@yahoo.com

To learn about "The Better Baby" book, ways to increase a baby's intelligence, health, and potentials, please use the same address.

[Hollywood]

I'm sooooooooooooooooooo jealous of everyone here. It looks like you all will be seeing this film long before I ever get the chance to here in Vienna. I have no idea as to when it will be shown here. You would think that Vienna would be one of the premiere cities to show this film, but NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Yesterday I checked out the websites for the 2 main english speaking movie theaters in Vienna and neither of them are currently showing "Copying Beethoven". This film is not even listed in the "Coming Attractions" listings. My luck it will come out on DVD before we here in Vienna will be able to see it in a Kino on the big screen.

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"God knows why it is that my pianoforte music always makes the worst impression on me, especially when it is played badly."
- Beethoven 1804.

[Joy]

Originally posted by srivele:
I am again indebted to the site. The New York Times critic, Manohla Dargis, found out about the film here, located me through the site, and did research for her review by reading the postings (she refers to them in her review). She then wrote a wonderful review of the film, which has helped us a great deal. You can read it in the Friday, Nov. 10th NYT.

So, once again, this site has proved a valuable resource, not only for the film, but for all those who wish to learn more about the Maestro, as we call him in the film.

That is excellent news, Stephen. So glad that the movie is getting good reviews. I know it was a success here and I have some people asking me if and when it will be shown in a wider distribution in Phoenix. Hopefully it will be. Thank you for making us here on the forum a wonderful part of your film. I'm so glad that we were able to help with the researching of your film.



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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Joy]

Originally posted by sjwenger:
Oh, glorious day! I just received an email from radio station WGMS, and I won two passes to a preview performance tomorrow night. The movie opened already elsewhere, I know, but this is the Washington-area preview.

Have a great time, Sue, and let us know what you think. Give special attention to the camera angles, etc. in the film. I loved some of the 'artsy' camera shots.



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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Joy]

I got in touch with the general manager of my classical radio station and they have talked about the movie on their movie preview segment of their Sunday's program and also they have an article and a picture of the movie's poster is shown on it's website,
http://kbaq.org/

Also some exciting news, a critic from the Arizona Republic newspaper got in touch with me and is going to print some of my review of the movie in their movie preview segment of the paper.


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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Preston]

Originally posted by terry:
[b] And I am anxiously waiting for a viewing in Atlanta, lol.

I can't be anxious because I won't view it... now! Btw, I read that there is some crude humour (something about a "fartissimo" that hopefully won't be translated in Italian!). Beethoven didn't speak dirty as Mozart, as far as i know!

Are you saying you are not going to watch it because you think it is not good?

Even though I don't like some of the things I have seen, the fiction things. I think I am still going to watch.

I just can't believe they put the fictional character Anna in it. I think that will practically ruin it for me. I am not saying I won't like parts of it though!

Kind Regards,
Preston

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"But well I know that God is nearer to me than to other artists; I associate with Him without fear; I have always recognized and understood Him and have no fear for my music- it can meet no evil fate." LVB

[This message has been edited by Preston (edited 11-14-2006).]

[Joy]

Originally posted by Preston:


I just can't believe they put the fictional character Anna in it. I think that will practically ruin it for me. I am not saying I won't like parts of it though!

As I've said before Diane Kruger’s role really brought out Beethoven’s characteristics. His anger and power, his tenderness, genius, and sense of humour, and his relationship with God. Without another person to talk to they might have had to resort to voiceovers. To her he talked about his feelings, his work, his life, his music and composition. This way the audience could hear him vocalize what he was trying to do and it worked better than a lot of people here thought it would or could.



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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Preston]

Originally posted by Joy:
As I've said before Diane Kruger’s role really brought out Beethoven’s characteristics. His anger and power, his tenderness, genius, and sense of humour, and his relationship with God. Without another person to talk to they might have had to resort to voiceovers. To her he talked about his feelings, his work, his life, his music and composition. This way the audience could hear him vocalize what he was trying to do and it worked better than a lot of people here thought it would or could.

That's good to know, but you also have to think that they probably could have done all those things without Anna and used the two male copyist. There are ways.

Kind Regards,
Preston

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"But well I know that God is nearer to me than to other artists; I associate with Him without fear; I have always recognized and understood Him and have no fear for my music- it can meet no evil fate." LVB

[sjwenger]

I LOVED IT ! ! !

Rarely, a movie comes along that is a work of art. I felt that way about Tous les Matins du Monde, and hadn't felt that way about any movie since. This one really enhanced my FEEL for Beethoven - for his art, and for his life. I thought it unlikely that a 23-year-old would have changed or improved his score, but I suppose they covered that by suggesting that he did it wrong deliberately as a test for the copyist Schlemmer. It did get across well the notion that there's a deeper substrate to Beethoven's music that transcends calculation and structure. Other than that quibble, I thought it was magnificent - I'm planning to go again Friday when it opens officially - tonight was the preview. I'll also hope for the enhanced version DVD with additional footage - I could have watched this for hours.

It was very poorly attended. Radio station WGMS gave out about 200 tickets to listeners who applied for them, but they didn't notify the winners until yesterday, which is very short notice for a weekday night when people are working. I was there at 5:50 pm for a 7:30 showing, and I was first in line - wearing my Beethoven teeshirt and with my hair more-or-less teased up. I'd guess there were about 30 people there. However, they received it very well, laughed, applauded.

I was rapt. I found at the end that I still had a full bag of popcorn - I'd forgotten all about it as soon as the movie started.

I especially loved two parts: the treatment of the Ninth, with the rapture and the excitement and the exhileration, and also the way the copyist's hands and Beethoven's hands interacted in that scene; and the explanation of the grosse fugue, which had more or less escaped me previously. I'll have to listen to it again with new ears.

My congratulations to everyone who had any part in this masterpiece, and especially of course to the writers and the composers of the supplementary music.

- Susan

------------------
To learn about "The Port-Wine Sea," my parody of Patrick O'Brian's wonderful Aubrey-Maturin series, please contact me at
susanwenger@yahoo.com

To learn about "The Better Baby" book, ways to increase a baby's intelligence, health, and potentials, please use the same address.

[srivele]

Originally posted by sjwenger:
I LOVED IT ! ! !

Rarely, a movie comes along that is a work of art. I felt that way about Tous les Matins du Monde, and hadn't felt that way about any movie since. This one really enhanced my FEEL for Beethoven - for his art, and for his life. I thought it unlikely that a 23-year-old would have changed or improved his score, but I suppose they covered that by suggesting that he did it wrong deliberately as a test for the copyist Schlemmer. It did get across well the notion that there's a deeper substrate to Beethoven's music that transcends calculation and structure. Other than that quibble, I thought it was magnificent - I'm planning to go again Friday when it opens officially - tonight was the preview. I'll also hope for the enhanced version DVD with additional footage - I could have watched this for hours.

It was very poorly attended. Radio station WGMS gave out about 200 tickets to listeners who applied for them, but they didn't notify the winners until yesterday, which is very short notice for a weekday night when people are working. I was there at 5:50 pm for a 7:30 showing, and I was first in line - wearing my Beethoven teeshirt and with my hair more-or-less teased up. I'd guess there were about 30 people there. However, they received it very well, laughed, applauded.

I was rapt. I found at the end that I still had a full bag of popcorn - I'd forgotten all about it as soon as the movie started.

I especially loved two parts: the treatment of the Ninth, with the rapture and the excitement and the exhileration, and also the way the copyist's hands and Beethoven's hands interacted in that scene; and the explanation of the grosse fugue, which had more or less escaped me previously. I'll have to listen to it again with new ears.

My congratulations to everyone who had any part in this masterpiece, and especially of course to the writers and the composers of the supplementary music.

- Susan

Thank you for those kind words. You make me feel that we have succeeded in what we were trying to do: get inside the composer's creative process and elucidate the spirit in the work.

[srivele]

Originally posted by Preston:
That's good to know, but you also have to think that they probably could have done all those things without Anna and used the two male copyist. There are ways.

Kind Regards,
Preston

You may think that this would have worked, but I know the film business and I know something about audiences, and I am telling you that, if we had taken this approach, the film would never have been made. In support of this view, I would refer you to the New York Times review of the film (a wonderful review, by the way) in which the reviewer quotes me on this very point and indicates that she agrees. Sometimes it is necessary to take liberties in creative work, if only to respond to the realities of the market place. I hope you will give the film a try.

[This message has been edited by srivele (edited 11-15-2006).]

[This message has been edited by srivele (edited 11-15-2006).]