Abel Gance "Un Grand Amour de Beethoven"

[Humoresque]

Has anyone seen this 1937 film from the French film-maker Abel Gance? His "Napoleon" has just been restored and re-released, but information about this Beethoven film I found when researching "Napoleon". This is just a brief excerpt here on U-Tube but I'm keen to know if anybody has seen it and what they thought:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlKf95AlgUw

[Peter]

I haven't seen it but from the clip it seems of its time and melodramatic - it's very hard to watch these old films in the spirit of those who first saw them! Fortunately this isn't true of Beethoven's music which remains as fresh as when first written.

[Humoresque]

I haven't seen it but from the clip it seems of its time and melodramatic - it's very hard to watch these old films in the spirit of those who first saw them! Fortunately this isn't true of Beethoven's music which remains as fresh as when first written.

Hmm. Abel Gance is generally regarded as amongst a handful of the all-time greatest film-makers and that's why I am eager to see his Beethoven offering. Though we cannot get into the 'spirit of those who first saw them' there are certain qualities that films have which render them 'classic', universal and which justify their belonging in the pantheon of significant cinema. I don't know whether Gance's Beethoven film fits this criteria but his other films most certainly do. And the 'melodramatic' quality to which you refer may probably be a direct consequence of the first decade of sound when film acting was still influenced by silent-era mimetics.

(To contemporary audiences a film like Keaton's "The General" - a silent from the late twenties - appears awkward, naive and unfunny but, again, it is and has been regarded by many - including no less a connoisseur than the late Orson Welles - as one of the greatest films ever made. Having recently seen a restored version of it myself I'm inclined to agree.)

[Peter]

Hmm. Abel Gance is generally regarded as amongst a handful of the all-time greatest film-makers and that's why I am eager to see his Beethoven offering. Though we cannot get into the 'spirit of those who first saw them' there are certain qualities that films have which render them 'classic', universal and which justify their belonging in the pantheon of significant cinema. I don't know whether Gance's Beethoven film fits this criteria but his other films most certainly do. And the 'melodramatic' quality to which you refer may probably be a direct consequence of the first decade of sound when film acting was still influenced by silent-era mimetics.

(To contemporary audiences a film like Keaton's "The General" - a silent from the late twenties - appears awkward, naive and unfunny but, again, it is and has been regarded by many - including no less a connoisseur than the late Orson Welles - as one of the greatest films ever made. Having recently seen a restored version of it myself I'm inclined to agree.)

You may well be right about Gance's Beethoven and to judge the film by a short clip is certainly not fair. Beethoven is not an easy subject to make a film about and most attempts have been unsuccessful. The main difficulty is dealing with his deafness and there is now a remarkable cd available which demonstrates how Beethoven's hearing would have deteriorated over the years giving a pretty good portrayal of how he would have heard music.

[Humoresque]

Here is what the New York Times wrote about Gance upon his death:

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/11/ob...-napoleon.html

I have now watched several clips from the Beethoven film as they are available piecemeal on U-Tube, and they seem ridiculously romanticized and melodramatic - the composer becomes a kind of Falstaffian buffoon in some scenes. But a couple of the scenes are absolutely inspired because of the technical brilliance and originality of the director, but bearing little resemblance to Beethoven. It's the look of the thing which is absolutely compelling.

Gance was at his best during the silent era. In the talkies some of his films were criticized for their bathos and melodrama. However, even the great Hitchcock made some stinkers!!