Starring: Gary Oldman, Jeroen Krabbe, Isabella Rossellini
Studio: Columbia Pictures 20871
Video: 2.40:1 enhanced for 16:9 color, 1080p HD
Audio: English Dolby True HD 5.1, French Dolby True HD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, English projector-optimized, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Arabic
Extras: Commentary track by Director Bernard Rose, Original Making of… featurette, “Beloved Beethoven” documentary
Length: 121 minutes
Rating: ****
Though by the title this may seem to serious concert music listeners/collectors to be a corny Hollywood treatment of Beethoven’s life, it really isn’t. Although a lot of the story of the composer’s tumultuous love life and life in general is conjecture, the film does give a probably fairly accurate portrayal of this difficult man and his struggles.
The film moves backwards from its opening scene showing Beethoven’s funeral, to his assistant and friend Schindler fighting off Beethoven’s brother who wants all of the composer’s estate, since Schindler has found a final will from Beethoven giving everything to his “Immortal Beloved” – who is not named. Schindler begins an odyssey attempting to locate the woman referred to in the enigmatic letter. His search opens up the good, the painful and the shocking parts of the composer’s life. In the process he meets with three women involved with Beethoven. The Hungarian countess played by Rossellini is the most interesting, but she says she is not the Immortal Beloved. The son of another brother who has died of consumption becomes Beethoven’s ward and he dotes on him, attempting to prepare him as a piano prodigy similar to what Mozart’s father did with that composer. There are also suggestions of his earlier sexual exploits which rival Casanova’s.
The expected big hits are touched on in the film, including Beethoven removing the dedication of his Third Symphony which had been to Napoleon – when he crowned himself Emperor and began conquest of all of Europe, his For Elise as a beginning piano piece for his young ward, and the touching premiere of his triumphant Ninth Symphony near the end of his life. Sir Georg Solti was music director for the soundtrack selections. Acting from both Oldman and Krabbe is exceptional, and what had the most impact dramatically for me was the portrayal of Beethoven’s deafness. Oldman actually performed the brief passages from the piano works, and in one scene he thinks he is alone trying out a new Broadwood piano, and being deaf has to bend over with one ear against the closed case to sense what he is playing. The surround soundtrack is effectively utilized in giving the listener/viewer an impression of what Beethoven was hearing: loud rushing noises with only a few notes coming thru occasionally in the far distance – a powerfully sad, hellish situation for the composer. As he said himself, something to the effect that the one sense that he should have had in a more highly developed manner than other persons, he had totally lost. The Viennese settings are gorgeously ornate and detailed, and the transfer looks excellent with great depth and realism.
– John Sunier
