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I guess it was trying to be a musical "Girl With The Pearl Earring". Actually, I didn't mind the injection of Diane Kruger's Anna as Beethoven's copyist. The use of a fictional character in a historical context as a vehicle has been around forever. The story is much more about her than Beethoven, he's merely the platform. But her story here is really so weak. Its seems mostly spunky-girl-in-man's-world cliche. The absoluteness of the barriers to a gifted woman seeking a musical career in Beethoven's Vienna are only hinted at. Almost nothing about her background or her experiences. And her pulling Ol' Louie's fat out of the fire on the 9th is way more than incredulous.
Harris doesn't make it as Beethoven for me...he's too earthy, and just way way too buff for a 50+ y.o. composer (for half the film he has no shirt on). Kruger should stick to romantic comedy.
Surprisingly, Beethoven's music seemed secondary in the film, and aside from the finale of the 9th and fleeting reference to the late quartets, is hardly touched. A few brief tonal references to Beethoven cliches. The piano pieces were, however, performed on a period piano (maybe the same ancient one shown in the scenes?).
This film isn't much for factual realism either. The story occurs during the completion/rehearsal of the 9th. Who's copying the parts for the various instruments. He'd have had an army of copyists. Etc. Etc. Why is the greatest composer in Vienna living in seedy tenement, playing an ancient piano whose veneer is peeling?
My wife liked it, but it would have worked much better for me if it had been written as a light comedy. Not nearly as interesting as "Immortal Beloved" from a few years back with Gary Oldham as Beethoven.
Wonder who sang all those soprano roles... not to mention mezzo, contralto... guys from the Vienna Boys Choir?
And how did Clara Schumann ever get to be so famous there?
"Surprisingly, Beethoven's music seemed secondary in the film." "Surprisingly"? You gotta be kidding.
clark
%22Wonder who sang all those soprano roles... not to mention mezzo, contralto... guys from the Vienna Boys Choir?%22
Actually, castratos were still pretty common.And how did Clara Schumann ever get to be so famous there?
1. Her father was well known musician 2. Her Husband was buds with the greatest of the time.%22Surprisingly, Beethoven's music seemed secondary in the film.%22 %22Surprisingly%22? You gotta be kidding.%22
I'm not kidding. %22Immortal Beloved%22 told a story but also had much more focus on LVB's musical.Clara Schumann was a child when Beethoven was near the end of his life. Much changed in the following 30 years. Just look at the changes in favor of women in our lifetimes. And she was, as they say, the exception that proves the rule. Care to name a few other successful 19th Century female musicians. How about painters? There was no shortage of female virtuosos since musical training was an almost universal subject for the educated in 19th Century Austria. But for a woman to pursue a creative career was almost impossible.
You're splitting hairs, Clark. Slow day?
...not castratos (which were pretty well out of favor by Beethoven's time, and Mozart's) or hapless boys forced to dress up as girls. Additionally, women widely played the piano and participated in chamber music.
Just to set the record straight, OK?
clark
The movie character was a budding female composer. You injected performers into the mix. I still hold that a 20-something woman would have zero chance of an orchestral composing career in Beethoven's day. Of course there were female performers. Not to be overly harsh, but performers were (and are) a dime a dozen and generally on the social strata of domestic staff.
The last castrato died in the 20th Century and was even recorded. No, not Tiny Tim!
How was one to know, you excluded performers?
clark
.
Let's face it, he doesn't have the gravitas to play these giants. Hell, he's mediocre in his OWN artistic field, at best. Maybe less than mediocre.
No, please, no...
Grins
perfect.
"You talkin" to me?"
"There's no one else here so you must be talkin' to ME?"
When he had this affair about callgirls in Paris?
" I never will go back to France again "....
asv,mxv
Harris was out of his element on this one--no Jackson Pollack performance this time. The whole thing was, well, "trite".
PS. Early on we are told no woman was ever a "copyist" before.
........
Complicit Constapo Talibangelical since MMIII
"PS. Early on we are told no woman was ever a 'copyist' before."
Yes, but any woman seriously pursuing a career the arts in 1825 Vienna would have been subjected to something a lot more like what Jackie Robinson experienced in baseball.
The movie seemed to me much more like Mary Tyler Moore episode with crusty but loveable Ol Lou. I suspect Beethoven would have more likely to burn her manuscript than play it.
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