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49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Now music changes forever": The story of Anna and Beethoven's 9th Symphony, April 4, 2007
In October of 1955, Charles Schulz did a series of "Peanuts" strips dealing with Schroeder and Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Schroeder listens to it in an overcoat because the first movement was so beautiful it gave him chills. The October 27th strip has Charlie Brown reading to Schroeder how: "At the conclusion of the symphony the audience stood up and cheered. Beethoven, however, because of his deafness could not hear them, and because his back was to the audience could not see them. With Tears in her eyes one of the singers led Beethoven to the edge of the stage where he could see the cheering people." At this point Schroeder buries his face in his hands and emits a heartbroken "SOB."
There are many stories about that first performance, and while no one knows for sure what has the most credence is that Beethoven wanted to conduct his work, but his deafness made it impossible, so Michael Umlauf, the Kapellmeister of the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna conducted the orchestera. Beethoven was behind him on the stage, giving the tempos at the beginning of each movement and beating the time. The orchestra had been instructed to ignore the composer and when the symphony was over Beethoven was still beating time and turning pages of the score. That was when the contralto Caroline Unger walked over and turned Beethoven around to see the cheering audience, who were raising their hands and throwing things into the air to make up for the fact the man they were cheering could not hear their ovation.
"Copying Beethoven" looks at the last years of the life of Ludwig van Beethoven (Ed Harris) and writers Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson, who did the screenplays for the biopics of "Ali" and "Nixon" (and are currently working on a film about Jackie Robinson), create the fictional character of Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger), a young woman who is sent to the apartment of the maestro to turn his original pages for the score of the 9th Symphony into something that can actually be read and printed for the orchestra. At the premier performance of the work the composer will indeed conduct the work himself, but with Anna working as his ears to give him the proper tempos, and it will be Anna who will turn Beethoven around so that he can see the applause.
What will surprise you is that this film's interpretation of this memorable moment comes not at the end of "Copying Beethoven," but about an hour into this 2006 film. It is the highpoint of the film and then the story continues for another half hour, with decidedly less impressive results. My favorite scene actually comes early in the film, when Anna is trying to explain that she is indeed the copyist who has been sent to turn his original pages for the score of the 9th Symphony into something that can actually be read and printed for the orchestra. It is in its own small wall the counterpart to the scene at the end of "Amadeus" when Mozart is explaining to Saliari how the pieces of "De Profundus" fit together in his "Mass." Beethoven finds an "error," and in her explanation we have our proof that Anna knows what she is doing and a glimpse into the technical nature of Beethoven's genius. But far too often director Agnieszka Holland ("Europa Europa") focuses on Anna instead of the maestro.
Ultimately, "Copying Beethoven" is too caught up in the character of Anna. What could have been a nice conceit, giving the maestro someone to talk to about living with deafness and to articulate what he was doing to change the world of music, is turned into a proto-feminist figure who wants to make her own mark as a composer. As he turned deaf Beethoven started keeping conversation diaries, a rich source of the composer's thoughts regarding his music, so there are original source material to be mined for gems similar to what we get a glimpse of early in the film. Instead, we waste time on Anna's struggle to write music, a plotline that really has no where to go and which ends up being enveloped in the idea that the Beethoven's last works so radical and so far ahead of their time that they could not be comprehended by the audiences of the Romantic Ear.
I have to say that the actual performance of the 9th is far too short for my taste and the emphasis becomes not so much the music as it is the place where it takes both Beethoven and Anna (ironically, while he is conducting without ears as it were, she keeps closing her eyes as she becomes enraptured). There is a problem in that the way the situation is set up you are inclined to think that they are skating on the edge of disaster and that either one of them could make a horrible mistake. This tends to take away from the music and at least there are a few shots of members of the audience moved by the realization that this deaf old man, who had not premiered a symphony for a dozen years, was unleashing a work of monumental greatness.
"Copying Beethoven" also suffers in comparison to "Immortal Beloved", the 1994 film about the composer that had the virtue of framing Beethoven's life in the quest to uncover the mystery woman in his life. But watching Harris play Beethoven conducting his symphony is pretty captivating and throughout this movie there is always Beethoven's music, so there is ample grounds to round up on this film. Finally, if the main effect of this film is that you go out and listen to the 9th Symphony from start to finish, which is exactly what I did, then you would be ahead of the game.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
High production values, but superficial?, March 29, 2007
I'm not as overwhelmed as the last reviewer. The movie is visually very pleasing, and of course the music is wonderful, but the characters and their situations are terribly cliche'd, and the script pretty clunky and wooden in places. Basically, this is just an old-time Hollywood biopic with a touch of social comment (the role of women) and discussion of the nature of Art thrown in. Diane Kruger is curiously lukewarm and not entirely convincing, but Ed Harris does a good job, and despite my reservations this is certainly a movie worth watching.
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54 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent portrait of Beethoven by Harris , April 12, 2007
The best thing going for this movie is Ed Harris' electrifying performance as Beethoven. He captures Beethoven's musical genius and his dark side, as a rude and crude man.
Other reviewers have done an excellent job of describing the story. What I want to comment on is the masterful job done by the screenwriters and the performers of capturing the compositional genius of Beethoven.
What I really liked about the movie:
1) The scenes of Beethoven composing his music
The transformation of Beethoven's egomania to one of thanksgiving: Initially, Beethoven was mad at God for giving him a musical gift and then making him deaf. He would purposedly make statements about God that border on blasphemy. Those statements showed his frustration at God for allowing him to become deaf so he could no longer listen to his compositions but had to rely on a earpiece or on vibrations. Later on, as the film progresses, Beethoven discovers how God speaks to him through music and he makes his peace with God through composing a hymn of thanksgiving towards the end of his life. His dialogue to Anna about how he can sense the voice of God through music were very moving.
The scenes of Beethoven composing are the most memorable scenes in this movie for me -- he clearly has the great gift of being able to piece together all the musical forms in his head. These scenes reminded me of "Amadeus" when Mozart was able to see how all the different parts of different instruments come together in his symphonic compositions.
Through these scenes we get to see how God chose to deposit his musical gifts in a very common and ordinary man who is full of shortcomings and weaknesses.
2) Ed Harris does a great job of capturing the divergent natures of Beethoven -- on one hand he is a musical genius, but on the other hand, he is quite a brute of a man. On one hand, he could be gentle and tender, but on the other, he could suddenly become "The BEAST" -- be extremely cruel and harsh in his ridicule and mockery. While Beethoven is busy composing a new musical work, he could also be pouring water on his disheveled hair and drive his neighbors crazy with his utter disregard for their well-being as he ruins their dinner times.
3) The wonderful music in the film: Not only do we get to hear the wonderful movements of the 9th Symphony, but we get to hear excerpts of the String Quartet and other works. The movie could have done without "Fur Elise" (which is overplayed to death) -- we could have had more of some of his sonatas and chamber works.
4) The wonderful featurette "Orchestrating Beethoven" which offered great interviews of the director, script writers, and cast members. It was very insightful. The featurette and deleted scenes are great.
What I didn't like about the movie:
1) The over-emphasis on the importance of Anna Holtz to Beethoven. Other reviewers have rightly criticized the movie as having too much of a feminist bent in this story of Beethoven. As the featurette in the Special Features explain, the story of Anna Holtz as the gifted female compositional student is a work of fiction -- Anna Holtz is an example of artistic license on the part of screenwriters; she is a composite of all the different assistants that helped Beethoven.
For dramatic effect and for creating a strong female character, the screenwriters created Anna Holtz to be the one assistant that comes to the aid of Beethoven in both his personal life and his compositional & musical efforts. As Diane Kruger portrays her, Anna is attractive, intelligent, gifted, and perceptive. She is everything that Schlemmer (Beethoven's aging male assistant) is not. She is able to discern the thoughts and feelings of Beethoven -- she is the perfect assistant to help complete and "correct" Beethoven's compositions. At the climactic close, she is perfectly in sync with Beethoven as he conducts the 9th Symphony. She is able to conduct just as Beethoven does. In fact they become "one" in their conducting.
Historical and musical purists may be infuriated at these scenes.
2) It is highly doubtful that Beethoven conducted the 9th symphony with the help of a female assistant giving him the rhythmic cues. Yet, this forms the climax of the movie.
All this aside, I felt that the movie was very worthwhile to watch. It was a very moving and inspirational portrait of Beethoven. In fact, I think it is the best portrayal of Beethoven for a feature film. It is a much better film on Beethoven than "Immortal Beloved" (which I think was very chaotic and unorganized).
If you're a classical music lover and a Beethoven fan, this movie is well-worth watching. I believe you'll be impressed by Harris' acting.
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