Ludwig van B. - Meine unsterbliche Geliebte (1994)

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Gary Oldman

Ludwig van Beethoven

Jeroen Krabbé

Anton Felix Schindler

Isabella Rossellini

Anna Marie Erdödy

Johanna ter Steege

Johanna Reiss

Marco Hofschneider

Karl van Beethoven

Miriam Margolyes

Nanette Streicherová

Barry Humphries

Clemens Metternich

Valeria Golino

Giulietta Guicciardi

Gerard Horan

Nikolaus Johann van Beethoven

Christopher Fulford

Kaspar Anton Carl van Beethoven

Alexandra Pigg

Therese Obermayer

Luigi Diberti

Franz Josef Guicciardi

Michael Culkin

Jakob Hotscevar

Donal Gibson

Karl Holz

Matthew North

Young Karl van Beethoven

Geno Lechner

Josephine von Brunsvik

Claudia Solti

Theresa von Brunsvik

Rory Edwards

Wenzel Robert von Gallenberg

The genius and passion of Beethoven caught on film

I loved this in the theatre and recently purchased it on video.

Gary Oldman portrays Beethoven with all the warts, near-madness, rage and passion intact. Unlovable almost, except for the sympathy and compassion engendered by his deafness which humanizes him.

The music is wonderful here and tries to explain the emotions behind the man.

The McGuffin of the plot hinges on a letter that was never received by his "immortal beloved". I may have missed something along the way, but how did the narrator of the story get the letter ? That point aside, this is a well done story and captures the era perfectly. I

believe Prague was used for the setting and it is beautiful. This movie could be a matched set to "Beethoven Lives Upstairs" another film which captures his turbulence and frustration and the triumph of his composition of his 9th.

An 8 out of 10 for a very enjoyable movie.

wisewebwoman
20. Mai 2001
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Wissenswertes
Gary Oldman actually played all of the Beethoven pieces he performed in the film. A different musician performed in the official soundtrack. When Oldman learned he would be playing the lead role, he spent six weeks practicing on a Steinway piano for six hours a day in his hotel, and completely immersed himself in the music as his research for the character. In an interview with the South Bank show in 1997, Oldman quoted an article that said "he mimes very well" in the film. He then laughed and said "I'm playing it! I can play that!"

Patzer
At his first public recital, Ludwig was eight years-old (some sources report seven) and his father announced him as six, yet the movie conveys, via voiceover, that Ludwig was "12 and his father told the court he was nine".

Zitate
Ludwig van Beethoven: [in reference to "Violin Sonata in A Major, Op. 47" - "Kreutzer"...] Do you like it?
Anton Felix Schindler: Shh!
Ludwig van Beethoven: I cannot hear them, but I know they are making a hash of it. What do you think? Music is... a dreadful thing. What is it? I don't understand it. What does it mean?
Anton Felix Schindler: It - it exalts the soul.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Utter nonsense. If you hear a marching band, is your soul exalted? No, you march. If you hear a waltz, you dance. If you hear a mass, you take communion. It is the power of music to carry one directly into the mental state of the composer. The listener has no choice. It is like hypnotism. So, now... What was in my mind when I wrote this? Hmm? A man is trying to reach his lover. His carriage has broken down in the rain. The wheels stuck in the mud. She will only wait so long. This... is the sound of his agitation. "This is how it is... ," the music is saying. "Not how you are used to being. Not how you are used to thinking. But like this."