Stream it now Copying Beethoven 2006

 

While NOT Amadeus, this movie tried to be. Still, this movie could be watched a second time as it is full of good cinematography. Harris does a wonderful job of portraying a late career Beethovan, deaf and tempormental. Worth a watch as good cinema is hard to come by. I did not know what to think of this film after watching it. Good or bad? It escaped me. On the whole, this is a flick worth giving a try. Well filmed, well acted. Not the best plot i would think, but it is appreciated as it brings the great Beethovan to the screen. I recommend watching this.

I don't know why people try to hate this movie. It is a fantastic movie about Beethoven. So what---of its faults?? Glorious Sound I love movies about music this one included. Why can't people just accept the movie for what it is and be entertained by it?? I have been to classical concerts at the famous Myerson in Dallas over 50 times. I have been to 100s of other classical concerts. I am not well versed on Beethoven's biography. WHO CARES! This is a great (albeit fictionalized) account of Beethoven and his copiest!! GREAT MUSIC GREAT Scenes and Costumes. ED HARRIS IS FANTASTIC. Great Sound!! Watch it Enjoy it. IF it is not enjoyable enough add some good sound equipment to your DVD Setup get some quality cables and interconnects Watch the movie again and TURN THE SOUND UP HIGH! Highly Recommend A Strong Four Stars!@!@!@

I seriously love this movie, better than Amadeus.

:p Netflix



My Review: The setting is 1824 Vienna and Beethoven is marching around bellowing at everyone who crosses his path. I guess if you are a classical music lover, you might endure this slow-paced, boring movie, but no one else would. Ed Harris was wonderful as Beethoven, but Diane Kruger's character was mousy and uninteresting. If Beethoven really behaved the way he was portrayed, then we got a glimpse of his personality and passion. The entire premise of the young female assistant, however, didn't fly, and therefore the story was flat. But hearing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony almost made it worthwhile - almost.

SYNOPSIS:
Classical music aficionado or no, it's tough not to be moved by the soaring notes of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The work stands as both a defining highpoint in the composer's career. The composer, played brilliantly by Ed Harris, is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer finish in time for the scheduled first performance - otherwise the orchestra will have no music to play. Insightful young conservatory student and aspiring composer Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) is recommended for the position.

(**):

What a disappointment! From the surface, this film looks like it should be good; it has a decent cast and a really good director. But, this film is so melodramatic and over the top that I now understand why most critics did not like it (it also doesn't help that it is quite boring too). The only reedeming qualities are in the production values (costumes, set designs, cinematography, and music).

Musicians learn the story, and they learn it young. We are all of us taught it, often more than once. We learn how Beethoven, stone deaf, stood on the stage as they played the great Ninth Symphony. Stood there the whole time as his magnificent work was played, was conducted by another man. The orchestra, the choir, filling the hall with his music yet instructed to ignore him. All the beauty, all the power--that great Ode to Joy raising praise to God and to music, and Beethoven himself unable to hear a note of it. Except in his head. And when it was over, when the melodies and harmonies finally wound to a close, the concertmaster had to stand and turn Beethoven around so that he could see the praise for what he had wrought.

The Beethoven here is not trapped in his own head alone with the music. In fact, at times they seem to forget that he is supposed to be even so much as hard of hearing except when it's convenient for him. He has quiet conversations across rooms. He has the trappings of a man going deaf--the ear trumpets and the other sound projecting devices on his instruments--but he does not actually behave as though he is going deaf. Ed Harris shows us almost none of the torment the real man felt as his hearing slowly disappeared. He shows us the curmudgeon. He shows us the snarly genius. But he does not show us the torment and the grief.

It's a lovely movie--except, indeed, for Martin's bridge, which is indeed quite ugly. Diane Kruger is certainly easy on the eyes--she played Helen in Troy, launching Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom if not a thousand ships. I do not believe they used Kubrick's special Barry Lyndon lenses; I feel quite sure they used artificial light in the candlelit scenes. But we do get lovely sets and lovely costumes, and the filming is quite good. The music, of course, is mostly Beethoven, and I've always very much liked Beethoven.

Late in life, Beethoven did grow more experimental in his music. He is the only great composer who is taught in theory classes as belonging to two musical eras. Many composers, of course, had lifespans overlapping the change; it's certainly not as though all Baroque composers died on schedule in 1750 so that Classical composers could take over. However, Bach wrote Baroque music until the day he died; Mozart wrote Classical music, and so forth. Beethoven is part of the bridge between Classical and Romantic, and without his late music, I think the Romantic era might have sounded very different indeed. It is also true that people exhibited the shocking rudeness of walking out in the middle of some of his later pieces. (It doesn't matter to me if you don't like it; it's rude to the performers.)

On a further technical note, it would be almost impossible to conduct based on someone else's movements unless that person were moving a fraction of a second ahead of the beat. You would always be just off from those you were conducting; the whole point is that you are moving along with the beat, and the human body is not up to copying someone quickly enough to make it work.

This is an interesting picture of the relationship between a man and a woman who are on unequal terms. I had no problem with the fact that the woman didn't exist; yay, fiction. However, the man is not Beethoven.

"Copying Beethoven" starts in Vienna, 1824 when Beethoven's(Ed Harris) Ninth Symphony is days away from its premiere and the compositions still need to be copied. Herr Schlemmer(Ralph Raich) asks for the best compositionist and is surprised when Anna Holtz(Diane Kruger) answers the summons but she soon proves herself capable as Beethoven proves himself a giant pain as he is now almost deaf.

"Copying Beethoven" is an inconsistent, cartoonish, and simplistic take on the last years of Beethoven's life. This is material that was already covered better in "Immortal Beloved." And anything that the film might say about art versus commerce was already said in "Amadeus."

The casting of Ed Harris might have looked good on paper but he is actually horribly miscast, doing a passable John Billingsley impression. The problem is that his persona is too contemporary for this kind of period piece.(By the way, has anybody heard from Klaus Maria Braundauer lately?) Diane Kruger may have the face of an angel but little else going for her.

Es una porquer

This movie was in a very low priority on my list -- just because during the trailers I found Ed Harris portraying Beethoven a bit over the top. But with spare time, I went to see the movie at our Pathe Tushinski hall in Amsterdam.

I read the reviews in IMDb and most of the people who have hated the movie are real knowledgeable fans of Beethoven's music. Sadly I am not at all knowledgeable about Beethovan! So let's see what is there in store for me.

The movie is about last few weeks in the life of Beethoven (Ed Harris), who is in this ninth -- symphony composition. In search of an able person who can copy his musical notes -- he gets Ms.Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) -- a brilliant music student. After a few interactions -- they develop a mutual bond between each-other and Anna helps Beethoven to orchestrate his last symphony. The movie does not end there -- but continues for another half an hour into both of them coming closer to each other, sharing touching moments. Anna remains is besides Beethoven during his last breathe.

For people who do not know much about Beethoven as a person, this is a good sort of exposure. Beethoven's portrayal has been sincerely given by Ed Harris -- but to pick him for this role, I felt was a poor casting. Ed Harris captures the weirdness, craziness of Beethovan's character -- but is not able to fully justify his selection -- he misses the heart of Beethoven.

Diane Kruger, looks magical -- but her acting and characterization lacks depth. The story is too dramatical -- or let me say dramatized, as if picked up from a stage play. The award winning Director Agnieszka Holland fails in her core competency as writer of the movie. The musical score of the movie is very good.

The pick of the movie is the 30 minutes live and actual presentation of the last symphony of Beethovan. It is just enthralling and fantastic. Also the last 30 minutes of the movie lift the movie a bit from its one dimensional script.

I would say that people of Vienna where Beethoven actually lived in early 1800 -- could be interested to see their maestro once again come live on the screen.

(Stars 6.5 out of 10)

An embarrassingly bad film about the last year of Beethoven's life. Ed Harris does a pretty decent job as the maestro (at least, far better than I would have thought), while Diane Kruger is simply pitiful as Anna Holtz, a woman sent to Beethoven to copy his sheet music.

What's wrong with the film? Well, I think it actually captured Beethoven's soul pretty well. But it fails miserably in almost all of the specifics. Even people that don't know jack abouit Beethoven's life would ask if this, that, or the other could have happened back then. Take, for instance, Anna Holtz herself. Beethoven allowing a woman to copy his work? Yeah, right! Beethoven talks about his "Moonlight Sonata", even though it wasn't called that until 1832 (several years after his death). It's just bad, folks. Beethoven's story is interesting enough as it is without having to interject stuff that never happened into it.