He may never stop rolling after this
Added 11/6/2009
Well well. I saw this and felt like laughing. Repeatedly. Though not at the same time the rest of the audience did. No, my compatriots were all believers in art, who accept that a great artist can be vulgar (laugh when he dropped his drawers), brutish (laugh when he destroyed the model), oblivious (laugh when he poured water on his neighbors, over and over....), and demeaning (laugh at his insults to all around him, and even those not around him.) This movie was targeted at the Oprah crowd, for whom women have been always oppressed, mushy banalities count as deep thoughts, self-indulgent narcissistic artists are more essential than the bores who design bridges and build computer networks, and greatness (however defined) trumps all other scales. (See: Polanski, Roman)
No, I laughed when Ana and Louie locked eyes during the ludicrous conducting. She was wagging her arm as if she were saying "Bye-bye" to a reluctant four year old going to a party. This was just silly. And interminable. I laughed when the deaf maestro could hear her soft spoken words but couldn't hear thundering applause. I laughed when Anna walked off into the field at the end. I felt sure that she was going to be wearing a habit at the end of the film; how else to explain that no one has heard of her? But their ending was even sillier.
I could go on, but why? A dumb film. With some dumb dialog, dumb anachronisms, and doubly dumb performances, it was a one star film. However, I do commend the film-makers for allowing Anna to keep her clothes on! One small detail done right; combined with some lovely, if stagy, cinematography, that's worth a half star. Another half for the (glorious, if chopped) music. But nothing anyone ever needs to see!
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portrait of Beethoven
Added 10/27/2009
Good portrayal of Beethoven's tempestuous character and very effective excerpts of some of his works of that period on the sound track, especially the 9th symphony.
Somewhat too sugary regarding talk of God and attaining heaven. Very good depiction of his deafness and attempts to "hear" the music. Also very effective presentation
of the ending of the 9th and his discovering the audience's reaction - too many liberties with the copyist's conducting, but it's forgivable.
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ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN!
Added 8/17/2009
This film is so bad it's embarrassing. Ed Harris tries to give a performance we can believe in but, in fact, we SEE him acting, the #1 "no, no" in acting. For all his blustering and out of control behaviors, there is nowhere in this film that Ed and Ludwig actually merge. Instead, what we do get is a full repetoire of Beethoven's reported excentricities and nothing of the man himself.
Music history buffs will wince at the banality of both the story and the performances. Beethoven isn't easily depicted in only an hour and a half, or however long this thing takes. He was a visionary, a genuis of the first order, who restructured how music would be written for the next 50 years after him (until the loathful Wagner came along and, coincidentially, wrote some of the most beautiful music, while being one of the most reprehensible of men).
Beethoven revolutionalized not only the music world, but how composers -- at least himself -- should be treated in social situations. No longer would he enter through the side or back door reserved for tradesmen, and he refused to eat in the kitchen with the rest of the servants. Beethoven either sat at the table with the host and the other guests, or he didn't show up! And he came in through the front door!
Beethoven has his own place in music history -- no one composing in his era even came close. It's disappointing that the people responsible for this debacle served him so ill.
I join a growing number of people wondering when we're finally going to get a
fine Beethoven film with a subperb actor at the helm!
This is an AMADEUS-wannabe ... with none of the wit, charm, or attention to detail AMADEUS gave us. What made that film truly remarkable was the breadth of Mozart's music the Neville Marriner and the Orchestra and Chorus of St. Martin-in-the-Field carefully selected to give us an overview of Mozart's genuis.
The only similarity between AMADEUS and COPYING BEETHOVEN is that the former
was original and worked well, while the latter tried to copy elements of AMADEUS and never succeeded. This is a frustrating film; one of the pie-in-the-sky variety thrown together, slap, dash, which wastes everyone's time.
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good film BUT only one soar spot...
Added 7/26/2009
This film is worth watching. I won't bore anyone with the positive details.
My ONLY soar spot is the casting of Diane Kruger as Anna Holz. This role was written to tap into the soul of the most complicated and distraught composer of our time. Yet her performance is not entirely convincing. It lacks passion. It even seems bland at times. I'm not familiar with any other of Krugers' work, but at best, she's a pretty girl who can read her lines. That's all it takes in Hollywood, right?
As a lead role, I'd rather see Kruger in something made for the SCI-FI channel. Maybe SPECIES 4 or 5.....whatever?
Sorry DK.
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Harris plays Beethoven; Beethoven loses
Added 5/28/2009
Those of us with an aesthetic bent always hope a film about a great artist will add to our understanding of that ineffable something which explains the transcendence that can arise from among us. This movie ain't it. Ed Harris, so brilliant elsewhere, is hilariously miscast. The script is a one-day-pass to Beethoven World. The cinematography, particularly in its effort to add impact to the obscenely truncated Ninth Symphony sequence, only trivializes the music. Nuance? subtlety? Look for another source.
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