I have complained about the film Immortal Beloved enough to write a post on it and finally just shut up!
Okay, my first order of business is the fact that the “Immortal Beloved” was probably some married aristocratic woman whom Ludwig had become infatuated with and wrote this mushy letter to. Of course, he never gave the letter to the said Immortal Beloved, but just wrote it to give it off his chest and continue pining over women well out of his social and marital league! Beethoven had always been infatuated with women out of his league, and the Immortal Beloved was probably no different. The fact that Beethoven was like this is not even interesting enough to base a movie off of. And the fact that the movie made the Immortal Beloved his sister-in-law whom he absolutely hated is simply absurd and unbelievable.
There were far more interesting things about Beethoven then his lame romantic life. For instance, the Heiligenstadt Testament - the very famous unsent letter to his brother concerning his deafness and his contemplation over suicide - is a much more interesting topic. Also, the fact that Ludwig was so controlling and unbearable as his nephew Karl’s caretaker is another very interesting topic. A movie about Beethoven could have dealt more so with issues concerning his family, which was very dysfunctional, his deafness and how he dealt with it, his seeming impetuousness to nobility and his close friends and family, and finally, the very nasty relationship he had with his sister-in-law and nephew.
Immortal Beloved did do justice to the relationship Ludwig had with Karl. The movie did that well. I did also like the scene where Ludwig was running away from his violent and drunken father and dipped himself into a lake while his heavenly 9th Symphony was playing and culminated while he was looking up at the night sky.
Also, the movie had a very awkard flow to it. There were some oddly edited scenes throughout the film. And, the music often did not go with the feel of certain scenes. For example, when a throng of soldiers were running through the countryside while maiming and raping, a very lovely and happy piece of music was playing?!
I did like the acting of Gary Oldham and Isabella Rosellini, though. I have always been convinced that Colin Firth would make an excellent Beethoven, as he has that indifferent and arrogant attitude going on in pretty much every movie he’s been in.
Anyways, I’ve said enough.
This Composition was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 4:20 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this Composition through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.