AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
Mathilde the Guild
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
aspiration-ini
An awkward, ridiculous, pathetic interpretation! Beethoven loved only music and himself. He hated his father. He hated all women and all children because they were mere distractions from his work. The immortal beloved is music. That is the truth. Script 4
Director 4
Actor play 8 Gary Oldman 5 the others subtotal 6.5
Entertainment 7 (6 nice decorations and costumes +1 for scene of Starlight sky) TOTAL 5
cluso502
Immortal Beloved disappointed me. Being both a fan of Gary Oldman and Beethoven I thought nothing could go wrong, and nothing did, as far as the soundtrack and Gary Oldman's performance were concerned. But Several other aspects of the film fell short. The cinematography was boring, costuming was historical, but plain, dialogue was not bad, but had very little substance, and the story-line was quite unsatisfying. Several character choices were unexplained. I never felt like I got to know any of the characters. And frankly the film seemed utterly pointless. I learned nothing and It had little artistic value. However it wasn't all bad, Gary Oldman had a few nice scenes with Marco Hofschneider, although they were cut short. The saddest part is that this film could have been a masterpiece if only it had different direction. I would love to re edit this film myself just to make the story flow in a more interesting direction. I recommend it if you can catch it for free and have nothing better to do. But never pay for this film. 6/10
TheLittleSongbird
I know that Immortal Beloved has been compared to Amadeus, and here I am going to keep my comparison brief, personally I don't think Immortal Beloved is quite as good as Amadeus, but I love both films with a passion. Ludwig Van Beethoven is my all time favourite classical music composer, and having watched Eroica with Ian Hart and the 3-part BBC dramatisation of Beethoven with Paul Rhys, I wanted to see what this film was like. My conclusion is that Immortal Beloved is a visually audacious, musically majestic and imaginative near-masterpiece.Immortal Beloved certainly looks stunning. The scenery is gorgeous, the costumes sumptuous and the cinematography fluid and beautiful. Seriously when you are transported to 18th century Vienna you feel like you have just come out of a time machine. There are also many effective scenes such as young Ludwig running away from his abusive father, Johanna visiting Beethoven as he lies dying in bed (one of the few times when a piece of classical music-the String Quartet Op.130 here- reduced me to tears in just one scene of one film), Beethoven resting his ear while playing the Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven with his back to the audience during the performance of the Choral Symphony and the performance of the Emperor concerto(I did read somewhere that during a concert when the orchestra wouldn't play the piece right, Beethoven stopped it and ordered for it to be played again). Even the use of Missa Solemnis was beautifully done, so hauntingly beautiful.The music is a revelation, pretty much the heart and soul of the film. It is a true delight from start to finish, I loved hearing the Moonlight and Pathetique sonatas, the Choral Symphony(the Ode to Joy movement has always been my favourite work of his), the Emperor Concerto,the violin concerto, Missa Solemnis and the 2nd movement of the 7th symphony as it was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Georg Solti.Bernard Rose is an unusual choice for director, having directed the gruesome horror film Caddyshack, but he does respectably as he seeks to identify the "immortal beloved" of Beethoven's will(to this day we don't know who Beethoven is referring to). The scripting is intelligent and moving, one might say it doesn't say much, but it has heart, and the story is solid, deep and doesn't meander.The acting is uniformly excellent. Jeroen Krabbe is fine as Anton Schindler, and Isabella Rosselini, Johanna ter Steege and Valeria Golino look beautiful and act very convincingly as the suspects of Beethoven's affections. I have to say though Gary Oldman does give the best performance of the film, while some scenes could have done with a touch more moderato it was a superb, charismatic and moving performance. I have read complaints that Oldman overacted, complaints I don't agree with at all. Just because Beethoven shouts a lot here, doesn't mean Oldman was overacting, and he certainly didn't overact in the final scene between him and Johanna, his acting was a masterclass of sheer poignancy there. Beethoven wasn't exactly a knight in shining armour now was he? He was rude, aggressive and reacted vehemently to even the smallest thing and probably traumatised by the memories of being abused by his alcoholic father. Beethoven also encountered alcoholism and increasing deafness, and by 1812 or so he was deaf completely.Overall, this is a wonderful, underrated film. Only problem with it? I did feel the ending was a little too open-and-shut, but maybe it is just me. I cannot deny though that this is a great film. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox
rooprect
This is the most creatively written historical fiction I've seen since Amadeus. Writer/director Bernard Rose did a fantastic job of piecing together scraps of history and filling in the blanks with an outrageously clever theory. Make no mistake; this is NOT a biopic. So don't think you can cram for tomorrow's Beethoven exam by watching this movie... your teacher will flunk you right out of the conservatory.But if you approach this film as a sort of "conspiracy theory", and if you have a reasonable--but not too precise--familiarity with the facts of Beethoven's life, you will be very entertained, shocked and intrigued at the story.Real quick historical synopsis: In papers found posthumously, Beethoven did indeed mention an "immortal beloved", much to the surprise of the world which thought him to be a solitary soul. The identity of this person has vexed historians for centuries, and speculation has been the cause of many a knock-down, drag-out fight amongst them (those historians can be pret-ty feisty). Here we have a possible explanation which pulls together several interesting episodes from Beethoven's life and weaves them into a believable plot. The historians can duke it out whilst we can enjoy the show.Gary Oldman, as always, delivers a fantastic performance which elevates this film to classic status. Sure, there are flaws in this film, but nothing that cannot be overlooked in light of the acting and of course the music. My only gripe is that the film focuses very heavily on plot (and rightly so, I guess), but in so doing, it sacrifices the poetry of the situation. We rarely get a good, quiet, reflective moment where we can look into the tortured soul of the composer. Instead we get plenty of fiery episodes and situational drama, which is good but can leave us exhausted after a while.Contrast this with the film Amadeus which breaks up the action with carefully crafted monologues and time to breathe & reflect. "Immortal Beloved" can seem like a fast paced action flick compared to that--but again I suppose the complex plot demands it. This is really a minor criticism. Although Amadeus needn't worry about losing its place in my list of best movies ever, Immortal Beloved is certainly worthy of playing in the same league.
