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Bernard Rose's film about the life and loves of Ludwig van Beethoven was made and released in 1994 but has only now made it onto DVD for the first time.
A couple of years ago a biopic about Beethoven came out briefly and then sank without trace. It was hardly the finest hour for a good actor (Ed Harris), who was badly miscast and lumbered with a vehicle packed with every possible cliché about the composer's life. Any film director wanting to tackle a similar subject should be made to watch it for its ludicrously unhistorical storyline, toe-curlingly bad dialogue and unwatchable performances.
A decade or so earlier, Bernard Rose had managed with Immortal Beloved to steer through most of the pitfalls of portraying the well-known life of a great composer, despite an equally speculative plot, and somehow managed to make a film that was both moving and inspiring.
Gary Oldman, a Brit amongst a mostly European cast, plays Beethoven in another of his fine portrayals of tortured genius. Rose opts for a heavy accent for his star, perhaps because so many of the international cast have them naturally, but this being another of the actor's strengths, Oldman gets through this potential minefield unscathed.
The film begins with an ending: Beethoven has died and his funeral is attended by various women from his past. The last will and testament bequeaths his estate to the mysterious "Immortal Beloved", who his loyal secretary Anton Schindler (Jeroen Krabbé) sets out to identify. The plot then develops into something resembling a thriller, a race across Europe in search of the mystery woman, and finally yields up a surprising answer to a question well-known to Beethoven admirers.
There's probably no evidence for the conclusion the film comes to and it relies on a conceit of misunderstanding and mis-timing for its plotting but one of its strengths is that it isn't a slavish depiction of historical reality. Instead it's a sumptuously shot piece of speculation that maintains its own integrity. An obvious comparison is with Milos Forman's Amadeus, although Rose (who also wrote the screenplay of Immortal Beloved) doesn't share playwright Peter Shaffer's propensity for slightly hysterical melodrama.
There's plenty of recognisable biographical details – troubled relationships with his nephew Karl, a string of housekeepers and just about everyone else, the increasing deafness, snippets of well-known works - while managing to avoid the "I haff zis tune in my head: zree short notes followed by vun longer" sort of naff dialogue that could render this material laughable.
It's a wonder at times that Rose gets away with it but he does. To Beethoven scholars, some of it is bound to grate, but for anyone prepared to suspend disbelief and go with the premise, it's a well-crafted and well-acted movie, with a great period feel, that is both enjoyable and touching.
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