# Immortal Beloved 1994



## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

A 1994 movie about Beethoven's life and works; enjoy!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I know people trash it for redoing Citizen Kane and for its liberties with the facts, but I think Gary Oldman nailed his character.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Manxfeeder said:


> liberties with the facts


That's putting it lightly! As a source of biographical information the movie is completely useless and liable to give one some strange ideas about Beethoven's character. That being said, I thought it was entertaining and agree that Oldman was great as Beethoven. That's funny about Citizen Kane, I hadn't heard that, but it's totally the same plot.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Utter crap, waste of time .


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I liked the character of the Countess Erdody, with her eyepatch and apparently living our of gypsy wagons. In real life, the Countess was a good friend of Beethoven. He wrote his Op. 102 cello sonatas for her as solace after her son was beaten so severely by his tutor that he died. The case went to court and the tutor was acquitted. Different times.

As history or serious biography, though, the movie is pretty horrible.


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## Clouds Weep Snowflakes (Feb 24, 2019)

Is it really that bad? And at least I hope you'll like the swan lake animation movie I posted...


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## Biwa (Aug 3, 2015)

Clouds Weep Snowflakes said:


> Is it really that bad? And at least I hope you'll like the swan lake animation movie I posted...


It's not that bad. I found it entertaining. :tiphat:

Beethoven's Nephew fared even worse. LOL!


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Biwa said:


> It's not that bad. I found it entertaining. :tiphat:
> 
> Beethoven's Nephew fared even worse. LOL!


I do have that one on Laser disc, watched only once and skipped the end as far as I can remember.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

Rogerx said:


> I do have that one on Laser disc, watched only once and skipped the end as far as I can remember.


How many laser discs do you still have? Where on earth do you keep them?


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

flamencosketches said:


> How many laser discs do you still have? Where on earth do you keep them?


Last time I checked, about 550 (titles) given that the Wagner ring ( Levine) takes as much sides as the LP, you can do the maths.
They are stored in the back of the garage, climate controlled in winter .


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Clouds Weep Snowflakes said:


> A 1994 movie about Beethoven's life and works; enjoy!


It's of course based on the premise about who the immortal beloved actually was. It's probably not true but has quite a few facts about Lud which are true and Olnan certainly bails the character. To be taken with a pinch of salt but entertaining


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Of course, anyone of us who knows something about Beethoven's life is always going to be tempted to pick holes in the plot, but I think the film was sufficiently entertaining in own right. If it actually got anyone interested in Beethoven/classical music then surely that's a good thing?


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

elgars ghost said:


> Of course, anyone of us who knows something about Beethoven's life is always going to be tempted to pick holes in the plot, but I think the film was sufficiently entertaining in own right. If it actually got anyone interested in Beethoven/classical music then surely that's a good thing?


It is certainly a lot more historically accurate than Amadeus!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I think my favorite part is the 9th symphony, where he recalls his boyhood, fleeing from an abusive father and ending up floating in a lake surrounded by what the 9th calls the starry heavens and a loving father.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

As a sidebar, what does anyone think of the BBC film _Eroica_ (2003), featuring Ian Hart as Ludo?


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

...............


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## Larkenfield (Jun 5, 2017)

Manxfeeder said:


> I think my favorite part is the 9th symphony, where he recalls his boyhood, fleeing from an abusive father and ending up floating in a lake surrounded by what the 9th calls the starry heavens and a loving father.


That was my favorite part too. For me, I got the feeling of what it may have been like at the premier. It was worth seeing the movie just for that and I thought Oldman was a terrific Beethoven in personality... It has to do something profound to your mind to be a deaf musician, as of course Beethoven was.


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## flamencosketches (Jan 4, 2019)

elgars ghost said:


> As a sidebar, what does anyone think of the BBC film _Eroica_ (2003), featuring Ian Hart as Ludo?


I thought it was kind of corny, but mostly enjoyable. Seemingly more accurate historically speaking than Immortal Beloved, for sure, but still I wonder.

Excellent playing from John Eliot Gardiner and his band.

I really think Beethoven deserves a well made, historically realistic (if not 100% accurate), high costume-and-set budget, biopic. Not only is he one of the greats in music, but he had a life that was genuinely interesting and would actually serve as an entertaining plot to a film, even if he hadn't been actually all that great of a composer. We can't say that about many others. Certainly not Haydn, to reference a recent thread questioning why no Haydn biopic has ever hit the silver screen.


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