# Films about composers: how accurate are they?



## Viriato

I stumbled upon a list that rates the portrayals of classical music's greats on the big screen but I would like to know how reliable or accurate those "biographical" films are. The ones included on this list are:


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Amadeus (1984)
Igor Stravinsky: Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky (2010)
Ludwig van Beethoven: Immortal Beloved (1994)
Frederick Delius: Song of Summer (1968)
Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky: The Music Lovers (1970)
Franz Liszt: Lisztomania (1975)
Fryderyck Chopin: Impromptu (1991)
Giacomo Puccini: Puccini (1984)
Marin Marais: Tous les matins du monde (1991)
Richard Wagner: Wagner (1983)

A film allows us to boil down history into something more easily digestible and ethically black and white, but sometimes historical film-makers use "poetic licence" as an excuse for sloppy or minimal research. What's your opinion on the subject?


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## Eschbeg

Viriato said:


> Ludwig van Beethoven: Immortal Beloved (1994)


To my knowledge, no historian has claimed that the Immortal Beloved was Beethoven's sister-in-law, as the movie depicts.


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## FranzS

Films are sources of (artistic, very rarely) entertainment, not of accurate information. IMO biopics are useless (and a lazy way to obtain characters easily recognized by the general public).


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## Bellinilover

Well, there was that old movie about Chopin, A SONG TO REMEMBER. I don't know how accurate it was, though...


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## Pugg

Chopin: Impromptu (1991), love that movie, haven't got a clue if it's all true, I don't mind really.


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## Jacred

Eschbeg said:


> To my knowledge, no historian has claimed that the Immortal Beloved was Beethoven's sister-in-law, as the movie depicts.


Not to mention the problem of leaving a will for an unnamed and virtually unidentifiable person. Thank God there's _Schindler_, right?


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## brianvds

Viriato said:


> I stumbled upon a list that rates the portrayals of classical music's greats on the big screen but I would like to know how reliable or accurate those "biographical" films are. The ones included on this list are:
> 
> 
> Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Amadeus (1984)





Wildly inaccurate, but for good reasons: the film isn't actually about Mozart.



> [*]Igor Stravinsky: Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky (2010)


As far as I know the two of them did in fact have an affair. Don't know how accurate the film is about the details. I found it atmospheric albeit a bit pointless.



> [*]Ludwig van Beethoven: Immortal Beloved (1994)


Drivel. It's only redeeming feature is Gary Oldman.



> [*]Fryderyck Chopin: Impromptu (1991)


Wildly inaccurate, but huge fun. I enjoyed every over-the-top moment of it.


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## Pugg

> Wildly inaccurate, but huge fun. I enjoyed every over-the-top moment of it.


Me too, and thanks for clearing up the inaccurate point.


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## norman bates

I think that a movie is a work of art, it does not have to be necessarily accurate.
Anyway this one



Viriato;1255731
[* said:


> Frederick Delius: Song of Summer (1968)


is a very good movie and also very accurate and with great actors. If you like Delius, it's a movie to watch without a doubt.


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## JAS

I do not think that this problem is limited to films about composers. I don't know of any film biography that could really be considered accurate in any meaningful sense (beyond hitting some basic factual elements). If you want accuracy, I would suggest trying a documentary, but even there I am aware of many problems. (It is inherently difficult to condense a life into a 1 or 1 1/2 hour presentation. There is also always the problem of trying to maintain interest, often valued over being accurate.) Indeed, many written biographies are full of problems as well.


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## Tchaikov6

Has anyone seen Ken Russell's _Mahler?_ I've never actually seen it, but I've heard from a couple people that it's very strange, but almost realistic in a way that Mahler's mind would think that way.


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## Gordontrek

Unfortunately, films about composers are almost never accurate, and are usually really crappy. Amadeus is the exception where crappiness is concerned; although a superb film, it takes way too many factual liberties. 
Speaking of composer biopics, there were rumors flitting around a couple years ago that Spielberg was working on a film about Gershwin starring Zachary Quinto. Unfortunately I don't think it ever materialized. I wish it had.


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## Eschbeg

The most hilarious of the many absurdities in _Immortal Beloved_ is the scene toward the end where the film explains the famous "Muss es sein? Es muss sein!" inscriptions that Beethoven wrote in the manuscript of the 16th String Quartet as an exchange between Beethoven and his sister-in-law (who, as mentioned above, no one seriously thinks is the Immortal Beloved). What is hilarious about this scene, in which Beethoven is actually holding the manuscript of the 16th Quartet, is that the music underscoring the scene is the 13th String Quartet.


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## David Phillips

norman bates said:


> I think that a movie is a work of art, it does not have to be necessarily accurate.
> Anyway this one
> 
> is a very good movie and also very accurate and with great actors. If you like Delius, it's a movie to watch without a doubt.


Ken Russell's TV film about Delius is accurate and without the overblown absurdities of his Strauss, Mahler, Lizst and Tchaikovsky films. I always remember the scene where Percy Grainger throws a ball over the roof of Delius' house, then runs through and catches it on the other side.


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## Sekhar

Viriato said:


> [*]Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Amadeus (1984)


Apparently Salieri wasn't an arch-rival to Mozart at all, which is the fundamental thread in the movie, but they in fact collaborated on some works and were generally cordial to each other.

Also, a minor point true in this and other movies: I understand conductors conducted music while sitting in those days, whereas they're typically shown standing like they do now (so as not to confuse today's viewers, I guess).


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## fluteman

I've seen six of those movies, I doubt any of them were particularly accurate, and the only one that I thought was an especially good movie was Tous les matins du monde, which is wonderful. I agree with the comment above about Gary Oldman's fine performance as Beethoven in Immortal Beloved, an otherwise uninspired movie. The same can be said about Bride of the Wind, a movie about Alma Mahler, where Gustav Mahler is well played by a favorite actor of mine, Jonathan Pryce.


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## aussiebushman

Tchaikov6 said:


> Has anyone seen Ken Russell's _Mahler?_ I've never actually seen it, but I've heard from a couple people that it's very strange, but almost realistic in a way that Mahler's mind would think that way.


Ken Russell's "Mahler" is very post-modern" and no-one should approach it as historically accurate. That said, it is wonderful film-making and if you have not seen it, I strongly encourage you to do so.

I just posted in a separate thread on the validity of movies about composers etc. In it, I recommended "Taking Sides" based on the post war interrogation of Furtwangler. The trailer is here:


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