Abel Gance's Beethoven (Un Grand Amour de Beethoven)
by Abel Gance

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Movie Reviews of Abel Gance's Beethoven (Un Grand Amour de Beethoven)

Movie Review: Gance's Beethoven
Summary: 5 Stars

Summary of Abel Gance's Beethoven (Un Grand Amour de Beethoven)

Beginning where every portrait of Beethoven the man must, with the identification of the Immortal Beloved, the film nominates (wrongly) Giulietta Gallenberg, n?e Guicciardi, reconstructing their brief passion as a lifelong obsession. During each of Beethoven's struggles--with love, poverty, deafness--thunder cracks against the sky and the opening notes of the Fifth burst onto the soundtrack to punctuate the action. Meet the film on its own novelette-like terms, however, and it can be quite moving, not least for the magnificent presence of Harry Baur in the lead, who captures to perfection the tortured nobility the film foists upon its protagonist. Baur's conception is as outsized as Gance's, but also gentler and less sentimental; he humanizes what could have been a treacly salute to a marble statue. An unusual final credit places the actor's name alongside the director's, a touching admission by Gance at how indebted his film was to its star. --Bruce Reid

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• Drama