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Copying Beethoven by Agnieszka Holland
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DVD Cover InformationActor: Bill Stewart, Diane Kruger, Ed Harris, Matyelok Gibbs, Ralph Riach Director: Agnieszka Holland Brand: HARRIS,ED DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen Picture Format: 2.35:1 Running Time: 104 minutes DVD Release Date: 2007-04-03 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Copying BeethovenMovie Review: He may never stop rolling after this Summary: 2 StarsWell well. I saw this and felt like laughing. Repeatedly. Though not at the same time the rest of the audience did. No, my compatriots were all believers in art, who accept that a great artist can be vulgar (laugh when he dropped his drawers), brutish (laugh when he destroyed the model), oblivious (laugh when he poured water on his neighbors, over and over....), and demeaning (laugh at his insults to all around him, and even those not around him.) This movie was targeted at the Oprah crowd, for whom women have been always oppressed, mushy banalities count as deep thoughts, self-indulgent narcissistic artists are more essential than the bores who design bridges and build computer networks, and greatness (however defined) trumps all other scales. (See: Polanski, Roman)
No, I laughed when Ana and Louie locked eyes during the ludicrous conducting. She was wagging her arm as if she were saying "Bye-bye" to a reluctant four year old going to a party. This was just silly. And interminable. I laughed when the deaf maestro could hear her soft spoken words but couldn't hear thundering applause. I laughed when Anna walked off into the field at the end. I felt sure that she was going to be wearing a habit at the end of the film; how else to explain that no one has heard of her? But their ending was even sillier.
I could go on, but why? A dumb film. With some dumb dialog, dumb anachronisms, and doubly dumb performances, it was a one star film. However, I do commend the film-makers for allowing Anna to keep her clothes on! One small detail done right; combined with some lovely, if stagy, cinematography, that's worth a half star. Another half for the (glorious, if chopped) music. But nothing anyone ever needs to see!
Summary of Copying BeethovenWhen young Anna Holz (Diane Kruger), a Viennese music student is asked to transcribe scoring notes for the great Ludwig van Beethoven (Harris), she eagerly accepts, despite warnings about his volatile behavior. Part maestro, part mentor and part madman, Beethoven reluctantly relies on Anna to help him realize the culmination of his art. A passionate, powerful drama based loosely on the final months of Ludwig van Beethoven's life, Copying Beethoven finds the maestro a haunted man, composing the most revolutionary yet unappreciated work of his lifetime; largely deaf; disappointed in his relationship with a wastrel nephew; and fascinated by a young, female composer, Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger), who goes to work for him transcribing music. Staying as a guest at a convent and engaged to a stolid engineer, Anna is drawn to Beethoven's tempestuous genius. Half the time he's enchanted by her and seems to see straight through to her soul. The other half, he's shouting at her for her timidity or flattery. Hardly a mouse, Anna fights back. The more she does, the more Beethoven recognizes in her a kindred survivor, someone with whom he can reveal his vulnerability and the burden of his artistry. Ed Harris' Beethoven is wracked by pain but not overwhelmed by it; he looks like a man who understands his responsibility to nature too well to merely disintegrate. ("God whispers in most men's ears," Beethoven says. "He shouts in mine.") Director Agnieszka Holland (Olivier, Olivier) oversees a handsome, alternately tender and brutal drama, with several thrilling moments, including the stunned look of audience members hearing the world premiere of the glorious 9th Symphony. --Tom Keogh Copying Beethoven Extras  Watch Ed Harris speak about portraying Beethoven in this exclusive clip. |
Beyond Copying Beethoven  Copying Beethoven Soundtrack |  Famous Composers: Ludwig Van Beethoven |  More From MGM |
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