Review of Copying Beethoven (2006) by Elvira B — 29 Jan 2013

Ed Harris does the unimaginable to save this film. I believe Agnieszka Holland was intelligent to have chosen to develop only so much of Beethoven's life, instead of stuffing it all into one film (she chose the time during which he premiered the Ninth Symphony); still, the film has some very serious flaws: Diane Kruger as a feminist aspiring composer who works as Beethoven's unlikely copyist: miscast. Dizzying "experimental" hand-held camera work. Rather superficial, anachronical storyline... the script does have a few clever moments, though, some phrases Beethoven delivers are wonderful, but the rest pretty much fall into cliché. What is most angering is that it could have functioned perfectly: a great lead actor, much greater source material, spot-on period art direction... and yet again, the fault is of the substance. It's a real shame. The writers came up with a blatantly fictionalized account of the composer's later days, in which he becomes emotionally involved -more like emotionally connected- with a promising composer who becomes his copyist and then his nurse, cleaning lady, and friend. We all know about other fictionalized biopics like Amadeus, films that distort the truth. The thing is that Amadeus made me swallow its story, shoved it down my throat and got me involved: what it showed, I considered it as true as anything else on celluloid. CB seems unsure... it's just so obvious that it's false! And that's not good. If they don't buy it, how could I? It's hard to explain. I believed every word Ed Harris spoke in the same way I'm sure a lot of people felt involved with F. Murray Abraham in Milos Forman's film. But all the other characters, just... the situations, everything, seemed so made of cardboard, so... fictional. It's hard to explain.

I don't mean Copying Beethoven is unwatchable, there is one particular scene in which it's all about the music... it plays rather like a music video, but it's fantastic, epic, and one can only wish that the rest of the film was that good. It's an inspired, electrifying ode to the symphony itself... and all I could really think about as I watched it was Alex De Large on his bed, and the snake by his side, and his face... Lovely lovely Ludwig Van! lol. Unfortunately, it seems to me that the film suffered a great deal from having such an exciting scene right in the middle of it, because the dull parts that came later looked even worse. If only they could cut that scene out and market it as a short film... they would have received much better reviews, and they would have said all they appeared to want to say.