Review of Immortal Beloved (1994) by Fran M — 13 Feb 2007

Certain historical facts get debated many, many times over hundreds of years. Sometimes, movies are made of them; this is one. It is most frequently compared to another Great Question movie regarding another Great Composer--[i]Amadeus[/i] and "How did Mozart die?".

[i]Amadeus[/i] was definitely wrong on that score. There is no historical doubt on the subject. In fact, far from Salieri having poisoned him, it is nearly certain that Mozart died of natural causes.

So. Was Beethoven's "Immortal Beloved" his sister-in-law?

I doubt it. There seems to be universal agreement that he really, really hated that woman. (How just it was is another question, naturally.) He did indeed have her son taken away upon his brother's death. He did indeed have ideas about child-rearing that didn't go over terribly well with the kid. Or the mother.

Honestly, I don't think we can ever know the woman's identity. Part of me thinks that she didn't exist at all except as a joke that a notably misanthropic old dying man played on his future biographers--and on the family he wasn't on the best of terms with. I certainly can't believe he ever had an illicit affair with his brother's wife.

The malice attributed to Professor Sprout by this film is breathtaking and unfathomable. Why would she slip the letter under the napkin? Why would she put it somewhere it couldn't be seen? So no one would realize she'd read it? It just seems wrong.

In fact, his nephew ended up inheriting the estate, including the lucrative music. One can only assume he shared with his mother, which--if she [i]were[/i] the Immortal Beloved--would mean she inherited after all, more or less.

So how does it compare as a film to [i]Amadeus[/i]? They're in totally different categories to me, just as I would not say whether I liked Mozart or Beethoven's music better. I'd give both films an 8, let's leave it at that.