Indeed, "Copying Beethoven" is the sort of movie where no one talks about politics, sports, or the weather. Holland is no stranger to informal period dramas, having tackled the Holocaust in "Europa Europa," Rimbaud and Verlaine in "Total Eclipse," and Henry James in "Washington Square." She's also familiar with the ways of Ed Harris, having guided him to one of his best performances as a priest suffering a spiritual breakdown in "The Third Miracle." And most of her work contains a related philosophical strain. Besides, the film is too busy equating religious fervor with musical genius to bother nailing down every historical detail. Take Beethoven's reaction to some of Anna's own compositions: "You've invented a new genre - 'Fartissimo.' "Īfter Anna starts editing the maestro's music, we know "Copying Beethoven" is all about taking liberties. And from an acting standpoint, go Harris does, without shame and, on one occasion, without clothes.ĭirected by the estimable Agnieszka Holland, the film tells the invented story of Beethoven's final year and his relationship with Anna Holz (Diane Kruger), a willful music student hired to help him finish copying the "Ninth Symphony." The woman didn't exist, but neither, presumably, did much of the dialogue. This is indeed 1824 Vienna, but when a man's got to go. And the composer's deafness is an occasion to shout the darnedest things ("I have to pee, my dear"). Every lock of the character's fantastic gray hair seems to move at Harris's will (in that sense, Beethoven's the Beyoncé of the 19th century). Duck!"īuilt like an old college wrestler, Harris saunters through this toasty little piece of biographical fiction in love with the part's fixins'. ![]() "Beethoven's coming!" You could say the same about the man playing Ludwig van Beethoven: "It's Ed Harris. ![]() Early in "Copying Beethoven," when the great composer is about to enter a room, one intimidated character can't take it.
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