Immortal Beloved

Rating:
Summary: Gary Oldman puts on the show
Review: An excellent tale of romance, lost loves, and a man with a hidden talent, a talent for music. Gary Oldman opens up the character of Ludwig Von Beethoven as it has never been seen before by the general audience. I think that Oldman did a superb job in transforming into the grumpy musician. Even though other reviews have stated that his performance was stereo-typical in reference to the ways other films have portrayed Beethoven, but I think that Oldman gave it his best shot, and came out very well in fact. Critics must remember that Beethoven was an isolated man, in his own world of music, he would stagger around the room acting strange, because he heard a note inside his head and couldn't get it out untill he put it on paper. He was deaf, and he did get angry very easily, and did throw chairs out his window, the only reason he did this was because he was sp frustrated, frustrated that he couldn't express himself the way he wanted to, but yes Hollywood has had the trend of making him an old grizzly man, but I guess that is the way some directors view him.

Rating:
Summary: Quantitative Evaluation
Review: Video Merits:9/10; Audio Merits:8/10; Musical Merits:10/10; Cinematographic Merits:8/10; Overall Artistic Performance:10/10;DVD Extras:8/10; Recording Total Quality:9/10. Professor's Recommendation: Beethoven- Sir George Solti-Gary Oldman and B.Rose tetralogy yields a magnificient title.

Rating:
Summary: Moving and Suductive
Review: I Loved this movie and It is One of my very favorites, Gary Oldman will steal your heart with his wonderful portrayal of beetoven. With it's beautiful scenery and even greater music the movie is revolved beetoven's "Immortal Beloved" and the search for which of 3 women only one did he truly love.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Scenes in All of Film
Review: Despite whatever anyone says about the rest of the movie, the almost-final scene featuring the "Ode to Joy" is the best expression of the transcendent passion of creativity ever produced on film. The video is worth buying for that scene alone. Gary Oldman is great, the story is fascinating -- although no one actually believes it to be historical, it's still a fascinating account of the personality of a genius.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Try But No Cigar
Review: I enjoyed the scenery, music, and some of the attempts to frame Beethoven's music in relation to things that may or may not have happened in his life. Where this film left me cold, not counting the historic conjecturing, was with Oldman's overly romantic and somewhat incoherent performance. Staggering around like a mad man and looking with glazed eyes like someone possessed, I felt this was the stereotypical view of the tortured artist. Instead of attempting to really reveal what may have been the mindset behind the incredible music this man was able to produce, we get the usual Hollywood fluff. Here was a man who took music to a completely new level, who constructed works that will live forever, and we never get to see him actually composing or working. I did like the scene with him, as a boy, running through the woods while the Ninth Symphony soars in the background. What I wanted was more substance. Finally the make-up was atrocious. Beethoven looked more like a walking version of the Picture of Dorian Grey in this movie, aging so grotesquely I though I was watching Tales from the Crypt at the end. He was only 56 when he passed away yet they had him looking like he at least 90. Normally make-up doesn't distract me, but here it seemed so obvious and fake. I could go on but the essential thing for me was, interesting but the definitive movie on Beethoven has not yet been made.

Rating:
Summary: Romantic
Review: This movie, although grossly misintreprets parts of beethovens life, is not intended to be a play by play biography. Many of the factors about beethoven's life were kept true to form but others, as with all hollywood film, were fictionalized to make an interesting show. That it did. It is a wonderful romance movie with a very unexpected ending.

Rating:
Summary: Ludwig Van Beethoven
Review: Bravo to director, Bernard Rose! :) A splendid achievement! Oldman was awesome and the music, scenery and other actors were fantastic! There is a bit of misconception of Ludwig's life with the women, however, who are we to judge? Did we know him? :-o GREAT MOVIE!

Rating:
Summary: The Maestro Deserves Much Better!
Review: Having resisted this film for several years, I finally gave it a try. My verdict: missed very little. Yes, the scenery is splendid, and Krabbe a passable Schindler. Wonderful to see locations so close to what van Beethoven himself must have experienced. And his gravesite. But as much as I respect and admire Oldman - and that is considerably - he is simply wrong for the part of van Beethoven. Try as he does, he is physically and intellectually and tempermentally miscast. But even if this were not the case, Immortal Beloved is far too soap opera-like to do justice to its subject. There are far too many scenes and reaction shots that try hard for drama and empathy only to achieve bathos. They need van Beethoven's Apollo as much as his Dionysus! How unfortunate that a project dedicated to one of the greatest of all artists should have been so sophomorically executed. An Amadeus wannabe. I leave the question of historical accuracy to others -- though I was quite disappointed not to have found criticism of that nature here in Amazon already. The denouement seems a clumsy device -- though I did find it touching (though, again, not well handled) - and essentially a cheat. Would that it were true! Anyhow, I continue to wait for a real biography of the Maestro - one truly worthy of him in his heights and depths. Next time it might be nice to actually depict the world's greatest composer doing some composing: involved in the mental and spiritual process of creating world-changing music. The lovers and nephew and so on should follow after that. And next time, leave out the over-produced over-dubs and use some period, location recordings...Versimilitude,please!

Rating:
Summary: An insult to genius
Review: This film is a gross misrepresentation of the great composer. Ludwig Van Beethoven has been Hollywood-ized beyond recognition. If not for the superb acting of Gary Oldman as Beethoven the film would have been loathesome and repellent. Beethoven was not a great romancer of women in his life. He tried and failed repeatedly with girls of every class. The film suffers from abuse of the facts. It will also rankle any Beethoven fan to hear the redundant soundtrack. How many times must we hear Moonlight Sonata, the Pathetique, and parts of the 9th in the space of 2 hours? His most formidable music wasn't included in the film; his last string quartets, the 7th, the Hammerklavier, etc. Beethoven in this film has not been rescued from the myths that made him less than human. His mastery over music is not demonstrated. The director of the film has portrayed him in a predictable fashion giving in to the stereotypes that ultimately doom his character.

Rating:
Summary: No French tracks
Review: This excellent film, of great interest to students and native speakers of French, does not seem to include options for either French dialogue or French subtitles. This is an unfortunate oversight. What about Canada? Don't native speakers of English have an obligation to respect the bilingual reality of Canada? Both options should be standard under Canadian law.