Excellent but underrated film

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Very nice movie with most interest focused on the film's music track, Ed Harris is perfect, mainly due to similarity he did the best he could and of course attributed the "quality" of Beethoven's character, Of course it could not and never managed to "identified" perfectly with the myth that incarnated. ( I don't know if anyone else could do better, maybe only Ian Hart which was the best "Beethoven" ever in my opinion).Diane Krueger as Cholts, is right, with internal dynamics that took no outward, deliberately, a modest quiet strength in front of the "God of music"! Remarkable how there isn't a love scene, something I respect a lot!

This movie made me feel....well....what am I trying to say...nauseated.Every cast read like they were trying their worst, including Harris, who is a good actor and was fantastic in Pollack. Music insertions during the entire movie were inappropriate. Beethoven is one of most beloved geniuses but not a single actor or scene depicted such brilliance and utter tragedy. Some of the scene were near (poorly executed) copies of scenes from other books/movies.The movie dabbles in a maze of confusing themes: I struggled to follow the ever-changing theme and constantly distracted by ridiculously poor - acting, writing, scenery, music segment choices and placements, and relentless one-liners.I was determined to continue watching the movie. In fact, I watched it twice in a row. And the most important and perhaps one scene that can help common folks, like myself, to look into the soul of brilliance, would have been during the "9th" concert scene. Yet, I was entirely disappointed with the lack of synchronization between the music and conducting and unpreparedness of musical acting (pretending to look like a real musician) by the acting cast. Despite my best effort to understand and like the movie, even just a bit, this movie is a disaster. Maybe all is not lost - teachers can use this movie to show students how not-to-act and how not-to-direct/produce.I saw (twice). I cringed. I wrote my first movie review.

Films about musicians or painters are usually problematic because the artist in question might have produced a great body of work but the events of their biography might not be inherently dramatic. Copying Beethoven is no exception. The scenarists here relied on the invention of a fictional character, Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger), who plays a young copyist to Beethoven in 1824, right before the great composer finished composing his famed 9th Symphony.Holtz lives with her aunt, a mother superior at a convent, but is also an unlikely student at a music academy (the idea that a woman living in Vienna in the early part of the 19th century would have been permitted to study at such an all-male institution is an anachronistic conceit indeed). Nonetheless, Holtz suddenly appears at Beethoven's apartment and immediately shows great promise copying Beethoven's notes from his almost illegible manuscripts.Ed Harris plays Beethoven as you might expect: a curmudgeon of sorts due to his encroaching deafness and general gruffness of personality. Some critics have faulted Harris for hamming things up a bit too much, especially in regards to Beethoven's irritability and overbearing demeanor. Nonetheless, it's not Harris' performance that really does the film in but rather a lack of a developed plot and certifiable antagonist.Early on Beethoven's nephew Carl is introduced; he turns out to be a ne'er-do-well, stealing money from his uncle despite Beethoven's incessant support. While Carl is based on a real person, he soon drops out of the action and is replaced by Beethoven's deafness as an internal antagonist/obstacle. Most of the critical acclaim for this film revolves around the scene of Beethoven conducting the first performance of the 9th Symphony, supported by Anna, hidden on stage silently providing the conductor's movements, as Beethoven is unable to hear anything. Director Agnieszka Holland lamely keeps cutting back and forth between Anna and Beethoven and the entire scene becomes heavily repetitious, despite the beauty of the soundtrack.Still searching for an antagonist, Holland finally settles on Anna's betrothed, Martin Bauer, an aspiring engineer, who enters a bridge-building competition. Beethoven, who senses Bauer is up to no good with Anna, destroys the model bridge right before the competition gets underway. Anna is first upset with Beethoven, but soon realizes he was right along about Bauer.Before the final scene with Beethoven on his deathbed, the grumpy genius makes fun of Anna's composing abilities, making farting sounds as he plays Anna's work on the piano. Eventually he shows up at the convent and begs her forgiveness—and ends up agreeing to collaborate with Anna, in order to improve the piece.Ultimately Holland and her scenarists' use of a fictional character to enhance the drama doesn't quite come off. As a primer on Beethoven's last years and his music, Copying Beethoven passes muster in a basic way. Just don't expect any real fireworks here.

According to "Lucien Rebatet" in his "Histoire de la Musique" (Robert Lafont, BOUQUINS 1973 page 338) Beethoven's character was not very compatible with women. He had quite a number of "Platonic Passions" with female members of the "Vienese Aristocracy" to whom he dedicated some "sonatas". But Musicians , even composers did not qualify for Husbands of "Fine Ladies". Haydn was a "servant" of Prinz Von Esterhazy, Mozart died from drink or Poison and Bethoven was according to Rebatet a frequent customer of "street prostitutes" in Vienna. A British biographer, Newman says that Beethoven contracted syphilis, before he was 40. That he became deaf because of that, is possible, but not certain.The Ninth Symphony was premiered on May 7, 1824 in the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna, along with the Consecration of the House Overture and the first three parts of the Missa Solemnis. This was the composer's first on-stage appearance in twelve years; the hall was packed. Although the performance was directed by Michael Umlauf the theater's Kapellmeister, Beethoven shared the stage with him quiet.So what remains of this "Female Fantasy". Ed Harris interpretation and characterization are quite good, but too linear, based on the Painting by Ferninand Waldmüller date 1823. I have it in front of me. It shows a man that despises (perhaps hates) the World. With good reason.