Immortal Beloved (film)
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| Immortal Beloved | |
|---|---|
| Image:Immortal beloved film.jpg Immortal Beloved theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Bernard Rose |
| Produced by | Bruce Davey |
| Written by | Bernard Rose |
| Starring | Gary Oldman Jeroen Krabbé |
| Music by | George Fenton Ludwig van Beethoven Gioacchino Rossini ("Overture" from La Gazza ladrà) |
| Distributed by | Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group |
| Release date(s) | 1994 |
| Running time | 121 min. |
| Country | UK/USA |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Immortal Beloved is a 1994 film about the life of composer Ludwig van Beethoven. It grossed over $14.3 million in the USA.
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[edit] Content and Reality
The film — a biopic — treats the identity of the "Immortal Beloved" (Unsterbliche Geliebte) of composer Ludwig Van Beethoven as a mystery to be solved by his secretary and first biographer, Anton Schindler, a journey of discovery which takes Schindler to all corners of Austro-Hungary to interview the women who have a claim to candidacy.
The core of fact upon which the film's speculations are built is as follows:
After Beethoven's death in 1827, a letter was found among his private papers addressed to a woman whom he calls "immortal beloved". The letter exists, but there is no consensus among Beethoven scholars as to the true identity of the intended recipient, though the pages of the letter — probably written in the summer of 1812 from the spa town of Teplitz — are certainly in Beethoven's handwriting.
Among the most plausible candidates put forward to date are:
Giulietta Guicciardi; Therese von Brunswick; Antonie Brentano; Johanna van Beethoven; Countess Anna-Marie Erdödy,
all but one of whom feature in the film.
The film's director, Bernard Rose, has controversially claimed in an interview that he himself has successfully identified the woman whom Beethoven loved, a task that has eluded researchers for nearly two hundred years. No scholar or writer on Beethoven has so far come forward to endorse Rose's claim, and one, Gail S. Altman, has vociferously disputed it in a book<ref>Altman, Gail S. Beethoven: A Man of His Word - Undisclosed Evidence for his Immortal Beloved, Anubian Press 1996; ISBN 1-888071-01-X</ref> devoted specifically to the question of the woman's identity, and Beethoven's relationships in general.
[edit] Cast
- Gary Oldman as Ludwig van Beethoven
- Jeroen Krabbé as Anton Felix Schindler
- Isabella Rossellini as Anna Marie Erdody
- Johanna ter Steege as Johanna Reiss
- Christopher Fulford as Casper van Beethoven
- Marco Hofschneider as Karl van Beethoven
- Miriam Margolyes as Nanette Streicher
- Barry Humphries as Clemens Metternich
- Valeria Golino as Giulietta Guicciardi
[edit] Crew
- Directed and Written by Bernard Rose
- Produced by Bruce Davey
- Executive Producer Stephen McEveety
- Director of Photography Peter Suschitzky
- Music Direction by Georg Solti
- Additional Music by
Ludwig van Beethoven
Gioacchino Rossini ("Overture" from La Gazza ladrà)
[edit] References
<references/>
[edit] External links
- Immortal Beloved at the Internet Movie Database
- Meine unsterbliche Geliebte: Who Was Beethoven’s Immortal Beloved? by Charles T. Downey, 1 January 2005, at Ionarts
