Louis van Beethoven

Looting the pool of untalented "ZDF-History" amateur actors, linking together unmotivated flashbacks and future views until the viewers eyes start rolling, and spicing the whole pulp by adding a famous name did not result into an interesting movie here.

The only fun I was able to fetch out of this sick concoction wasn't Beethovens grand music (always unerringly cut at the wrong spots) but the helpless efforts of the actors to imitate regional dialects they don't master.

Please, honored participants, do yourself and the world a favor, burn down all the copies and scripts of this failed project, and let's pretend it never existed.

There are many legends surrounding the life of the "Bonn" giant. That being said, the director of this movie follows Beethoven's life pretty close, it captures snapshots of his life, it doesn't pretend to be an all encompassing full length depiction of Beethoven's life, however it touches on the important pieces : childhood, friendships, first love and musical influences. I love how he discovered Bach in Neefe's living room piano (or was it harpsichord?) I also like how individuals are depicted in a way that has a major impact on Beethoven's character and sense of morals. He was in my opinion a man with a backbone and strong principles in an era of servitude and platitudes ("The melody needs to be more cantabile... Those sound like cannons Louis! Cannon fire!"). The Austrian lead does great service to the character he depicts and is somehow similar in facial features. I recommend it to all Music History teachers as it shows a person, a real person, a man and not a legend as we are all accustomed to hearing about.

The movie is separated into 3 different time places, the child, the young and the old Beethoven. The movie started of amazingly, with astonishing acting by the child Beethoven. Also the cinematography and costumes/ sets are great. Now to the bad parts: first of all the acting of the young, middle, Beethoven was unfortunately horrible and it kind of broke the immersion and made Beethoven look pretty dumb. But the most important part: the movie had a strong focus on the live of Beethoven but not the music. It was never shown how Beethoven wrote his great pieces, what the reception was, what influenced Beethoven's music. The movie completely skipped over the time periods Beethoven wrote most of his most iconic music. If you don't know the history yourself you are left kind of wondering why Beethoven was so popular in the first place since it is never shown. People only talk about him being great. In my opinion, in a movie about Beethoven his music should be in the main focus, or at least some focus at all.

If you are going to make a film about Beethoven, I think this might be as good as it can get. Of course, there are parts of it that would be fair to criticize. For example, the portrayal of the 20-year-old Beethoven is not really satisfactory. The great value in the film, though, is the high production value and that it has been made by people that seem to be inherently interested in the human spirit of Beethoven, rather than on historical facts about his life, or inferring ideas about his spirit from his work. Of course, one can argue the work of an artist functions as a representation of his or her personality. In my opinion, though, a portrayal such as the one this film makes is just as interesting. Anyway, the film was certainly entertaining and rich in ideas, thus a must-watch for anyone who is interested in Beethoven.

A correct portrait, fair in details, admirable for acting, interesting for the courage to be a hommage and not a fairy tale, precise and just what you feel right for mark the 250 years from the Ludwig van Beethoven birth. A film about a man, his family, childhood, love, work, father, teacher, options and nephew, brother and freedom. It is enough for be not the blockbuster but the admirable way to remind a significant story.