Copying Beethoven (2006) is a film about the composer’s final years, told through the eyes of his copyist and acolyte, Anna Holtz. Starring Ed Harris as Beethoven and Diane Kruger as Anna, it follows the standard plot of tortured genius working with a wide-eyed young beauty who is the only person who really understands him despite his asshole-ish behavior towards her.
Right off the bat, we have to contend with the fact that Anna Holtz is fictional, a made-up conceit that somehow manages to be worse than any other option for Beethoven’s sidekick; he had a number of male proteges and worked with contralto Caroline Unger who performed as a soloist in his debut of the Ninth Symphony in 1824. Unger may have been partially responsible for the character of Anna, but I guess their relationship wasn’t intimate enough to flog for 120 minutes, so a totally fictitious female protege was decided upon, so that we could be treated to all the para-romantic angst and none of the actual payoff.
This is precisely why Immortal Beloved (1994) is an infinitely better movie. Yes, there are fictitious elements to the story, but the anonymous love of Beethoven’s life can be explored through his close relationships with the women in his life, making the idea that any one of them could well have been his immortal beloved. Here, in Copying Beethoven, we are treated to an entirely implausible one-dimensional female character, who is somehow able to throw off the conventions of the time and allow herself to be consumed by Beethoven’s music, even sacrificing marriage to stay in celibate codependence with greatness. Actually, Ed Harris sums it up pretty succinctly:
“I actually asked the writers ‘why bring this fictitious character into what is a pretty interesting situation with this guy anyway in the last years of his life?'” he says. “They basically said we really wanted to give Beethoven an opportunity to express himself and to talk about what it was he was trying to do, how he felt about it (and) where it was coming from … and felt we needed a person for him to talk to that he trusted.”
— “Classical Composer Serves as Inspiration for New Historical Drama ‘Copying Beethoven'”
Diane Kruger’s quote from the same article aged like milk:
“I could really relate to Anna,” she says. “She is obviously a woman of her time, but she is also modern. She really knows what she wants to do with her life and I can only compare it to, like, a young woman of our time meeting Mick Jagger, for example. She is in awe of him, but she also admires his talent and tries to learn as much as he, in the end, learns from her.”
I became so irritated with this that I actually had to stop watching the film, which is just as well because the costumes aren’t anything to write home about, either. Jany Temime was the designer, and usually I find her work pretty decent, but there wasn’t anything particularly exciting in terms of the costuming. Lots of dull, drab, dark colors. Moody without really conveying a mood.
Have watched Copying Beethoven (2006)? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Rejecting Matthew Goode! To me, that would be evidence of madness!
I’d better not show this to my husband; “Amadeus” upset him badly enough. Speaking of composers, Percy Adlon made a film called “Herschel and the Music of the Stars” about Franz Joseph Haydn’s visit to the great astronomer siblings Caroline and William Herschel, which I would love to see again. As I recall, it takes some satisfying liberties, and was well produced, so the actress playing Caroline probably wore her hair pinned. up
Imagine rejecting Matthew Goode for anyone! He is scrumptious!
I hate “Immortal Beloved”. It’s almost as bad as “Amadeus”!
Why are most movies about classical musician so dreadful?
Early ones from like the ‘40s like “Humoresque” are hilarious!