aspiration-ini An awkward, ridiculous, pathetic interpretation! Beethoven loved only music and himself. He hated his father. He hated all women and all children because they were mere distractions from his work. The immortal beloved is music. That is the truth. Script 4 Director 4 Actor play 8 Gary Oldman 5 the others subtotal 6.5 Entertainment 7 (6 nice decorations and costumes +1 for scene of Starlight sky) TOTAL 5

mikesinn-1 "IMMORTAL BELOVED" Great title for an excellent film.. despite Gary Oldman's heroic efforts to make himself look ugly and do the deep growling voice that LvB apparently had. Beethoven didn't have too much time for serious love-affairs with women, although, apart from his obsession with his nephew Carl.. (no evidence to suppose LvB was gay) there WAS/IS an entity to fit the bill of the title. All through history and to the present day, many artistes claim to be inspired by a beautiful female figure whispering in their ear - referred to as INSPIRATION or MUSE. This was, I believe, Ludwig van Beethoven's IMMORTAL BELOVED. Just for fun: the concert orchestra is correctly costumed and quite small, but the sound-track features Georg Solti, conducting the enormous London Symphony Orchestra. LvB should have been so lucky...

Mr Black I've been looking for this film for quite some time and finally found a copy on DVD. I absolutely love the style of this film. The costumes, the buildings, the interiors is superb and really captures the Vienna of that era. I found a few flaws in this film. For some reason I couldn't follow the plot at the beginning. The girls goes to a concert given by the maestro,, and yet goes into another room and there is Beethoven! Turns out the guy playing the piano was not him, however the actors looks so similar I found it odd. This happened a few times in this film for me.. maybe it's just me. Also there are quite a few historical points that are not accurate. Beethoven was only 57 when he died. But the death bed scene at the beginning makes him like like he is well into his eighties. He wasn't that old. Also, one of the early scenes when he was still quite young hand him placing his ear on the piano just to hear the notes. But he wasn't that deaf at such a young age. His hearing was failing but far from being profoundly deaf. The story line is totally fictitious, which is fine. No one knows who the real immortal beloved was although there are some good guesses. It doesn't matter though, it is still a great story. Also, they try to explain that he was such a miserable person because of his hearing. But notes from the time simply explain he wasn't a pleasant guy to be around. All in all though, I thought this was a terrific period piece of exceptional production values, directing and performances. I wish they made more movies like this.

cluso502 Immortal Beloved disappointed me. Being both a fan of Gary Oldman and Beethoven I thought nothing could go wrong, and nothing did, as far as the soundtrack and Gary Oldman's performance were concerned. But Several other aspects of the film fell short. The cinematography was boring, costuming was historical, but plain, dialogue was not bad, but had very little substance, and the story-line was quite unsatisfying. Several character choices were unexplained. I never felt like I got to know any of the characters. And frankly the film seemed utterly pointless. I learned nothing and It had little artistic value. However it wasn't all bad, Gary Oldman had a few nice scenes with Marco Hofschneider, although they were cut short. The saddest part is that this film could have been a masterpiece if only it had different direction. I would love to re edit this film myself just to make the story flow in a more interesting direction. I recommend it if you can catch it for free and have nothing better to do. But never pay for this film. 6/10