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Simply A Masterpiece

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Blistering performances.

I was somewhat disappointed with the Mozart episode after I watched this one. I enjoy Mozart's music more than Beethoven's, but this 'In Search Of...' was geared much more towards the classical music fan. The music played here is exhaustive. If I had to guess, I'd say they play over 50 tunes written by Beethoven. If you're looking for more of a biography you probably want to look at a more focused documentary in conjunction with this one. For me, who is ten times more interested in the music, this show was perfect! They use very talented players and list the players on the screen which is nice if you want to explore today's classical music performers. Ludwig had a fairly long life that was presented here as being pretty depressing. Mentions of suicide, illness and of course deafness are peppered throughout the documentary. He only created maybe half as many works as his contemporaries like Mozart or Haydn, but they present a nice case for crowning Herr Beethoven as the king of all Western music (personally, I'd put him at number 3 on that list).

In Search of Beethoven was metaphorically a personal search for the substance of a musical genius for which I knew only superficial facts. Diane and I both thought the film was superb in allowing the viewer into this man's life and did this search primarily through his music. When the credits rolled at the end it was possible to fleetingly see all the musicians involved in demonstrating the various musical pieces that provided the bulk of this remarkable film and there were many. There were many artists and many pieces of his musical opus and from this analysis even someone untrained in music, such as me, had demonstrated for them the complexity, playfulness and virtuosity that composed this man's decades of work. Although the film was essentially musically based, my eye was drawn to another film making element that was not auditory and that was the cinematography. I am sure that I am demonstrating my own lack of knowledge about how music playing is filmed but I was continually impressed with the Big Close Ups used throughout the film. For instance, if the particular piece being played used a violin then the camera would move in and focus on only the hand or if it were a piano piece then the camera would focus only on the hand at the keyboard. I found these big close ups very gripping in their intensity and illustrative of the composition being discussed. Any person with or without knowledge of music could hugely profit from two hours spent with this musical genius.

Philip Grabsky, whose film In Search of Mozart was one of the highlights of last years' Vancouver International Film Festival, has returned this year with an investigative study of the great 19th century German composer Ludvig Van Beethoven. The documentary, In Search of Beethoven, seen at a VIFF pre-screening, follows the same linear framework as the film about Mozart, sampling sequential compositions of the artist while interspersing the comments of performers, conductors, composers, and music historians such as Emanuel Ax, Hélène Grimaud, Louis Langrée, and Roger Norrington. Performed in the film are snippets of all of Beethoven's nine symphonies, five piano concertos, his only violin concerto, his opera Fidelio, several piano sonatas including the famous "Moonlight" sonata, and several sonatas for violin and piano, beautifully performed by seventeen orchestras, fourteen pianists, four cellists, six singers, and one string quartet. It is a veritable aesthetic feast.The 138-minute documentary (cut from fourteen hours) explores a unique individual who, while a transformative figure whose music was capable of evoking ecstatic emotions, was a dark, reclusive, and almost unfathomable individual whose cantankerous personality and battles with his growing deafness are legendary. Grabsky follows Beethoven's life from his birth in Bonn in 1750 as the son of a court musician to his adulthood in Vienna where he was quickly recognized as one of the city's most promising musical talents. Developing a reputation as a piano virtuoso, his performing abilities were in great demand yet he also began to be known as a drinker with a personality that could be surly.With the onset of deafness and a growing frustration with his inability to develop a satisfying and lasting relationship with a woman, Beethoven became depressed and even thought of suicide. In his Heiligenstadt Testament written in 1802 to his brothers Johann and Carl and discovered after his death, he declared that he rejected suicide only because he had to fulfill his destiny to share his music with the world. David Dawson from the Royal Shakespeare Company reads from Beethoven letters, some of which illuminate the composer's state of mind, explore the nature of his illnesses, and discuss his obsessive desire to gain custody of his nephew Karl. The film also mentions the composer's growing indifference to social conventions including the unkempt condition of his person and his general misanthropy, though attempts are made to put his personality problems into perspective.Unfortunately, however, the spiritual side of Beethoven's nature is left mostly unexplored. Although Grabsky does point out the ethereal nature of some of his later piano sonatas and string quartets, the connection is only tentatively made between his heroic struggle against the afflictions of his life, his ultimate acceptance of them as necessary to his creativity, and the sublime nature of his final works. I would have loved to hear Beethoven quoted in the film saying (as he does in the biography "Beethoven: His Spiritual Development" by J. W. N. Sullivan), "I must despise a world that does not know music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy, the wine which inspires one to new generative processes. I am the Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken." In spite of its limitations, however, In Search of Beethoven takes us beyond the stereotypes of the dishevelled, out-of-control genius and the clichés of films like Immortal Beloved, providing a context to appreciate both the music and the man and the enormous revolution his genius engendered. Conductor Fabio Luisi of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra says it this way: "I have two impressions of Beethoven: a large brain and an equally large heart. These two elements often fight against each other, but frequently they love each other, too. There is so much love, so much empathy and ability to endure suffering. All this comes from his heart."

It must be an exceptionally rare person, who is not moved by Beethoven's music. Thus, a film, like this, that includes lots of his music, in some very good performances, is bound to please many. However, it did not live up to the advertisement, which drew me to the Siskel Film Center to see Grabsky's opus, and which promised new insights into the life of this musical god. I think that the film tries to cover too much, and ends up being fragmentary and rehashing old ground. Even a film that is 139 minutes long, cannot adequately encompass most of Beethoven's life and music, as this documentary attempts to do. There are a few revealing insights, like the story of the young Beethoven's attempt to con his teacher, Haydn, into interceding with the Elector of Bonn to increase Beethoven's stipend, when he was studying in Vienna. But even this (new to me) story is not used to try to explain more about Beethoven. For the most part, this is a static film, that relies on talking heads and interminable footage of Beethoven's familiar portraits. One of the few talking heads, who actually has interesting things to say about Beethoven's music, and who also reveals himself as a very human, self-deprecating artist, is Emanual Ax. Too many others offer no special insights, and only mouth the same tired platitudes. In summary, this film is enjoyable for the music, but don't expect to learn many new insights about this great composer.