Audience Member
If you don't mind hearing the entire first movement and more of the Eroica Symphony and the astonishment of the guests and musicians, go ahead and HEAR as much as see this film. Don't expect the movie Amadeus (about Mozart) to jump out at you. This is more of a short subject film.
Eroica is a BBC television film that dramatises the first performance of Beethoven's third symphony, the Eroica. It carries the tagline 'The day that changed music forever'.
[img]http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/images/bbc/programmes_tv_idents_and_screenshots/drama/300eroica.jpg[/img] Beethoven
This film picks up by the playing of what Beethovan proclaims will be something new, off the charts so to speak. And it is, to our illustrious prince and dignitaries. His Eroica 3rd Symphony is faced with a resounding NO.
Undeterred, Beethoven rejects such rubbish and moves on. His divorced lady friend has children who need monetary support which she does not think is enough. Plus, she is not a fan of his music, this Eroica piece in particular. It's too violent she admits. Well, it is, compared to the bland, inoffensive tunes society is then accustomed to.
[img]http://i.ytimg.com/vi/mFA_tT8_v-Q/mqdefault.jpg[/img] The woman who said NO to marriage to Beethoven and not because she did not love him
Ludwig B. is portrayed here as a volitile young man who needs to apologize for his outbursts. He is denied wedding a noblewoman because he himself is not of royalty. You see a very upset Beethovan who is tired of the heirarchy of the day.
[img]http://videos.videopress.com/Rb1NiiYI/eroica-the-movie-bbc-2003-subt-en-esp_std.original.jpg[/img] The man who totallt dismissed Eroica, The Third Symphony.
Beethoven is championed by no less than an aging Joseph Hayden, well respected by the court of the day. You can see the dawning of new musical day in this Austria-Hungarian mansion, something Hayden knows is washing over him as he watches. Everything, he admits openly, is NEW from today.
[img]http://i.ytimg.com/vi/J71gAMPz3_4/mqdefault.jpg[/img] The prince who sponsored Beethovan's new work, Eroica and his wife who loved everything new!
The BBC has given Beethoven a beautiful romance filled film with period instruments, but it's not a birth-to-death biographical drama like Amadeus, but a short piece of the composer's life revolving around Ludwig's Eroica Symphony which is, after all, just what it is titled.
I enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Give my regards to Ludwig.
SEE the entire movie Eroica here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7R8AkopRdA
REVIEWS by those like us:
100%
This is not a movie chiefly concerned with music, rather its chiefly concerned with the imperative of enlightenment and progress in a time like this; ...
100%
Excellent film. Must see. Great interpretation too.
[img]https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTuC4LPj32Esti6XW2q5kMABkrXFrEV6Z77tU2p4ZAoxTJsbEhUOg[/img] The servants caught admiring each other
NOTES:
1 The music was played by Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique and conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. It won the Prix Italia for Performing Arts in 2004.
The main cast:
Ian Hart - Ludwig van Beethoven
Tim Pigott-Smith - Count Dietrichstein
Jack Davenport - Prince Franz Lobkowitz
Fenella Woolgar - Princess Marie Lobkowitz
Claire Skinner - Countess Josephine von Deym
Lucy Akhurst - Countess Teresa von Brunswick (Josephine's sister)
Frank Finlay - Joseph Haydn
Leo Bill - Ferdinand Ries
Peter Hanson - Wranitzky (leader of the orchestra in the film and of Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique)
Robert Glenister - Gerhardt (one of the prince's servants)
Anton Lesser - Sukowaty (Beethoven's copyist).
Directed by
Simon Cellan Jones
Produced by
Liza Marshall
Written by
Nick Dear
Music by
Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Release dates
2003
Running time
129 minutes
Language
English
[img]http://www.freecodesource.com/album-cover/5178eBCzQ1L/-Beethoven:-Symphony-No.-3-in-E-Flat,-Op.-55-(Eroica).jpg[/img]
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/19/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This is not a movie chiefly concerned with music, rather its chiefly concerned with the imperative of enlightenment and progress in a time like this; it's a historical movie. The characters, some painfully tragic at first (the satisfied "land-owing sort of men) and others (the mere women) were liberal(in that time liberal meant something different) and honest. Beethoven was acted brilliantly: I did not doubt for a second that he was the irritable, bipolar genius we all knew him to be. He really makes for a great character in movies because of exactly how taut he holds those strings in the social fabric, sort to speak. The best musical piece ever made; it was performed better than I have ever heard it before, includingi the london symphony orchestra's version. As soon as mainstream makes a Beethoven movie - mark my words - there will be no more musicals winning academy awards.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Excellent film. Must see. Great interpretation too.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Most likely only classical music lovers will like this movie
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Really loved it. Thought that Ian Hart was a great choice for Beethoven in his early 30's when he could still hear fairly well and had yet to completely take the world by storm. Immortal Beloved's Gary Oldman did a good job of Beethoven, but I complained that he was too grim, dour and brooding and seemed to be ignorant of Beethoven's more boisterous nature which is well documented in several of his biographies that I've read. Hart seems to be more dialed into Beethoven as an eccentric, but lively and often humorous genius with a hair trigger temper, and also his affinity to commoners and his disdain and lack of respect for the nobility is fully revealed. The Eroica, Beethoven's 3rd, is rendered in a way that will make you further appreciate this masterwork that as Hadyn prophesied had changed everything. Those who don't fancy great classical music will prolly be bored to death, but that's the breaks. I know I'll watch it again and again.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/24/23
Full Review
Audience Member
If you are at all into classical music this is incredibly moving and entertaining. Actually, it might even be a good way to increase your appreciation if you're not that into Beethoven but would like to have a better idea of what all the fuss is about. The acting is great, and the music brought me close to tears at points...
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
Full Review
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