Weekly meditations from your humble messenger
Decomposing
Beethoven
(Copying Beethoven, 12/25/06)
By Nicholas Nicastro
As
far as Hollywood is concerned, the name "Beethoven" is more
closely associated with the adventures of a certain slobberingly lovable
St. Bernard than with history's most formidable composer. Alas, the
arrival of Agnieszka Holland's Copying Beethoven will not change
that fact.
Unlike Mozart, whose reputation
as a happy prodigy almost seems to welcome naunced treatment, the volcanic,
loveless Beethoven seems doomed to caricature. Stint on the tantrums
and the audience feels cheated; give them old crazy Ludwig and people
grumble about scene-chewing and cliches. Polish-born Holland, who has
earned her bona fides with such works as Europa Europa and The
Secret Garden (not to mention several episodes of The Wire)
tries to square the circle with Ed Harris in the title role. To his
credit, Harris does find a sweet spot of uneasy vulnerability between
all the brooding and outbursts and half-possessed muttering. The film
is ultimately a letdown, however, because it smothers Harris' powerful
portrayal in an inert, reverential cocoon. When Harris explodes at his
fawning assistant "Don't flatter me!," he might as well have
been Beethoven himself shouting at Holland and screenwriters Christopher
Wilkinson and Stephen J. Rivele.
The story focuses on the great man's
last years. Beethoven is a solitary celebrity in Vienna, simultaneously
cursing God for his chronic deafness and rejoicing in His inspiration
for his final symphony, the Ninth. To his publisher he's known as "The
Beast"; to his neighbors his presence is both intolerable and incomparable.
Into the Beast's life walks Anna
Holtz (Diane Kruger), a talented music student who jumps at the chance
to work as the composer's manuscript copyist. Anna is no Beethoven,
but she's perceptive enough to understand his vision. After suffering
through a few of his tantrums, Anna becomes Beethoven's collaborator
and muse, helping even to save him from his credulous devotion to his
wastrel nephew Karl (Joe Anderson). In the film's most intriguing scene,
she helps stave off disaster when crazy Ludwig insists on conducting
the orchestra for the public premiere of the Ninth. Standing off to
the side, she relays the cues he can no longer hear, with the genius
looking plaintively to her for guidance.
Though the episode (and indeed,
Anna Holtz herself) is fictional, it hints at where Copying Beethoven
could have gone by taking a few more chances. Harris, at least, has
done his homework—in his hands, it seems both sad and inevitable
that such a singular talent would also be a lonely one. Watching him
march around old Vienna, humming tunes as they emerge in his mind, we
understand how the crisp rhythms of the Ninth echo how he walks.
The film's biggest problem is Kruger.
Though beautiful, her face has all the personality of graveyard sculpture.
Here, though she tries to stand up to the volatile Harris in one or
two unconvincing scenes, she mostly leaves him to thunder on, like a
man arguing with a vase of flowers. To what is essentially a dramatic
duet, Harris has brought a Strativarius, and Kruger a kazoo.
As Helen in Wolfgang Peterson's
Troy, Kruger brought a bland prettiness that inspired anything but reckless
love. Here, likewise, there's never a trace of erotic chemistry between
her and one of history's most romantic figures. Casting a stronger,
more appealing actress would have given Harris something to work against.
It would have taken the focus off the legend of Ludwig, which is hardly
a revelation, and made the the film what it should have been: the story
of a relationship between two people.
Someday somebody will make the definitive
Beethoven movie. Holland's, unfortunately, has the sound of a symphony
where only the string section has shown up.
©2007 Nicholas Nicastro
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