Prices subject to change.
starring: Harry Baur, Annie Ducaux, Jany Holt, André Nox, Jane Marken
If one were to gather the hundreds of books written about Ludwig van Beethoven, sift through each with a fine-tooth comb, and extract every simple mistake, wild speculation, and outright falsehood, the result would still be nowhere near as fabulous and artificial as this 1936 biopic, which rewrites the composer's life story into a throbbingly melodramatic tale of genius ignored and love unrequited. Director Abel Gance, best known for his expansive silent classic Napoleon, wasn't interested in the truth of Beethoven's life, but instead the romantic ideal of a great man tormented by history; Gance's Beethoven is merely a variation of the filmmaker's beloved Bonaparte, triumphant yet scorned by his inferiors in the artistic realm rather than the political. (Needless to say, among the film's many omissions is Beethoven's bitter rededication of the "Eroica" Symphony.)
Beginning where every portrait of Beethoven the man must, with the identification of the Immortal Beloved, the film nominates (wrongly) Giulietta Gallenberg, née Guicciardi, reconstructing their brief passion as a lifelong obsession. During each of Beethoven's struggles--with love, poverty, deafness--thunder cracks against the sky and the opening notes of the Fifth burst onto the soundtrack to punctuate the action. Meet the film on its own novelette-like terms, however, and it can be quite moving, not least for the magnificent presence of Harry Baur in the lead, who captures to perfection the tortured nobility the film foists upon its protagonist. Baur's conception is as outsized as Gance's, but also gentler and less sentimental; he humanizes what could have been a treacly salute to a marble statue. An unusual final credit places the actor's name alongside the director's, a touching admission by Gance at how indebted his film was to its star. --Bruce Reid
October 10, 2000
Prices subject to change.
starring: Vernon Chadwick, Irv Cass, Doug Church, Robert Washington, Quentin Flagg
directed by: John Paget
April 04, 2002
Prices subject to change.
starring: John Lithgow, Joe Morton, Kathleen Turner, Kathryn Bigelow, Ethan Coen
August 08, 2000
Prices subject to change.
starring: John Lennon, Mark David Chapman
JOHN LENNON ASSASSINATION - DVD Movie
March 03, 2006
Prices subject to change.
starring: Leonard Nimoy, Harris Yulin
directed by: Ellen Hovde, Muffie Meyer
Studio: Pbs Release Date: 05/05/2009 Run time: 180 minutes
October 10, 2003
Prices subject to change.
starring: Kevin Mukherji, John Sayles, John McNaughton, Forest Whitaker, Harold Ramis
December 12, 2002
Prices subject to change.
DVD-Amish: A People Of Preservation by Vision Video
November 11, 1991
Prices subject to change.
starring: Josh Hamilton, Barbara Feldon, Eli Wallach, Ansel Adams, David Ogden Stiers
directed by: Ric Burns
September 09, 2004
