Copying Beethoven

MPA Rating: for some sexual elements.

Relevant Issues

Music in the Bible

Featuring	Ed Harris, Diane Kruger, Matthew Goode, Ralph Riach, Bill Stewart, George Mendel, Joe Anderson, Angus Barnett, Nicholas Jones, Phyllida Law
Director	Agnieszka Holland
Producer	Ernst Goldschmidt, Marina Grasic, Andreas Schmid
Distributor	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), owned by Amazon® through MGM Holdings, Inc.

“The passion behind the genius”

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “An aspiring composer of humble means, 23-year-old Anna Holtz is seeking inspiration and career advancement in the world’s music capital, Vienna. A student at the music conservatory, she is recommended for a position at a venerated publisher, and, in a fortuitous turn of events, orchestrates an opportunity to work beside the greatest, most mercurial artist alive—Ludwig van Beethoven. When the skeptical Beethoven issues an impromptu challenge, Anna demonstrates her competence and musical insight. The maestro accepts Anna as his copyist, beginning a remarkable relationship that will transform both of their lives.

Classical music aficionado or no, it’s tough not to be moved by the soaring notes of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The work stands as both a defining highpoint in the composer’s career and a dynamic and beguiling legacy of its era. An imaginative exploration of Beethoven’s life in his final days working on the Ninth, “Copying Beethoven” draws inspiration from the music itself.

It is 1824. The composer, played brilliantly by Ed Harris, is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer finish in time for the scheduled first performance—otherwise the orchestra will have no music to play. Insightful young conservatory student and aspiring composer Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) is recommended for the position. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna’s assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her.

By the time the piece is performed—a moment in history captured in an exquisitely moving shot from [fictional] Anna’s perspective, as she sits on the orchestra floor helping the deaf Beethoven to keep time—her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his proud, private world.

Harris is no stranger to bringing iconic, larger-than-life figures to the screen… his Beethoven is ribald and volatile, vulnerable and, ultimately, endearing. He is matched in intensity and skill by Kruger, who makes the young Anna both an enraptured apprentice and a paragon of willful female independence and ambition. …”