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List Price: $14.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 889
Released: October 5, 1999 |
| Our Price: $6.90 |
| Used Price: $5.14 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
GARY OLDMAN IS BEETHOVEN IN THIS UNTOLD STORY OF A MAN OF GENIUS, A WOMAN OF PASSION AND THE MYSTERY OF A LIFETIME. SPECIAL FEATURES: DUAL-LAYER WIDESCREEN VERSION, SUBTITLES: ENGLISH, SPANISH, DIRECTOR BERNARD ROSE'S COMMENTARY, ORIGINAL FEATURETTE, TALENT FILES AND THEATRICAL TRAILER.
Description of Immortal Beloved:
This sumptuous and moving 1994 film written and directed by Bernard Rose (Candyman) investigates the artistic and romantic passions of one of the greatest composers of all time. Featuring a superb performance by Gary Oldman (Sid and Nancy) as Ludwig van Beethoven, Immortal Beloved is full of uncommonly vivid, rich imagery as it charts the tumultuous life of the deaf child prodigy and his rise to the height of musical achievement. Along the way, he attempts to play mentor to his nephew, attend to his many passionate romances--the most stable one was with a countess (Isabella Rossellini)--and fight bouts of depression and madness that ruled his life and his art. The film is framed around a "Rosebud"-type letter found after the composer's death that makes up the crux of the story. Jeroen Krabbé (The Fugitive), playing Beethoven's lifelong friend, attempts to discover who Beethoven's muse really was, becoming as driven as his friend in discovering the unlikely identity of the composer's "immortal beloved." Through this we gain an insight into the nature of obsession, romance, and the heights and sacrifices of artistic achievement. The film exhibits some extraordinary sound design, and the finale features a magical encapsulation of Beethoven's life and loves set to his "Ode to Joy." As an exciting and passionate journey, Immortal Beloved is its own masterpiece. --Robert Lane
Immortal Beloved Reviews:
Immortal Beloved Movie 
2009-09-27 - This movie with an extraordinary cast illuminates the passion of Beethoven's
life with music and the agony of missing his one true love but not forsaking
others in his own way. This was captured by the film makers ultimately. I keep
it in my library and have watched it many times.
I highly recommend this movie.
More theories on Beethoven's life 
2009-09-27 - A lot of people love this movie, for me is very good and well acted but I find other movies on the theme better, like Copying Beethoven, is a matter of opinion. Gary Oldman rocks as the man, one of his finest performances. and the overall story is good but a little to fanciful to my taste. Is a respecful portrayal of the master and his times.
Magnificent!
2009-08-26 - The year is 1827, and famed composer Ludwig van Beethoven has just died. He leaves his estate to someone only known as his "Immortal Beloved," so his secretary goes about finding out who she may be among his many lovers.
This movie is absolutely beautiful. Beethoven's music, of course, is the soundtrack and also the main plot point, as the writer/director speculates on the events in the maestro's life that inspired each piece. The movie goes back and forth in time to each of the important people in Beethoven's life and we see his music evolve from much tragedy, some euphoria, and most of all, his passion for life. There is even a persuasive scene accounting for his deafness.
With lavish costumes and picturesque Czech locations, it's lovely to look at but even more impressive is Gary Oldman's portrayal of Beethoven. Though playing a conceited, temperamental, and often angry man, Oldman still wins our sympathy and he is at his charismatic best. If you love Beethoven's music and/or period films, you'll enjoy this exciting biopic. Highly recommended.
Worthy of upgrade to blu-ray 
2009-04-27 - Immortal Beloved itself is a wonderful film. It is unfortunate that it gets less acclaim than 'Amadeus.' Gary Oldman is fantastic in most films he acts, and this film is no different.
Other reviewers have focused quite well on the film itself, so for the purposes of this review, I'd like to focus a more on the blu-ray video/audio quality for this film.
VIDEO:
The tranfer is very. very good. The blacks are deep and rich. The contrast is spectacular. The only issue for me, it a good portion of this film quite dark, and if your television is one of older HD technology, you may see some blotting. It's not a big deal, as the viewer on these televisions would be used to it anyway. In any case, the detail is great. You can tell the transfer team at Sony paid attention to the detail when transferring the video for this film to the higher definition format. NOTE: The viewer will see some grain throughout this film, but that was the intent of the director. For those of you who use subtitles, you have the ability to have the text display on the film, or in the black bars (if viewing in Original Aspect Ratio).
AUDIO:
This is tricky. This is not an action/sci-fi film, so there are no explosions or gunfire (one scene of cannon fire, though). However, given the focus of this film is the life of a romantic-era composer, Beethoven's music is the true centerpiece. In this regard, the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 brings the music to life. It's crisp, and crystal clear. The same can be said for the dialog.
EXTRAS:
I'm not a real fan of extras anyway, so I didn't review these for this review.
If you want a good fictional biopic on blu-ray, 'Immortal Beloved' is a fantastic choice.
Much underrated; Must see if you love Beethoven
2009-02-17 - This movie was an unfortunate commercial flop (made only $9.8m), but it ranks with Amadeus as one of the greatest classical music related movies of all time.
Certainly, I have yet to see any movie as good related to Beethoven.
It is very obvious the creators lovingly devoted much of their effort and time in crafting a highly coherent and interwoven biography of one of music's greats. Such devotion, I believe, was motived by the creators' love of Beethoven and his music. Indeed, it is hard not to love Beethoven's music.
I have read many books about Beethoven. But movies can do what books cannot. Movies can fill the imagination with visualization and delight the ear with music to feel the soul of the character. The "Immortal Beloved" allowed me to understand Beethoven as no other medium could.
Beethoven, in my humble opinion, was the greatest classical composer. There might have been better technicians with finer sense of musical nuances. Bach and Mozart comes to mind when describing musical geniuses. But neither Bach nor Mozart, however, had to overcome the kinds of tremendous obstacles that Beethoven had to overcome to become the finest composer of his day. Unlike Mozart who had a very supportive and a very finest of music teacher as a father, Beethoven grew up in an unloving family with a drunken father who beat him on a regular basis. And he often took the beating in lieu of of his younger sibling whom Beethoven had to support in the midst of a poverty. Impressively, he rose to become the greatest pianist and composer of his generation. Beethoven's greatest creation and inspiration, the 9th Symphony, was written after he had become completely deaf. Yet the 9th Symphony is not about bitter hopelessness brought on by life's tragedies. Out of all his works, it is the 9th Symphony that expresses the awesome joy of life. It is about hope, inspiration, and triumphing over all obstacles with an indomitable spirit and determination. Beethoven's motto must have been "if determination great, no obstacle can be great". And I admire him greatly.
The only negative aspect of this movie is its rather speculative conclusion of whom the "immortal beloved" was. I won't give it away, but the movie's conclusion differs from the conclusion of most experts on Beethoven. The movie's emphasis on the Beethoven's "immortal beloved" detracted the movie from the truly immortal Beethoven.
