'Beethoven' movie scores low on facts

At the convent where the titular steno in 'Copying Beethoven' goes to escape the tortures of her day job, the Mother Superior makes not-so-vague allusions to the treatment she received as a young girl at the ...

[NICK HOUVRAS]

SINCE THERE IS SO MUCH TALK OF CLOUDS.....AND G-D, I SUBMITT THIS:

OBSERVATION OF THE SKY

There is a face in the left hand
Looking up to the heavens and,
the eyes are half closed!
A gentle expression that is moving and white
grey and black like a giant cloud it drifts with the current of the wind.
And says nothing like a silent prayer.
Now it has become a dogs head on the shoulders of a man
And the moon looks perturbed that something so close yet so far,
can dominate the sky.
Leaving no trail behind or gesture to remember.

[Doug Purcell]

Thanks for the factual construction. However, your primary factual error, Salieri as french is incorrect. As the Mother Superior says, she never got to see Salieri, but "only his assistant." It is the assistant, not Salieri that she identifies as "French."

[moviebuff]

Hmmm. Maybe you should check your own facts. The nun in question, did not, in fact, refer to Salieri as French; what she actually said was that she was sent to study with Salieri, but never actually worked with him. Instead, she was sent to work with an assistant of his, who, as she said, was French.

[Robert Howard]

In my opinion the character, Anna Holtz is the embodiment of several aspects of Schiller's poem as set by Beethoven.

Schillers poem states than joy is achieved when one experiences a bond with one single soul. Elsewhere that a man's joy comes from the love of a wife and further, one who does that have love walks away weeping from the circle.

Tears came to my eyes in the scene where Anna runs her fingers over the notes being sung of the passage "Seid umschlungen Millionen..."

That is the very passage where Schiller and Beethoven connected the worldly to the spiritual.

The movie has nothing to do with facts but then none of our response to beautiful music comes from its facts.

[Sue]

Mother Superior actually says she never got to meet Salieri but she ended up working with one of his assistants and he, in fact, was --French.....did you actually see this film?

[John W]

I enjoyed it purely as movie, but was thinking no such thing could have happened at that period of time, and for Ed Harris as Beethoven he did seem to be able get into character from what I have read about Beethoven even if he is a american.

[Jo Lane]

You need to listen to the movie again. The elderly nun referred to one of Saliere's assistants

[really mad guy]

"copying beethoven" is a dreadful Beethoven movie.
You need to see "Imortal Beloved".