With any references to Amadeus or Immortal Beloved aside, Copying Beethoven begins at the end. Ludwig von Beethoven is on his deathbed, his fictional copyist Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger), rushing to his side. They share one final, emotional moment.

   Soon after, we are transported to the year 1824. Anna Holtz is sent by her school in Vienna to work with the eccentric and slightly contemptuous Beethoven. She sees past Beethoven’s unfriendly demeanor and works tirelessly for this man whose musical genius she hopes will flood into her own life. After fighting through the stigma of being a woman in the nineteenth century, Beethoven realizes the natural talent this twenty-three year old possesses in not only copying his messy, unreadable scores but in understanding the place where his music is birthed from, his very own spirit. Fighting through such trials as his deafness and unstable relationship with his nephew, as well as his ambition and calling to decode the words of “God’s language” into symphonies, we are carried through his varied emotional states as we hear the fusion of his inner silence and composition.

   Historically, this film captures the very essence of Beethoven in the time period in which he lived. Officially noted as one of the first composers of the Romantic Era, he follows a long list of Classical composers with similar compositional structures. Beethoven, although almost studying under Mozart himself, took the progression of movements to a new level, allowing them to flow more freely in transition rather than have a specific beginning and end. Copying Beethoven shows the reaction of his aristocratic audiences responding to these innovative changes. The ten-minute snapshot of his Ninth Symphony (which Holtz assists in conducting) is nothing short of a masterpiece, including the famous fourth movement, which involves a full chorale singing Ode An die Freude.

During my childhood and teenage years, I was fortunate enough to have chosen Beethoven to study for theory and composition as part of my piano instruction. Copying Beethoven, although a mixture of fact and fiction, ebbs and flows as seamlessly and emotionally as one of Beethoven’s very own grandiose movements and increased my own appreciation for this extremely unique and extraordinary composer. I give it 4.5 out of 5.

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Anne is a writer, artist & coffee addict who lives with her husband and two emotionally unstable cats in the Dallas area. She works at Lake Pointe Church in Rockwall and in her free time enjoys badly impersonating foreign accents, photography, and eating anything chocolate. You can reach Anne on her blog at Flowerdust.net.