Beethoven Lives Upstairs
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Beethoven Lives Upstairs |
| Country of production | Canada |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1992 |
| length | 51 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK / JMK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | David Devine |
| script | Heather Conkie |
| production | David Devine Richard Mozer Terence Robinson |
| music | Ludwig van Beethoven |
| camera | David Perrault |
| occupation | |
| |
Beethoven Lives Upstairs is a Canadian children's film from 1992. The story is based on a story by Barbara Nichol. Directed by David Devine. The film describes the development of a friendship between a boy and Ludwig van Beethoven in the last year of his life.
action
The film begins with Beethoven's funeral in Vienna and the voice of a boy who says that today is a day that will go down in history. The 2nd movement from the 7th symphony sounds . Then the actual story is told as a flashback.
The father of the 9 year old Christoph recently passed away. For economic reasons, the mother is forced to rent a room; the tenant is Beethoven. The mother and her brother, Uncle Kurt, ask Christoph for understanding, but Christoph defends himself, he doesn't want a stranger in his father's room, and certainly not a crazy old man.
Living with Beethoven proves difficult for everyone. The housemaid Sophie feels bullied because Beethoven wants exactly 60 beans for his coffee and suspects that he is a drunkard. Christoph is afraid when Beethoven keeps making noise and raging in his room and his friends laugh at him because he lives with a “madman”. One evening Christoph followed Beethoven into an inn and saw through the window how strangely her lodger behaved while eating; he too now suspects the old man is crazy.
Uncle Kurt explains Christoph Beethoven's deafness, he can only hear the music in his head and is working on his 9th symphony. Christoph should try to understand Beethoven's situation. Although Christoph doesn't think it's music, he defends the old man against his friends, who laugh at him again.
Beethoven asks Christoph's mother if she also plays the piano. She plays for him for Elise . When church bells ring, she says her husband loved the sound. Beethoven replied: «So did I». Christoph and his mother slowly begin to understand the tragic situation of their subtenant.
The 9th symphony is rehearsed, Beethoven is dissatisfied with the tempo. A musician shows him a metronome that has just been invented. Beethoven cannot hear it. When he breaks a quill a little later, he sends Christoph to buy new ones. Then he takes the boy for a walk.
At a river they chat with the help of the little book that Beethoven always carries with him. In response to Christoph's remark that his father was a doctor and that he missed him, Beethoven told us about his father. He was drinking. In the middle of the night he would sometimes come home drunk and get little Ludwig out of bed to practice. He has few good memories of him.
The housemaid Sophie is on her nerves and wants to leave, because Beethoven doesn't follow any rules. Christoph comments that Beethoven doesn't follow any rules, he makes some himself.
Beethoven's friend Anton Schindler comes to visit, the moonlight sonata is played. Beethoven laments his deafness. Christoph gives him an ear tube that his father developed. Beethoven later puts it in a drawer that already contains several ear trays.
Uncle Kurt brings his mother and Christoph an invitation to the premiere. Uncle Kurt explains Christoph Beethoven's deafness. He hears no voices, no music, no wind. But when you listen to his music, you can tell that he has a big heart. During the rehearsals, Beethoven repeatedly bursts into anger because the singers do not sing as Beethoven imagines.
Beethoven apologizes to Sophie for his rudeness, thanks for her work and gives her an envelope with tickets for the first performance of the 9th Symphony, in which Uncle Kurt plays in the orchestra.
The 9th symphony is performed for the first time. Christoph sees a second conductor leading the orchestra behind Beethoven, as he is no longer able to do so himself. During the final applause, Uncle Kurt and a singer turn Beethoven to the audience so that he can see the applause, he cannot hear it. Christoph states: “I've never heard anything like this before - and it all only happened in his head!” In the last scene, Christoph walks alone by the river after the funeral, where he was sitting with Beethoven. As with the introduction, the Allegretto from the 7th Symphony sounds.
music
In addition to some lesser known pieces by Beethoven, excerpts from the following works are used in the film:
- Album sheet for Elise
- The anger over the lost penny
- Flute Serenade, Op. 23: 1st and 3rd movements
- 1st piano concerto : 1st movement
- 5th piano concerto : 2nd movement
- Pathetique Op. 13: 2nd movement
- Piano Sonata, Op. 14: 2nd movement
- Piano Sonata, Op. 90: 2nd movement
- Moonlight Sonata , Op. 27/2: 1st movement
- 2nd symphony : 4th movement
- 5th symphony : 2nd movement
- 6th Symphony : Shepherd's Theme and Storm Scene
- 7th symphony :: 2nd movement
- 8th symphony : 2nd movement
- 9th symphony : 4th movement
- Spring sonata
The soundtrack is also available on CD.
various
- The film won the Canadian Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program in 1993 and was nominated for several Gemini Awards .
- The shooting took place in Prague , where the exterior shots for Amadeus were shot in the intact old town .
- Beethoven Lives Upstairs is often used in schools in English-speaking countries for music lessons.
- Even if the film is not currently (2013) available in German, it can be understood well for non-English speaking children (and adults) with the previous explanation.
Web links
- Beethoven Lives Upstairs in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Commonsensemedia