Sound of silence

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Movie
German title Sound of silence
Original title Copying Beethoven
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2006
length 105 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
JMK 6
Rod
Director Agnieszka Holland
script Stephen J. Rivele ,
Christopher Wilkinson
production Sidney Kimmel ,
Stephen J. Rivele,
Michael Taylor ,
Christopher Wilkinson
camera Ashley Rowe
cut Alex Mackie
occupation

Sound of Silence ( Copying Beethoven ) is an American drama directed by Agnieszka Holland from 2006 .

action

The action takes place in 1824. Ludwig van Beethoven is behind schedule with the completion of his 9th symphony , the premiere of which is imminent in a few days. The publisher Schlemmer sends him Anna Holtz as a copyist. Anna Holtz is studying music financed by her father and lives in a relationship with the engineer Martin Bauer, who hopes to win an important architectural competition with his design of a bridge. Beethoven at first doubts whether a woman is suitable for the job, but trusts her when she makes a change in the symphony that in his opinion should have come from himself. Despite Beethoven's eccentric behavior, they both become friends and finish the symphony.

While working on the symphony, Beethoven not only struggles with his deafness and other illnesses, but also with worries about his nephew Karl , whom he hopes to train to be a great pianist, but who instead continually borrows money from Beethoven for this gamble away. Karl doesn't even hesitate to steal from his uncle, in which he is caught by Anna. Due to Beethoven's deafness, Anna will assist Beethoven with conducting during the premiere; the performance of the symphony is a success.

The friendship between Beethoven and the music student is put to a severe test when Beethoven destroys Martin Bauer's bridge design, which he considers sterile, and describes Anna's current composition as "furzissimo". After her desperate reaction, however, he realizes his mistake and helps her with suggestions for improvement and emotional support. Both are looking forward to the premiere of Beethoven's latest string quartet, the “ Great Fugue ”, full of hope . However, the performance is a failure because of the novelty of the piece. Shortly after the premiere, Beethoven collapses and dies a little later.

Reviews

Michael Rechtsshaffen wrote in The Hollywood Reporter magazine that the portrayal of Ed Harris would predestine him for "big prizes", but the viewers would find little pleasure in the film. Anna Holtz's character is a “mixture” of many real people and appears artificial (“she never feels like anything other than a writer's device”). The portrayal of Diane Kruger does not give the character any passion.

Ruthe Stein described the idea of ​​the film as "fascinating" in the San Francisco Chronicle . However, the film authors should have concentrated more on van Beethoven than on the "extremely boring" Anna Holtz. Stein highly praised the "tremendous energy" of Ed Harris' portrayal.

“The film biography strings together historical anecdotes and gives them a lot of local color, whereby it does not succeed in getting to the essence of art. The ambitious film cannot convince in terms of performance either. ”- Lexicon of international film

Awards

Agnieszka Holland won the CEC Award for Best Film at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2006 and was nominated for the Golden Seashell of the same festival. She was nominated for the Goya Award in 2007.

Andrew Glen was nominated for the Golden Reel Award for sound editing .

background

The film was shot in London and Hungary . Its production amounted to an estimated 11 million US dollars . The world premiere took place on July 30, 2006 at the US Napa Sonoma Film Festival ; on September 10, 2006 the film was presented at the Toronto Film Festival .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for the sound of silence . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2007 (PDF; test number: 109 456 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for sound of silence . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Michael Rechtsshaffen: Critique. ( Memento from January 21, 2007 on the Internet Archive ) In: The Hollywood Reporter , September 18, 2006
  4. ↑ Ruthe Stein: Critique. In: San Francisco Chronicle , Nov. 10, 2006
  5. ↑ Sound of Silence. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  6. ^ Filming locations for Copying Beethoven. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Box office / business for Copying Beethoven. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .
  8. ↑ Premiere dates for Copying Beethoven. Internet Movie Database , accessed May 22, 2015 .