Beethoven

Un Grand Amour De Beethoven

France's master of the silent epic and international cinema legend Abel Gance is most celebrated for this sweeping and pioneering biography masterpiece Napoleonand his anti-war classic J'accuse.But this touching and tortured document of the legendary Beethoven's creative genius deserves equal tribute and attention.

Like Napoleon, Beethoven is Gance's portrait of a great mind, a giant of history, here crafted as a Romantic vision of the artist.The film chronicles the years of Beethoven's greatest successes and his struggles against overwhelming adversity -- poverty, the onset of deafness and his unrequited passion for his "Immortal Beloved."

Writer/director Gance conducts a symphony of images set to an Expressionistic score, depicting not only the events but the spirit of the composer's life.The sequence where the afflicted maestro first recognizes his deafness if one of the most brilliant and visually daring in film history.Hail as one of the greatest character actors of his generation, French screen great Harry Baur is masterful in his touchingly human portrayal of the tortured composer.