Our next film is 2006's "Copying Beethoven", which had an extremely limited theatrical release. It follows the story of a young musical copyist who arrives to help Beethoven reinvigorate his struggling career. The film's cast includes Ed Harris, Diane Kruger, Phyllida Law, Ralph Riach, Joe Anderson, and Matthew Goode.
Musical student Anna Holtz arrives for an assignment. When she presents herself to the person she's meeting, Anna is met with resistance. She can't possibly do the job because she's a woman. Anna assures the person that she is qualified.
He tasks her with working on part of a composition written by Ludwig van Beethoven. Anna is shocked at the prestigious name she's to be working with. She gets to work making corrections to the musical score.
When she's finished, Anna takes the finished product to Beethoven himself. She finds him hard at work on the piano. Unfortunately, she also discovers that he is extremely deaf and is having difficulty making the music flow.
She gives Beethoven the corrected work, and Beethoven agrees to work with her.
Anna finds that working with Beethoven has its drawbacks. He's extremely messy. He's also got a huge ego. "God whispers into the ears of some men," he says, "but he shouts into mine!"
And his deafness proves to be a hindrance to the project. Even the music classes he teaches lack the finesse of his other productions.
Anna decides to clean up Beethoven's apartment. However, she's quickly mistaken for a myriad of people. Angrily, she confronts Beethoven's nephew Karl. "Since I started this
job, I've been mistaken for a nurse, a maid, and now a prostitute!No more!" she exclaims.
When Anna helps to smooth things over with Beethoven's family, he comes to respect her, and the two begin a much better working relationship.
The evening of the production of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony arrives, and Anna is in attendance with her boyfriend Martin. Also in attendance that night is an Austrian archduke.
However, Beethoven won't go on without her. Anna hides herself in the sea of musicians and directs the composition facing Beethoven so that he can mimic her movements.
The audience is held in a state of rapture as the concert begins and the music washes over them.
At the conclusion, the audience leaps to its feet to express its appreciation for the music they have just heard. Beethoven is oblivious to the noise of the audience until Anna has him turn around to acknowledge the crowd.
After the performance, Anna gets up the courage to present one of her own compositions for Beethoven's thoughts. He hurts her feelings when he gives her his blunt and brutal opinion. Anna decides to leave Beethoven.
Realizing his mistake, Beethoven follows her to her lodgings and begs her on bended knee to come back to work with him. He presents her with her composition and some notes that he made, telling her it has promise and they can work on it together.
However, Beethoven isn't done meddling in Anna's life. He even comes between her and her boyfriend, architect Martin Bauer.
He and Anna have it out once and for all. Anna decides to give Martin up and pursue music full time with Beethoven as her teacher.
His deafness, however, makes any future productions of his disasters. When everyone walks out of a particular performance, Anna tries to comfort him. "I just don't hear it the way you do, maestro," she tells him.
Anna continues to work with Beethoven. She stays with him until the end, watching as his great musical genius fades with his life. Cast rundown:
Ed Harris...............................Ludwig van Beethoven
Ralph Riach............................Wilhelm Schlemmer
Joe Anderson..........................Karl van Beethoven
Matthew Goode.......................Martin Bauer And that's it for Copying Beethoven. The origins of this story are a bit of a mystery. Beethoven had two copyists who worked with him on his Ninth Symphony, and both of them were male. Artistic license was definitely taken with the addition of Anna Holtz to the story. As always, if you wish to leave a comment, please remember our posting rules.
Coming up next, we have 1954's "Dial M For Murder", another Hitchcock film, in which we find a man scheming to murder his unfaithful wife. When she survives the attack, he must turn the tables and shift the blame and suspicion towards her. The film's cast includes Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams, and Anthony Dawson.
American Margot Wendice is in love, but not with her husband. She's been having an affair with crime writer Mark Halliday. On a visit to London, Mark pays a visit to Margot and her husband.
Margot tells Mark that one of the love letters that he had written to her was stolen, and she fears that someone knows of their indiscretions.
When Margot's husband Tony comes home from work, he tells Margot that he's got some late work to do and won't be able to join them for dinner. He tells Margot to take Mark out for a night on the town without him. Reluctantly, they decide to go.
Once they are gone, Tony calls up an old college friend named Swann. Once Swann gets to the Wendice apartment, Tony reveals how he knows everything about Margot and Mark's romance and now he wants to murder Margot.
Tony blackmails Swann into doing the dirty work for him. They discuss the specifics of the crime and part ways.
They agreed upon day arrives and Swann finds his way into the Wendice apartment once Tony is gone for the night. When Margot answers the phone (Tony is on the other end of the line), Swann makes his move.
Unfortunately for Swann, Margot fights back. She reaches around for something to fight off her attacker with and comes up with a pair of scissors. She plunges the scissors into Swann's back, causing his death.
By the time the police arrive later to inspect and follow up on the attack, Tony has arranged evidence and tweaked facts so that Margot is implicated in a murder/cover-up, in which she allegedly murdered Swann to stop him from revealing the truth of her relationship with Mark.
When Mark arrives on the scene, it seems to corroborate everything that Tony has set in motion. Margot is arrested for murder and taken to jail. She's later sentenced to death.
Several months later, Mark comes to Tony with his suspicions of how Margot couldn't have perpetrated the crime. Tony dismisses Mark's theory, but when the police get involved, Tony seems to get tripped up when answering some pretty simple questions.
When Tony is out, Margot is brought from prison and told that it is their suspicion that Tony engineered the attack on her. She can't quite believe it's true. However, they need her in order to make Tony confess.
When Tony comes home and sees Margot, he realizes that he's been caught.
He frantically looks around for an escape route, but realizes he is trapped. Tony is arrested for the crime and must now take Margot's place on death row. Cast rundown:
Ray Milland.............................Tony Wendice
John Williams..........................Chief Inspector Hubbard
Anthony Dawson.....................Swann And that's it for Dial M For Murder. During the scene where Margot answers the telephone at night, Hitchcock had an expensive robe for Grace Kelly to wear. She refused, saying that no woman would answer the phone in the middle of the night wearing such a robe. She told him she would answer the phone in her nightgown. Hitchcock agreed and let her have her way. When he saw the finished product, he decided to let Grace make all the decisions about her costumes in their future films together.
Of course, Hitchcock appears in the film in a cameo. In this particular film, he appears in a photo with Swann and Tony when they are discussing how they know each other. As always, if you wish to leave a comment, please remember our posting rules.
