On this day in movie history - The Funeral (1996):

The Funeral

directed by Abel Ferrara,

written by Nicholas St. John,

was released in the United States on November 1, 1996.
Music by Joe Delia.

Cast:

Christopher Walken, Chris Penn, Annabella Sciorra, Isabella Rossellini, Vincent Gallo, Benicio Del Toro, Gretchen Mol, John Ventimiglia, Paul Hipp, Victor Argo, Gian DiDonna, Dmitri Prachenko, Paul Perri, Gregory Perrelli, Joey Hannon, Robert Miano, Frank John Hughes, Andrew Fiscella, Anthony Alessandro, Robert W. Castle, Santo Fazio, Daniel Scarpa, Nicholas De Cegli, Amber Smith, Edie Falco, David Patrick Kelly, Carrie Szlasa, Phil Neilson, Patrick McGaw, Lance Guecia, Douglas Crosby, Ida Bernardini, John Hoyt, John Ciarcia, Heather Bracken, Frankie Cee, Chuck Zito, Mia Babalis, Frank Aquilino, Kevin Ash, Lori Eastside, Joseph R. Gannascoli, Joe Gioco.

On this day in movie history - Death Becomes Her (1992):

Death Becomes Her,

directed by Robert Zemeckis,

written by Martin Donovan and David Koepp,

was released in the United States on July 13, 1992.
Music by Alan Silvestri.

Cast:
Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn, Isabella Rossellini, Ian Ogilvy, Adam Storke, Nancy Fish, Alaina Reed-Hall, Michelle Johnson, Mary Ellen Trainor, William Frankfather, John Ingle, Clement von Franckenstein, Petrea Burchard, Jim Jansen, Mimi Kennedy, Paulo Tocha, Mark Davenport, Thomas Murphy, Michael Mills, Sonia Jackson, Jill C. Klein, Jean St. James, Debra Jo Rupp, Carol Ann Susi, Kay Yamamoto, Jacquelyn K. Koch, Anya Longwell, Stuart Mabray, Colleen Morris, Jonathan Silverman, Meg Wittner, Carrie Jean Yazel, Michael A. Nickles, John Enos, Danny Lee Clark, Fabio, Joel Beeson, Ron Stein, Bonnie Cahoon, Stéphanie Anderson, Bob Swain, Eric Clark, Dave Brock, Lydia Peterkoch, Phillip Irwin Cooper, Ernest Harada, Susan Kellermann, Kevin Caldwell, Alex Hernandez, Donna Ekholdt, Tammy Gantz, Melissa Martin, Jeff Adkins, Cheryl Baxter, Cameron English, Edmond Alan Forsyth, Bob Gaynor, Don Hesser, Michael Higgins, Kenneth Hughes, Kenneth Knaff, Glean Lewis, Keith McDaniel, Charles McGowan, Regan Patno, Lacy Darryl Phillips, Matt Sergott, Paul Michael Thorpe, Sergio Trujillo, Randy Crenshaw, Jon Joyce, Jerry Whitman, Timothy Burchett, Anthony S. Johnson, Michael Mills, Michael O’Hearn, Sydney Pollack, Ai Wan, Richard Yett.

On this day in movie history - Two Lovers (2008):

Two Lovers,

directed by James Gray,

written by James Gray and Richard Menello,

was released at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 19, 2008.

Cast:
Joaquin Phoenix, Vinessa Shaw, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samantha Ivers, Anne Joyce, Elliot Villar, Craig Walker, Carmen M. Herlihy, Donald John Hewitt, Christian Albrizo, Isabella Rossellini, Moni Moshonov, Julie Budd, Bob Ari, Iain J. Bopp, Jeanine Serralles, Miguel Rivera, Clinton C. Ingram, Doug Wright, David Ross, Elias Koteas, Shiran Nicholson, Marion McCorry, Saidah Arrika Ekulona, David Cale, Sy Fader, Joel Horwitz, John Baker, Kathryn Gerhardt, Luis Dalmasy Jr., Alex Felix, Geronimo Frias, Mari Koda, Pedro Saint Morillo, Anthony Ramos, Diosmer Reynoso, Edwige Sam, Franco Bulaon, Renee Fishman, Bianca Giancoli, Nick Gillie, Andrew Ginsburg, Brian Hopson, RJ Konner, Evan Lewis, Jose Edwin Soto, Uziman.

Immortal Beloved (1994) – the spiritual and the sensual:

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

– Ludwig van Beethoven.

 
This was an easy movie for me to love, because I’ve always loved Beethoven’s music.
I first heard Moonlight Sonata when I was a young kid and couldn’t get it out of my head.

As I heard more, I quickly became a fan.

In Immortal Beloved (1994), Ludwig van Beethoven wrote a last will and testament, leaving everything to his “Immortal Beloved”, but doesn’t name her specifically in the letter.
The identity of Beethoven’s true love and heir is still speculated to this day.

Immortal Beloved, directed and written by Bernard Rose, offers a possible theory as to how it might have been.

The movie opens with Beethoven (Gary Oldman), at the moment of his death.

Lightning flashes illuminate his face and coincide with the powerful opening of Beethoven’s majestic Fifth Symphony, booming on the soundtrack.

The opening credits and music rise as Beethoven’s coffin is carried out of his home and through crowded streets.

Anton Schindler (Jeroen Krabbé), Beethoven’s – at times – long-suffering secretary and biographer, reads his eulogy at the graveside:

Anton Schindler:

Ludwig van Beethoven, the man who inherited and increased the immortal fame of Handel and Bach, of Haydn and Mozart, is now no more.
He was an artist, and who will stand beside him?
He was an artist, and what he was, he was only through music.
The thorns of life had wounded him deeply, so he held fast to his art, even when the gate through which it entered was shut.
Music spoke through a deafened ear to he who could no longer hear it.
He carried the music in his heart.
Because he shut himself off from the world, they called him hostile.
They said he was unfeeling, and called him callous.
But he was not hard of heart.
It is the finest blades that are most easily blunted, bent or broken.
He withdrew from his fellow man after he had given them everything, and had received nothing in return.
He lived alone, because he found no second self.
Thus he was, thus he died.
Thus he will live for all time.

While fending off aggressive money-grubbers, grasping for the inheritance, Schindler travels through Austria.

His personal mission is to seek out the women involved with Beethoven, discover the identity of the rightful recipient, and deliver the letter to her.
During his quest, he meets and interviews Giulietta Guicciardi (Valeria Golino), Anna-Marie Erdödy (Isabella Rossellini), Johanna Reiss (Johanna ter Steege) and Nanette Streicherova (Miriam Margolyes), the owner of a hotel where Beethoven stayed and trashed the room.

We learn about Beethoven’s childhood at the hands of his brutish father.

His progressive deafness.

Failing health.

Reclusiveness.

His failed attempt to mentor his nephew, Karl (Marco Hofschneider), possibly wishing to vicariously experience success again.

The supporting cast includes:
Gerard Horan, Christopher Fulford, Michael Culkin, Barry Humphries, Alexandra Pigg, Geno Lechner, and Claudia Solti.

Immortal Beloved was released on December 16, 1994,

coinciding with Ludwig van Beethoven’s birthday: December 16, 1770.

Gary Oldman’s performance, as Beethoven, is intense and faultless.

Oldman is a talented character actor, possessing a chameleon ability to transform himself, physically and psychologically, into any role he portrays.

He becomes the part.

I watch Oldman in this movie, and I feel like I’m watching the real Beethoven.

There are many unforgettable scenes: Beethoven resting his head on the piano, as he plays Moonlight Sonata … the Ode to Joy debut … the young Beethoven, floating in the shallows of the lake, the night sky reflected in the water, giving the illusion that he is suspended in the universe.

Since its release, Immortal Beloved has been compared with Amadeus (1984), directed by Miloš Forman, another fictionalized drama about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

I also enjoyed Amadeus.

However, I can’t compare it to Immortal Beloved.

These are two separate movies, about different composers, made by different directors.

No matter whether the events depicted are historically accurate, or not, Immortal Beloved is the perfect merging of several genres: romance, love story, biopic, mystery, drama, tragedy.

The one question I was left with, a question that negates the theory of this movie, was why Beethoven didn’t go after Johanna Reiss after he arrived at the hotel and discovered she had left.

Beethoven could have followed her, even after venting and trashing the room.

That out of his system, he could have simply followed Johanna back to her home, caught up with her, and explained what happened during his journey and the reason for his late arrival.

The circumstances were out of Beethoven’s control.

I’m sure Johanna would have understood.

The mystery remains unsolved, but the movie is still a beautifully filmed drama from Mel Gibson's Icon production company.

An engaging, enthralling, and moving experience, with flawless performances throughout, and superb cinematography.

Like Ridley Scott’s The Duellists (1977), another true story of the Napoleonic era, the attention to period detail and costume design takes the viewer back in time to Beethoven’s world.

On a trivia note, Beethoven’s music is also a major theme of A Clockwork Orange (1971), directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess.

The Thieving Magpie, by Gioachino Rossini, is also on the soundtrack.

Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is also covered on the soundtrack to Die Hard (1988), directed by John McTiernan.

Beethoven’s music can also be heard in: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), The Breakfast Club (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995), and The King’s Speech (2010), and A Ghost Story (2017).

Ludwig van Beethoven was a genius.
An artist, driven to create by composing and expressing himself through music.
His brilliance is reflected in his work.
Work that has endured over centuries.
In the majestic music he gave to the world.

Created as he battled with his own flaws, inner demons, physical disability, and worsening health.

Finally, if the theory presented in this movie is accurate, Immortal Beloved is the story of love lost and rediscovered, even though too late for those involved.

As Dylan Thomas wrote:

Though lovers be lost, love shall not;
and death shall have no dominion.

Ludwig van Beethoven

December 16, 1770 – March 26, 1827