The information from Netflix was that it was a story about a boy who lived in a house where Beethoven was the tenant upstairs. The opening credits of the movie indicated it was a kid’s movie. Great.
The movie turned out to be pretty acceptable. It kept my interest and portrayed Beethoven near the end of his lifetime. He was working on the 9th Symphony at the time and had lost his hearing – the actor did a wonderful job of pulling off a cranky, but still touching man. Sometimes I just get so involved in playing the music the great composers wrote and I don’t sit down to think about the people behind them. There was a moment in the movie when the boy’s uncle is talking to him about the musical genius that is Beethoven and remarked something along the lines of, the music that we hear from Mr. Beethoven is just a fragment of the wonderful music that he hears inside of his head all the time.
How beautiful and frustrating that must have been. To be so full inside of music and unable to get it out fast enough – I can’t even imagine. I go nuts if I go for a few days without being able to express my emotions through the classics.
Hats off to Beethoven and the other great composers is all I could think about after watching that movie – check it out if you would like to see a different perspective on how Beethoven lived.
