Always a Beethoven fan I am planning to buy this movie:
The film — a biopic — treats the identity of the "Immortal Beloved" (Unsterbliche Geliebte) of composer Ludwig Van Beethoven as a mystery to be solved by his secretary and first biographer, Anton Schindler, a journey of discovery which takes Schindler to all corners of the Austrian Empire to interview the women who have a claim to candidacy. In this, it bears a family resemblance to the 1941 Orson Welles film Citizen Kane.
The core of fact upon which the film's speculations are built is as follows:
After Beethoven's death in 1827, three short letters were found among his private papers addressed to a woman whom he calls "immortal beloved". The letters exist, but there is no consensus among Beethoven scholars as to the true identity of the intended recipient, though the pages of the letters — probably written in the summer of 1812 from the spa town of Teplice — are certainly in Beethoven's handwriting.
Among the most plausible candidates put forward to date are Giulietta Guicciardi, Therese von Brunswick, Antonie Brentano, Johanna van Beethoven, Countess Anna-Marie Erdődy, all but one of whom feature in the film.
The film's writer and director, Bernard Rose, has controversially claimed in an interview that he himself has successfully identified the woman whom Beethoven loved, a task that has eluded researchers for nearly two hundred years. No scholar or writer on Beethoven has so far come forward to endorse Rose's claim, and one, Gail S. Altman, has vociferously disputed it in a book[1] devoted specifically to the question of the woman's identity, and Beethoven's relationships in general.
The Third Letter
Good morning, on July 7Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us - I can live only wholly with you or not at all - Yes, I am resolved to wander so long away from you until I can fly to your arms and say that I am really at home with you, and can send my soul enwrapped in you into the land of spirits - Yes, unhappily it must be so - You will be the more contained since you know my fidelity to you. No one else can ever possess my heart - never - never - Oh God, why must one be parted from one whom one so loves. And yet my life in V is now a wretched life - Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest of men - At my age I need a steady, quiet life - can that be so in our connection? My angel, I have just been told that the mailcoach goes every day - therefore I must close at once so that you may receive the letter at once - Be calm, only by a calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together - Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell. Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.ever thineever mineever ours
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