Eroica Page #2

Synopsis: On June 9, 1804, Ludwig van Beethoven and his pupil Ries assemble a group of musicians to give the first performance of his Third Symphony, 'Bonaparte', to his patron Prince Lobkowitz and his guests, including hypercritical Count Dietrichstein, in Vienna. The piece provokes political arguments among players and audience as to whether Bonaparte is a tyrant, or, as Beethoven believes, a liberator. The composer is also rejected by his former love, the recently widowed Josephine von Deym, though the visiting elder statesman of composers Haydn pays him a strange compliment. Leaving the gathering, Beethoven confesses to Ries that he is losing his hearing and later he reads that Bonaparte has declared himself the French emperor. As a result he will lose all respect for Napoleon and will change the symphony's title to 'Eroica'.
 
IMDB:
7.6
Year:
2003
129 min
539 Views


Bloody hell.

They're ready, sir.

My wife says it's about Napoleon.

How may a piece of music

be said to be about something?

I have never seen anything like it.

It may not be music at all.

Stop!

- I thought you were supposed to be good.

- It's off the beat.

And there are so many markings.

Gentlemen.

Gentlemen, it is our first attempt.

Patience, please.

Even to my ears, it did sound rather fiendish.

Rather difficult to play, don't you think?

Violent. Needlessly violent.

- Bonaparte.

- I've marked it exactly as I want it played.

- The marking here, you see - sforzando.

- "Sforzando"?

A sharp attack to each note, Your Highness.

Really hammering it.

- How modern.

- You're trained to make a beautiful sound.

But I don't want a beautiful sound.

Elsewhere, yes, but not here.

This is a summons, an imperative.

Play me the first two chords.

I want more intensity, more guts.

Again, please.

- Don't be so tentative. Play louder.

- We never play louder than that.

And some of it's hard to follow.

It keeps changing.

Yes. It changes. The mood shifts all the time.

But are you telling me you can't play it?

- Not at all.

- Then play it, for the love of Christ.

Could we play it a little slower, sir?

No.

Not slow. Urgent.

That's it, yes. Punch every accent.

My God, it's like a dam bursting.

- Fool! Wrong!

- Don't interrupt!

It's a copyist's mistake, is it?

I've left my two eldest in the nursery.

I hope that's all right.

- What's all the fuss?

- The horn came in too early.

- That's my hand. There's no mistake.

- Of course not.

- Extraordinary.

- Otto, play it as written.

Let's go on, shall we?

I'm terribly sorry.

- Are you trying to wreck it?

- It didn't sound right.

- Didn't obey the rules?

- No.

Go over there. Go over there.

Piss off.

Gentlemen.

A Haydn would be over by now, sir,

wouldn't it?

He's buggered about

with the whole thing, hasn't he?

The shape of it and that.

Is it finished?

- Let's go straight on.

- That was quite superlative.

I thought of a battle. I thought of a general,

horse rearing, saber shining.

And columns of men

streaming through the mountains.

- I was meant to, wasn't I?

- If you like.

If it was a battle, we should have had

snare drum, surely.

Drums and fifes in march time.

I rather gained a picture

of a hero of antiquity.

A Greek, perhaps. Achilles.

I am so sorry. I'm forgetting.

May I present my cousin von Dietrichstein?

The Countess von Deym.

The Countess von Brunsvik.

How is your brother?

He's at Korompa Castle. Otherwise he

would be here. He adores these gatherings.

- He sends his love to you.

- Forgive us for missing the opening.

You didn't miss much. Tasteless intermarriage

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Nick Dear

Nick Dear (born 11 June 1955 in Portsmouth) is an English writer for stage, screen and radio. He received a BAFTA for his first screenwriting credit, a TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Dear graduated with a degree in Comparative European Literature from the University of Essex in 1977. Dear’s plays include Power and The Villains’ Opera at the National Theatre; The Art of Success, Zenobia and Pure Science for the RSC; In the Ruins at Bristol Old Vic and Royal Court, London (1990); and Food of Love at the Almeida. Adaptations include Gorky’s Summerfolk and Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme at the National; Tirso de Molina’s The Last Days of Don Juan at the Royal Shakespeare Company; Arbuzov’s The Promise at the Tricycle; Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw at Bristol Old Vic; and Ostrovsky’s A Family Affair for Cheek by Jowl. Dear's screenplays include Persuasion, The Gambler, The Turn of the Screw, Cinderella, Byron, Eroica and Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Opera libretti include The Palace in the Sky at Hackney Empire and Siren Song at the Almeida. In 2005, Lunch in Venice appeared at the Shell Connections festival at the National Theatre. His plays Power (2003), and Summerfolk (1999) both premiered at the same venue. Power deals with the intrigue and tension of the court of the young Louis XIV of France. It has been produced at theatres in Portugal, Poland and Hungary, as well as the Finnish National Theatre (Kansallisteatteri). His play The Art of Success premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1986 in a production starring Penny Downie and Michael Kitchen, and was nominated for an Olivier Award. The plot revolves around William Hogarth and the political manipulation of art, the corruption of politics and treatment of women. It was subsequently produced at Manhattan Theatre Club in 1989, with Tim Curry playing Hogarth.Dear's adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein premiered at the Royal National Theatre in 2011, in a production directed by Danny Boyle.In November 2012 The Dark Earth and the Light Sky, his biographical play about Edward Thomas, opened at the Almeida Theatre, in a production directed by Richard Eyre. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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