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kdalton
Reviews
Le neveu de Beethoven (1985)
Inept, as well as inaccurate.
This is a terrible movie. Its only saving graces are Wolfgang Reichmann's performance as Beethoven, the locations and costumes. Dieter Prinz as Karl, Beethoven's nephew, is monotonous and expressionless (as are several other actors). He may have been reading his lines phonetically; if so someone should have coached him better. The costumer clearly did her research, as some of the outfits look nearly identical to sketches and paintings from Beethoven's time. Reichmann bears a decent resemblance to him (although, sometimes he looks more like Leo McKern) and does a fine job with what he's given. However, there are many inaccuracies. The portrayal of his increasing deafness is inconsistent and the reenactment of the famous performance of the Ninth Symphony at which Beethoven attempted to conduct was simply wrong.