His flirtations, affairs and proposals of marriage had always ended in rejection. He had often been in love, but seldom deeply or for long. The letter, apparently written in bursts over two days, was both impassioned and ambivalent - it seems Beethoven was wrestling with the idea of a permanent, stable relationship, and answering a woman who was eager for this to happen. Also found in the drawer was a portrait of Therese von Brunsvik, a countess and friend of the composer. Shortly after Beethoven's death in 1827, a letter was discovered in a secret drawer of his wardrobe, along with assorted other documents. Maynard Solomon got close to settling the mystery in his 1977 biography, 'Beethoven,' and his work is now accepted by virtually all Beethoven scholars.Īnd so, with Solomon's guidance, let's dig into the romantic riddle. But a lot has been learned since Thayer's book, and some of it is helpful in the hunt for the Beloved. The flimsy foundation on which the movie builds its speculation likely came from the great biography of Beethoven written in the last century by Alexander Wheelock Thayer, and revised by Elliot Forbes.

It ignores a lot of solid research to arrive at a highly improbable conclusion: that the Immortal Beloved was actually Beethoven's sister-in-law, whom he loved with a fiery and angry passion.

The premise begins factually enough: Upon Beethoven's death, his stalwart assistant Anton Felix Schindler (Jeroen Krabbe) discovers a letter addressed to a woman identified only as 'Immortal Beloved.' From there, the filmmaker's invention sends Schindler on a search across Europe for the mystery lover.Īlong the way, the movie surveys some of the women in Beethoven's life - but the survey is far too simple and incomplete. And historically it has serious problems. On the other hand, 'Immortal Beloved' tries too hard to be another 'Amadeus' without coming close - it lacks the philosophic depth of Peter Shaffer's masterpiece about the life and death of Mozart. And the music is great - nearly all of it, after all, is by Beethoven (though there's a Rossini overture stuck right in the middle). There are reasons to go and see 'Immortal Beloved.' Some of the photography is outstanding it puts you vividly in early 19th-century Vienna. This time, the movie is called 'Immortal Beloved' and its perpetrators tell us that Ludwig van Beethoven had an affair with his brother's wife, Johanna, hastened his brother's death and was the real father of their son Karl, whom he adopted as his nephew. The last time they made a movie about Beethoven, he was a Saint Bernard dog.

Unrequited by Emily Shaffer