Bernard Rose and the Power of Film

In “Immortal Beloved”, Beethoven whispers to Anton Schindler:  "It is the power of music to carry one directly into the mental state of the composer. The listener has no choice. It is like hypnotism."

The film’s writer and director Bernard Rose extends this force in art to the cinema in his sublime visualization of “Ode to Joy”.  

For his final work, Beethoven chose to set text by Friedrich von Schiller, a poet he revered in his youth.

In the film, we watch as a young, emaciated Beethoven runs through the forest from the shrill cries of his abusive father.  As Schilller’s words rise from the chorus, Beethoven literally and figuratively steps from terra firma and floats into the firmament.

It is an image equal to arguably the most magnificent music ever written.

The sequence ends with the composer at the Ninth's premiere -- totally deaf by that time, his head buried in the score. He could hear neither the music itself nor the storm of applause and cheering that followed.

Caroline Unger, the Hungarian contralto who sang in the solo quartet, had to tug at his sleeve and turn him to face the audience; she later described the event to Sir George Grove, who wrote in his book on the Beethoven symphonies,

His turning round, and the sudden conviction thereby forced on everybody that he had not done so before because he could not hear what was going on, acted like an electric shock on all present, and a volcanic explosion of sympathy and admiration followed, which was repeated again and again, and seemed as if it would never end.

Bernard Rose deserves an equally electric jolt of admiration.

Phillip LeConte 2/11