As a rule biopics of composers have a tough time pleasing everyone; purists kvetch about chronological lapses, music lovers feel short-changed and the neutrals feel that less music and more story - fabricated or not - would be better all round. Having said that Abel Gance has made a very decent fist of Beethoven's life and work, helped considerably by having one of the finest actors in the business - in France or elsewhere - Harry Baur in the lead role. For some bizarre reason Gance is thought of as a 'silent' director as if he'd his career had come to a halt with the advent of sound, a sort of directorial equivalent of John Gilbert, whereas he made several excellent sound films, not least this one. For 1936 he uses some adventurous techniques not least the 'Disney' birds, lined up on a branch singing their hearts out to a Beethoven unable to hear. Today we may feel that Gance overdid the transition from silence to sound as he switches back and forth between Beethoven's and a general viewpoint but in 1936 it was the perfect visual image to illustrate the profound loss suffered by a genius. This movie, in black and white though it is, towers above such jokes as Stewart Granger's Paganini (The Magic Bow) and Dirk Bogarde's Liszt (Song Without End) and as for the blood on the keys in Cornel Wilde's Chopin (A Song To Remember) do we really want to go there. This is one that will take some beating.
Review of The Life and Loves of Beethoven
