Born on this day – Elsie Albiin:

Actress

December 17, 1921 – April 3, 2009

Born on this day – Joan Woodbury:

Actress

December 17, 1915 – February 22, 1989

Born on this day – Monique Rolland:

Actress

December 17, 1913 – September 27, 1999

Born on this day – Richard Sale:

Writer

Producer

Director

December 17, 1911 – March 4, 1993

Born on this day – David Butler:

 

Director

Actor

Writer

December 17, 1894 – June 14, 1979

Credits:

C'mon, Let's Live a Little (1967); Camp Runamuck (1966); Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1964–1965); The Patty Duke Show (1964–1965); Daniel Boone (1965); Leave It to Beaver (1959–1963); The Twilight Zone (1963); I Love My Doctor (1962); The Hathaways (1962); Wagon Train (1958–1962); The Deputy (1959–1961); The Right Approach (1961); Bringing Up Buddy (1960); Overland Trail (1960); General Electric Theater (1959); M Squad (1959); Buckskin (1958–1959); 77 Sunset Strip (1959); Schlitz Playhouse (1957–1959); Bachelor Father (1958); Captain Z-Ro (1955–1956); The Girl He Left Behind (1956); Screen Directors Playhouse (1956); Glory (1956); Studio 57 (1955); Jump Into Hell (1955); King Richard and the Crusaders (1954); The Command (1954); Calamity Jane (1953); By the Light of the Silvery Moon (1953); April in Paris (1952); Where's Charley? (1952); The Story of Will Rogers (1952); Painting the Clouds with Sunshine (1951); Lullaby of Broadway (1951); Tea for Two (1950); The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950); The Story of Seabiscuit (1949); It's a Great Feeling (1949); Look for the Silver Lining (1949); John Loves Mary (1949); Two Guys from Texas (1948); Marlon Brando Screentest for Rebel Without a Cause (1947); My Wild Irish Rose (1947); The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946); San Antonio (1945); The Princess and the Pirate (1944); Shine on Harvest Moon (1944); Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943); They Got Me Covered (1943); Road to Morocco (1942); Playmates (1941); Caught in the Draft (1941); You'll Find Out (1940); If I Had My Way (1940); That's Right - You're Wrong (1939); East Side of Heaven (1939); Kentucky (1938); Straight Place and Show (1938); Kentucky Moonshine (1938); You're a Sweetheart (1937); Ali Baba Goes to Town (1937); Pigskin Parade (1936); White Fang (1936); Captain January (1936); The Littlest Rebel (1935); Doubting Thomas (1935); The Little Colonel (1935); Bright Eyes (1934); Have a Heart (1934); Handy Andy (1934); Bottoms Up (1934); My Weakness (1933); Hold Me Tight (1933); Handle with Care (1932); Down to Earth (1932); Business and Pleasure (1932); Delicious (1931); A Connecticut Yankee (1931); Just Imagine (1930); High Society Blues (1930); Nertz (1929); Sunny Side Up (1929); Salute (1929); Chasing Through Europe (1929); Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 (1929); Masked Emotions (1929); Prep and Pep (1928); Win That Girl (1928); News Parade (1928); High School Hero (1927); The Rush Hour (1927); Should Second Husbands Come First? (1927); 7th Heaven (1927); Girl in the Rain (1927); Nobody's Widow (1927); The Quarterback (1926); Womanpower (1926); The Blue Eagle (1926); Meet the Prince (1926); Oh, Baby! (1926); Too Many Relations (1926); The Sap (1926); His Own Lawyer (1926); The Gold Hunters (1925); The Plastic Age (1925); Wages for Wives (1925); The Phantom Express (1925); The People vs. Nancy Preston (1925); The Man on the Box (1925); Havoc (1925); His Majesty, Bunker Bean (1925); Tracked in the Snow Country (1925); Private Affairs (1925); Code of the West (1925); The Narrow Street (1925); In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter (1924); The Arizona Express (1924); Hoodman Blind (1923); The Temple of Venus (1923); Cause for Divorce (1923); Desire (1923); The Fog (1923); Mary of the Movies (1923); A Noise in Newboro (1923); Poor Men's Wives (1923); The Hero (1923); Conquering the Woman (1922); The Village Blacksmith (1922); According to Hoyle (1922); The Wise Kid (1922); The Milky Way (1922); Bing Bang Boom (1922); Making the Grade (1921); The Sky Pilot (1921); Girls Don't Gamble (1920); The County Fair (1920); Fickle Women (1920); Smiling All the Way (1920); Don't Ever Marry (1920); The Triflers (1920); The Pointing Finger (1919); Bonnie Bonnie Lassie (1919); The Other Half (1919); A Petal on the Current (1919); Nugget Nell (1919); Better Times (1919); Upstairs and Down (1919); The Unpainted Woman (1919); The Girl Who Stayed at Home (1919); The Greatest Thing in Life (1918); Intolerance (1916); The Deathlock (1915); The Alien (1915); The Birth of a Nation (1915); The Adventures of Kathlyn (1913); The Sea Wolf (1913); The Face at the Window (1910).

Ursula K. Le Guin, on being an introvert and a writer:

Hardly anybody ever writes anything nice about introverts.

Extroverts rule.

This is rather odd when you realise that about nineteen writers out of twenty are introverts.

We are being taught to be ashamed of not being 'outgoing'.

But a writer's job is ingoing.

- Ursula K. Le Guin.

Immortal Beloved (1994) – the spiritual and the sensual:

Review by Jack Kost

 

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

– Ludwig van Beethoven.

 

This was an easy movie for me to love, because I’ve always loved Beethoven’s music.

I first heard Moonlight Sonata when I was a young kid and couldn’t get it out of my head.

As I heard more, I quickly became a fan.

In Immortal Beloved (1994), Ludwig van Beethoven wrote a last will and testament, leaving everything to his “Immortal Beloved”, but doesn’t name her specifically in the letter.

The identity of Beethoven’s true love and heir is still speculated to this day.

Immortal Beloved, directed and written by Bernard Rose, offers a possible theory as to how it might have been.

The movie opens with Beethoven (Gary Oldman), at the moment of his death.

Lightning flashes illuminate his face and coincide with the powerful opening of Beethoven’s majestic Fifth Symphony, booming on the soundtrack.

The opening credits and music rise as Beethoven’s coffin is carried out of his home and through crowded streets.

Anton Schindler (Jeroen Krabbé), Beethoven’s – at times – long-suffering secretary and biographer, reads his eulogy at the graveside:

Anton Schindler:

“Ludwig van Beethoven, the man who inherited and increased the immortal fame of Handel and Bach, of Haydn and Mozart, is now no more.

He was an artist, and who will stand beside him?

He was an artist, and what he was, he was only through music.

The thorns of life had wounded him deeply, so he held fast to his art, even when the gate through which it entered was shut.

Music spoke through a deafened ear to he who could no longer hear it.

He carried the music in his heart.

Because he shut himself off from the world, they called him hostile.

They said he was unfeeling, and called him callous.

But he was not hard of heart.

It is the finest blades that are most easily blunted, bent or broken.

He withdrew from his fellow man after he had given them everything, and had received nothing in return.

He lived alone, because he found no second self.

Thus he was, thus he died.

Thus he will live for all time.”

While fending off aggressive money-grubbers, grasping for the inheritance, Schindler travels through Austria.

His personal mission is to seek out the women involved with Beethoven, discover the identity of the rightful recipient, and deliver the letter to her.

During his quest, he meets and interviews Giulietta Guicciardi (Valeria Golino), Anna-Marie Erdödy (Isabella Rossellini), Johanna Reiss (Johanna ter Steege) and Nanette Streicherova (Miriam Margolyes), the owner of a hotel where Beethoven stayed and trashed the room.

We learn about Beethoven’s childhood at the hands of his brutish father.

His progressive deafness.

Failing health.

Reclusiveness.

His failed attempt to mentor his nephew, Karl (Marco Hofschneider), possibly wishing to vicariously experience success again.

The supporting cast includes:

Gerard Horan, Christopher Fulford, Michael Culkin, Barry Humphries, Alexandra Pigg, Geno Lechner, and Claudia Solti.

Immortal Beloved was released on December 16, 1994,

coinciding with Ludwig van Beethoven’s birthday: December 16, 1770.

Gary Oldman’s performance, as Beethoven, is intense and faultless.

Oldman is a talented character actor, possessing a chameleon ability to transform himself, physically and psychologically, into any role he portrays.

He becomes the part.

I watch Oldman in this movie, and I feel like I’m watching the real Beethoven.

There are many unforgettable scenes: Beethoven resting his head on the piano, as he plays Moonlight Sonata … the Ode to Joy debut … the young Beethoven, floating in the shallows of the lake, the night sky reflected in the water, giving the illusion that he is suspended in the universe.

Since its release, Immortal Beloved has been compared with Amadeus (1984), directed by Miloš Forman, another fictionalized drama about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

I also enjoyed Amadeus.

However, I can’t compare it to Immortal Beloved.

These are two separate movies, about different composers, made by different directors.

No matter whether the events depicted are historically accurate, or not, Immortal Beloved is the perfect merging of several genres: romance, love story, biopic, mystery, drama, tragedy.

The one question I was left with, a question that negates the theory of this movie, was why Beethoven didn’t go after Johanna Reiss after he arrived at the hotel and discovered she had left.

Beethoven could have followed her, even after venting and trashing the room.

That out of his system, he could have simply followed Johanna back to her home, caught up with her, and explained what happened during his journey and the reason for his late arrival.

The circumstances were out of Beethoven’s control.

I’m sure Johanna would have understood.

The mystery remains unsolved, but the movie is still a beautifully filmed drama from Mel Gibson's Icon production company.

An engaging, enthralling, and moving experience, with flawless performances throughout, and superb cinematography.

Like Ridley Scott’s The Duellists (1977), another true story of the Napoleonic era, the attention to period detail and costume design takes the viewer back in time to Beethoven’s world.

On a trivia note, Beethoven’s music is also a major theme of A Clockwork Orange (1971), directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel by Anthony Burgess.

The Thieving Magpie, by Gioachino Rossini, is also on the soundtrack.

Beethoven’s Ode to Joy is also covered on the soundtrack to Die Hard (1988), directed by John McTiernan.

Beethoven’s music can also be heard in: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965), The Breakfast Club (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995), and The King’s Speech (2010), and A Ghost Story (2017).

Ludwig van Beethoven was a genius.

An artist, driven to create by composing and expressing himself through music.

His brilliance is reflected in his work.

Work that has endured over centuries.

In the majestic music he gave to the world.

Created as he battled with his own flaws, inner demons, physical disability, and worsening health.

Finally, if the theory presented in this movie is accurate, Immortal Beloved is the story of love lost and rediscovered, even though too late for those involved.

As Dylan Thomas wrote:

Though lovers be lost, love shall not;

and death shall have no dominion.

Ludwig van Beethoven

December 16, 1770 – March 26, 1827