~~"Ludwig van Beethoven, ~~the man who inherited...
~~and increased the immortal fame ~~of Handel and Bach...
~~of Haydn and Mozart, ~~is now no more.
(Subtitle Revised by HchC)
~~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."
~~Which one of you is the thief?
Huh?
Produce the money, or I will have you arrested!
Then arrest me!
I took him in when nobody could bear his company!
And now you want to get paid, eh?
- Bank shares. - Give them to me!
The money is mine!
Here. Here is his will.
"I declare that my brothers Caspar and Johann...
are the heirs to my fortune, if so it can be called."
As Caspar is long dead, that leaves me! Just me!
Well, give me my money! Answer!
This is his final testament.
What?
"All my music and all the capital of my estate..
shall go to my sole heir, my immortal beloved."
Signed, "Ludwig van Beethoven."
A letter is enclosed.
- This is-- - Come on, now.
Don't keep me in suspense. Who is it?
- Nobody. - Oh, not so.
The letter bears no name.
"To my immortal beloved."
"My angel, my all, my other self."
The maestro was nursing a secret passion.
I never heard such words from his lips. Who could this be?
The only love he held was for himself.
I suffered his insults, his temper.
I suffered in silence when he spat the food I made back in my face.
That money is ours!
It is not.
It doesn't matter anymore. He is gone.
We have his music.
Destroy this letter.
It would only show his disordered life to the world.
It's his dying wish. We owe him at least that.
You have no authority in this matter.
I have his authority.
Still the faithful dog, eh?
He was my friend.
What friend would be so cruel?
What brother so uncaring?
You know nothing of my brother!
Take me to Karlsbad.
~~"My angel, my all, my other self.
~~Just a few words today ~~and that in pencil, yours.
~~Only tomorrow will I know for certain ~~where I am to stay.
~~A worthless waste of time ~~and such.
~~Why this deep sorrow?
~~If we could be united, ~~we would feel this pain no longer."
- Good afternoon, sir. - Good afternoon, Frau--
Streicher.
- Herr Schindler. - Let me find your reservation.
I'm afraid I don't have a reservation.
Oh, no matter. We have always room for a gentleman such as yourself.
Is this the address for this hotel?
One moment.
~~Ja, of course.
Do you know the name Ludwig van Beethoven?
- The composer? - Yes.
I knew him.
- Did he ever stay here? - Are you a policeman?
Then I will not answer your questions.
Oh, please, I'm trying to conclude his affairs.
Ah, van Beethoven is dead.
Alas, yes.
Best thing for him. He was a terrible man.
Then he stayed here?
A long time ago. Too long to remember.
I can remember only the damage.
The damage?
I was never paid for the damage.
He smashed it all up, everything.
There was a chair, three florins. Window, five.
- I had to paint everything. - Frau Streicher.
Would this be sufficient?
~~There was a woman.
~~We had been expecting ~~Herr van Beethoven for days.
~~She came instead.
~~She said he was to join her.
~~She registered in his room.
Under what name?
~~illegible. Then...
~~there was this terrible storm, ~~a deluge.
~~The woman hid in her room...
~~waiting.
~~Ashamed to show her face, ~~I'd say.
~~And then, the letter arrived.
~~You opened the letter.
~~I had to. How else would I know ~~who it was for?
~~I only read his signature.
"My angel, my all, my other self.
Just a few words...
and that in pencil--"
~~I sent it to her room at once.
~~She can't have liked what she read.
~~She left at once, right away.
~~Left without a word to anybody.
And then, of course, Herr van Beethoven arrives.
When he found she was gone, he went mad.
He was like a madman.
~~Threw a chair out of the window.
~~I called the police. ~~I was frightened of him.
Herr van Beethoven !
Open up!
Here is her signature.
Is that a "J" or a "G"?
It looks more like an "A" to me.
She was haughty like a countess.
What did she look like?
~~Never got a proper look at her.
~~I don't think she wanted ~~to be recognized.
Herr Schindler.
Lock the door.
But, Countess--
Lock the door.
We must not be disturbed.
Not everything they say about me is true.
Holz was here with the other one, the weasel.
Johann.
How could Luigi have such a vile brother?
I hope they were in good health.
They say you have stolen Luigi's money.
They thought you would come here.
Why?
I told them nothing.
The price for my silence is that you must tell me everything.
I'm afraid that's impossible. It falls upon me to interrogate you.
Why should I submit to that?
That is what he wanted.
Who?
The maestro.
What I shall tell you will never leave this room?
On my word of honor, Contessa.
There is substance to the rumors.
I was the great love of Luigi's life.
~~I first heard the name ~~Beethoven when I was 17.
~~I had heard that his music ~~aroused such passion as to be dangerous.
~~Some thought it obscene ~~and unsuitable for the young.
~~I wrote to my cousins, ~~Theresa and Josephine.
~~They lived in Vienna, ~~the great music capital of the world.
~~Surely they would know more. ~~Indeed they did.
~~They knew him intimately.
~~More intimately than ~~they admitted at the time.
~~Most nights I dreamt of him.
~~And then, ~~Father was posted to Vienna.
~~We were invited to Prince Lichnowsky's ~~palace for a musical evening.
~~Beethoven was going to be there.
~~I knew he must be so noble...
~~so refined in feeling, ~~so cultured.
~~I could hardly wait. ~~I was going to hear him play.
~~That music affected me like ~~none I had ever heard before.
~~And as for Beethoven...
~~I was soon overcome.
~~I feared I might faint.
Hello.
Oh. I didn't see you.
I have to go back.
Oh, you are leaving me to listen to that ass...
who plays like a kitchen maid, all clipped and staccato.
This music is beautiful.
I was told that the Viennese had superior taste.
Clearly in your case, it is not true.
You must be Julia Guicciardi.
I hear there's quite a contest for your charms.
Sir, you're rude and offensive. I'm leaving.
- Do you play the piano? - What?
I intend to be your teacher.
I shall call for you tomorrow at 10:00.
You shall be barred from the house.
~~I could not believe the outrage.
~~This ugly man, surely a servant, ~~had called at the front door.
I have an appointment.
She has a piano.
A gentleman is here to see you.
He says he's your new music teacher.
Father, there has been a mistake. This man is a common oat.
He accosted me last night. Send him away at once.
I will not! It would be a shame on our household.
Sir?
May I present Ludwig van Beethoven?
So you must attend my next recital.
I heard you last week.
I remember.
The music was beautiful.
Surely not that bad.
I found the playing exquisite.
It's that damned Beethoven I can't stand.
People only claim to admire his stuff so as not to seem ignorant.
My dear husband, don't confirm your stupidity in front of the guests.
We all speak frankly here.
Tell us your opinion.
Heavens, no. I was not looking for flattery.
It was too clipped and staccato.
There was not enough singing tone.
Julia, as you can see, is being taught by the maestro himself.
What?
He comes every day to the house.
Every day?
Is that wise?
Why do you say that?
He's a harsh teacher.
He's a scoundrel and a republican.
It is even said that he is a follower of Napoleon.
He'd have us all in the arms of Madame La Guillotine.
He travels in polite society on his reputation as a virtuoso...
but flies into a fit if anyone...
even dares suggest he sit at the keyboard.
Why will he no longer play?
Beethoven is a strange and obstinate man.
He says it makes him feel like a servant...
and he serves no masters.
But he takes the money.
You think because I did not stop you that I am not listening.
A mistake is nothing.
But the fact that you thump out the notes...
without the least sensitivity to their meaning is unforgivable.
And your lack of passion is unforgivable.
I shall have to beat you.
I am writing a new symphony.
It will cause a scandal because of its subject.
- Tell me. - Here. Take my arm.
They should make way for us, not us for them!
Their days are over. Your world is finished!
Oh, shut up!
When I was a boy, they would have had you arrested for less.
But now they are scared of what is happening in France.
- You know why wigs went out of fashion? - Why?
Because too many ended up in the bottom of baskets.
But I am a countess, too, Luigi.
They are scared. Scared of Napoleon.
That is why Napoleon is the subject of my symphony.
I have here a proposal of marriage..
from a composer.
- Count Gallenberg. - Oh.
You were thinking of Beethoven?
Julia, the gossip is everywhere.
- He also has proposed. - Then there is no contest.
- You love Beethoven? - Yes.
I cannot give my consent.
We are not wealthy, Julia.
He is a man without rank, fortune or permanent engagement.
His character and temperament are so peculiar that I doubt...
any would find happiness with him.
- He's a genius. - Perhaps.
But in the last year he has not played nor published a single note.
There are those who say there is some infirmity that prevents him.
Untrue gossip! Lies!
Has he played for you?
~~We made a bargain. If I could ~~prove Luigi could still play...
~~Father would give his consent.
Obviously a fine countess.
Dear brother...
you are going up in the world.
Hand it over, you ignoramus.
As your secretary, it is my solemn duty to read this.
~~"Beloved Luigi, my father ~~has recently taken delivery...
~~of a new pianoforte ~~from Broadwood in London.
~~It is of the latest design and is ~~the first of its kind in Vienna.
~~Tomorrow morning I will send away ~~the servants and we shall all be out.
~~I have done this so that you might try ~~this new invention undisturbed."
What is the meaning of this? What kind of trick have you played on me?
Stop it, Luigi.
- Herr Beethoven, I beg you. - Now I see.
- I see perfectly. - We mean you no harm.
- A little test! - Luigi, wait!
It is terrible to rob me in this way...
of my most treasured feelings!
Father can go to hell! I bid you wait!
It's no use. He can't hear you!
He's deaf!
A month later I married Count Gallenberg.
And you never heard from him again?
He wrote to me.
It was--
After the war, there had been some...
unpleasantness.
It was a bad time.
~~They who think me hostile...
~~obstinate or misanthropic...
~~how unjust they are to me...
~~for they do not know ~~the secret reason I appear that way.
~~It is not possible for me ~~to say, "Speak louder.
~~Shout. I am deaf."
~~How can I live if my enemies, ~~who are many...
~~believe I no longer possess ~~the one sense that should be perfect...
~~to a higher degree in me ~~than in others?
Not so fast. So what will you do?
See every shallow countess Ludwig gave a dedication to?
They are all liars who want a piece of him now he is gone.
I have the lady's signature.
I shall study his correspondence to find the hand that matches.
It is illegible. You are wasting your time.
- No court will uphold this nonsense. - Help me then.
Are you mad?
Help you to cheat me? I will tell you this.
There is no lady at the end of your search.
Ludwig was a woman hater. Look at how he behaved with Johanna.
He had every right. Your brother took a bride of low character.
You are too much under Ludwig's influence to see the truth.
He wanted Caspar under his thumb.
~~Running his errands.
~~He hated Johanna ~~because she took him away.
There she is.
Oh, she's so beautiful.
- A marvelous creature. - She will be mine.
So, you would betray me for that?
Where is your book? Here.
Willingly.
She can be bought.
- All women can be bought. - You are insulting the woman I love.
At first, it will be all enticements.
Then, snap! The trap shuts. There's always a price to pay.
I would never betray you for one of those creatures.
Brothers, I have wonderful news.
She has finally consented.
- You are to be wed? - Yes!
You explain to him.
May I...
present my bride?
Is this a joke?
You cannot be serious.
By all means, copulate with her.
But marriage? What for?
You will be a laughingstock.
Every farmhand in the region has enjoyed her for free.
Why should you pay more?
I know you cannot hear me, and I don't care.
What I have to say is for Caspar, not you.
I have had lovers...
but that is not a crime.
I told you it was impossible.
I only want what is right.
~~He was jealous of his brother.
Why, she will destroy him.
~~Jealous of his happiness.
I'm Ludwig van Beethoven, and I need your help.
Break the door down.
What are you playing at?
Arrest that whore.
- Don't touch her! - Arrest that whore.
That is slander.
We were married yesterday.
She is with child.
Now leave!
He behaved no better when I married Therese.
He wanted us both at his beck and call.
Give up the search.
I cannot.
I have my reasons.
I will find this lady.
And she will claim her legacy with the full force of the law.
~~"The journey was dreadful.
~~The coach had to go and break ~~down on such a terrible road.
~~And for no reason, ~~just a country road.
~~I have to see you.
~~However much you love me, ~~I love you more.
~~Never hide yourself from me."
Excuse me. I'm looking for the Countess Erdoy.
Erdoy?
I'm looking for the Countess Erdoy.
Zoltan !
Schindler. You do not recognize me?
Oh.
Please, sit. Join me for dinner.
- Countess. - Anna Marie.
These are my people I'm home now. I don't have to play the countess.
I'm free!
Poor Louis. I miss him so much.
His death has left a void.
The way they treated him...
disgusted me.
He was too good for them.
His fire...
offended their small brains.
But not you.
I could match his temperament.
You gave him rooms at your palace?
I wanted him near me.
Was he your lover?
Horns!
Clarinets!
From the beginning.
~~That was how I met Louis...
~~and how the world ~~learned of his deafness.
~~I was separated from my husband.
~~I lived an independent life in Vienna ~~with my three children.
I will arrange a housekeeper.
Please.
Oh, I had one.
She cheated me.
~~We had thought of Napoleon ~~as a liberator...
~~a force for change.
~~Now we saw the truth.
~~Bonaparte ~~had declared himself emperor...
~~and set out to conquer the world.
~~He said he brought freedom ~~from the tyranny of kings.
~~But he was Saturn, ~~gobbling up his children.
~~His cannon fired night and day...
~~on the city of Vienna.
Leave her alone!
Mimi!
Fire!
Madam.
There is a gentleman here to see you.
I cannot receive anybody.
I think he is deaf.
He will not go away.
The countess will see you now.
Your son--
We will speak in music.
~~Napoleon was victorious.
~~The whole of Europe was at his feet.
~~He took a Hapsburg princess ~~as his bride...
~~and set up court at Schoenbrun Palace.
~~He proved himself no different ~~than any aristocrat.
~~Everybody was betrayed.
~~This was the way ~~of the modern world.
~~The year Louis lived with us...
~~was the happiest of my life.
~~And, I think, of his too.
~~He opened his heart to me.
~~He called me ~~his father confessor.
~~He told me everything.
~~You must have loved him ~~very, very much.
~~With all my heart.
~~And he you.
I don't think so. No.
Then he was a fool!
I like you better drunk.
- It's good to talk about him. - Yeah.
But is this why you came all this way?
No, not only.
You said there was some unfinished business.
There is.
But how can I help you, Anton?
Perhaps it's nothing.
And perhaps it's the key to him.
Perhaps they're right and I should let it go, but I cannot.
- It's impossible for me. - But why?
It was that damned sonata...
the "Kreutzer."
~~At the time I entertained ~~ambitions of a musical career.
~~I'd gone to Vienna to study ~~and was fortunate enough...
~~to be taken by Schuppanzigh ~~as a pupil.
~~He and George Bridgetower, ~~the famous virtuoso from Africa...
~~were about to premiere ~~this new Beethoven sonata...
~~at Count Razumovsky's that evening...
~~and I was allowed ~~to attend the rehearsal.
~~It was there that the seed ~~of a mystery was planted...
~~that haunts me to this day.
Do you like it?
I cannot hear them.
But I know they are making a hash of it.
What do you think?
Music is a dreadful thing.
What is it?
I don't understand it.
What does it do?
It exalts the soul.
Utter nonsense If you hear a marching band, is your soul exalted?
No, you march. If you hear a waltz, you dance.
If you hear a mass, you take communion.
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.
So, now...
what was in my mind when I wrote this?
A man is trying to reach his lover.
His carriage has broken down in the rain.
The wheels stuck in the mud.
She will only wait so long.
This...
is the sound of his agitation.
~~"This is how it is..."
~~the music is saying.
~~"Not how you are used to being.
~~Not how you are used to thinking.
~~But like this."
~~Who was the woman? ~~He never told me.
~~I knew better than to ask.
~~He made me see the world ~~in an entirely new light.
~~I abandoned my petty ambitions. ~~I fetched and carried for him.
~~I wrote his letters and smoothed over ~~his domestic disputes.
~~I became his secretary.
Oh, the hag has sold it in the market for a souvenir.
Oh, no.
It's lost.
Gone forever.
Here.
Maybe not.
~~Ludwig was convinced he had left ~~the sketch for his new symphony...
~~in the safekeeping ~~of his brother Caspar.
- My God. Here. - Uncle!
~~The brothers had barely spoken ~~for eight years.
This is Herr Schindler.