BEETHOVEN'S GREATEST LOVE

France, 1936, 116 minutes, Black and White.
Harry Bauer, Jean - Louis Barrault, Marcel Dalio.
Directed by Abel Gance.

Beethoven's Greatest Love is a romantic, fictitious, French biography of the great composer. Had it been made by a Hollywood company, it would have been greeted with critical disdain. The screenplay tampers with the life of Beethoven - especially his financial security and his relationships. He was never so poor or destitute as in this film.

However, the film was written and directed by the great French director Abel Gance. Gance made a number of successful silent films. He then made the epic Napoleon, using wide screen processes. Gance was noted as a technical innovator. However, with the financial failure of Napoleon, he made fewer films during the sound era.

Gance made the transition into sound film with technical advances in the use of sound. But his use of visuals was still influenced by silent film techniques. He presents tableaux. he directs his actors to perform in a rather histrionic style. He also uses captions to indicate the passing of time and to explain emotional reactions.

These techniques make the film look somewhat dated. However, there are many strong visually exciting scene, eg when Beethoven experiences deafness. Gance also cleverly uses sounds and the absence of sound to indicate Beethoven's torment.

The storyline is over-romantic, naive and with the picture of a somewhat oafish Beethoven not particularly charming. Harry Bauer, a French star of the '20s and '30s, gives great presence to Beethoven. (He had appeared in the epic six hour version of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables in 1934). The film portrays incidents from 1801 to the time of Beethoven's death in 1827 and includes romance, musical composition, often almost instantaneous as with the Pathetique and his decline into poverty and exploitation by his nephew Karl (played by the very young Jean Louis Barrault).

The film opens with a quotation from Wagner: I believe in God and Beethoven. While Beethoven is treated somewhat as a God he is presented as different, eccentric. There are some farcical scenes in his home life, especially with his housekeeper Esther. There is the devotion of Therese all through his life and the fickleness of Juliette who rejects him, marries, returns still devoted to him and has an affair with his profligate nephew Karl. The film has excerpts from most of his work, with a recurring dramatic (melodramatic) use of the opening chords of the 5th Symphony. As might be expected, the film ends with the Song of Joy from the 9th Symphony.

An eccentric piece of film making, but a glimpse into the work of Abel Gance. He calls his film 'un oeuvre' rather than 'a film'.