This movie exceeded my expectations! It would seem that nothing special, another adaptation from the BBC guys who make the tapes sound, but still not bright, modest, in a sense student. Here it is: just 83 minutes, the plot is simple as a wooden hammer, just shows the premiere performance of the Third Symphony. As if not a full-fledged film, but a sketch on the topic.
In fact, it happened - but exactly the opposite. The creators of the picture turned inside out the very structure of the film: if music usually serves as an auxiliary component of a dramatic action, then here the Symphony itself became the main character (an essay lasting more than 50 minutes is performed in the picture as a whole). All attention is paid to it; the smallest details are carefully examined and relished. Director S.S. Jones trusted the immortal work of Beethoven, and it did not fail: it was the brightness of the music that provided the film with the juiciness, saturation, which most BBC productions so lack. It's just a knight's move!
The video series is nothing more than a frame, like a booklet attached to a music CD. Is it easy to make such a frame? Theoretically yes, in practice I don’t know. In any case, looking at how carefully Jones and his comrades recreated the atmosphere of a particular event (the solemn reception in the house of the Lobkowitz princes), and the era as a whole, it seems that this is a very painstaking work, and not everyone is given to do it so successfully. A little more than an hour of screen time fit a brief, but rather convincing squeeze of all the key issues of the early XIX century – war and peace, freedom and tyranny, aristocracy and equality, the past and future of art and mores.
Moreover, statements on topical topics do not look abstract theorizing; actors are in the frame not to spread their mouths and voice ideas, but create interesting, vivid images. For an 83-minute film, the characters are extremely many, but the directors managed to put them together as a whole ensemble, coordinated like a good orchestra. Here are the good-natured connoisseurs of the beautiful Lobkowitz couple, here is the prim guardian of the old regime, Count Dietrichstein, here are the refined and attractive Countess Dame and Brunswick, here is Beethoven's pupil Rhys, an enthusiast and a fool, here is Maestro Haydn, who realizes that his times are irrevocably gone, and doomed to live out his age. It is clear that the directors avoid stereotyping as much as possible in such a short tape.
The musicians are also interesting - the intelligent leader of the orchestra Vranitsky, an expert in his field; an elderly cellist who fought against Napoleon and miraculously returned alive; a rude horn player, a soul wide open. There was even a place for servants - the senior lackey, who feels like a true master of the house and has his own opinion on any matter, and his young partner, enthusiastically listening to music, but not forgetting to throw glances towards a pretty maid. And what are the small and incredibly cute mise-en-scene: here are the musicians going to rehearsal, here come and sit down guests, and meanwhile, downstairs, in the kitchen, a dinner party is being prepared for them... Many subtle strokes do not interfere with the main action - the performance of the symphony - on the contrary, allow you to perceive it more voluminous, create an environment in which the viewer is especially pleased to plunge into Beethoven's music. After all, we in the twenty-first century can perceive only the “eternal” layer of his works, the one that is relevant in all epochs, but, besides this, they are still the flesh and blood of their time. And "Heroic" allows you to hear Beethoven "from there", from 1804.
I haven’t talked about the image of the composer, performed by Ian Hart. One word: bravo! Honest, ideological, hot, persistent, straightforward, bold, strong. And very cute - especially thanks to the inclusion of a soulful explanation scene with Josephine Dame, during which a large heart is revealed in the powerful creator. In a word, Special. Ian Hart played a person who came into the world to change him. In my opinion, the performance is at least as bad as Ed Harris did in the much more popular biopic Rewriting Beethoven. In general, when I think about that movie, I don’t see anything in which “Heroic” is inferior. And given that there are few films about Beethoven at all, even a modest film from the BBC deserves every attention.
By the way, in one aspect, "Heroic" completely outplays "Rewriting Beethoven": in the transmission of music. In Rewriting, the Ninth Symphony sounds, and it sounds academic in the worst sense of the word - empty and faded. Here, on the contrary, there are tensions in abundance: a dynamic hand-held camera rushes between musicians, probing into the faces of listeners, and the music blossoms, breathes fully, talks to you. After the film is over, you want to hear it (and other Beethoven works) again and again. This effect sometimes happens from broadcasts from the conservatory, and in the sense of similarity with this documentary genre, the film is still a student. But students are different. For example, a pupil Rhys, an enthusiast and a fool, having outlived his teacher, will grow into a famous composer.
9 out of 10
