Immortal Beloved (1994)

Gary Oldman: Ludwig van Beethoven

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ludwig van Beethoven : [in reference to "Violin Sonata in A Major, Op. 47" - "Kreutzer"...]  Do you like it?

  Anton Felix Schindler : Shh!

  Ludwig van Beethoven : 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 mean?

  Anton Felix Schindler : It - it exalts the soul.

  Ludwig van Beethoven : 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? Hmm? 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."

• Ludwig van Beethoven : It is the power of music to carry one directly into the mental state of the composer.

• Ludwig van Beethoven : [startled to discover he has been tricked into playing piano for people observing him behind the wall]  It is terrible, terrible for you to rob me in this way of my most treasured feelings!

• Ludwig van Beethoven : [sitting secluded in a darkened corner, Miss Guicciardi does not notice him at first]  Hello.

  Giulietta Guicciardi : [startled, she doesn't realize who she is speaking to]  Oh... I didn't see you. I have to go back.

  [she turns to leave] 

  Ludwig van Beethoven : [he gets up]  Oh... you are leaving me to go back to that ass who plays like a kitchen maid, all clipped and staccato.

  Giulietta Guicciardi : This music is beautiful.

  Ludwig van Beethoven : You must be Giulia Guicciardi. I hear there's quite a contest for your charms.

  Giulietta Guicciardi : Sir you're rude and offensive. I'm leaving.

  [she begins to walk away] 

  Ludwig van Beethoven : [calling after her]  Do you play the piano?

  Giulietta Guicciardi : [she stops]  What?

  Ludwig van Beethoven : I intend to be your teacher. I will call for you tomorrow at 10:00.

  Giulietta Guicciardi : [laughs as she walks away]  You will be barred from the house.

• Ludwig van Beethoven : [Miss Guicciardi's first piano lesson. She is playing, poorly, a little minuet. She errs, and begins pounding on the keyboard, perhaps to gets some kind of reaction from Beethoven. He says nothing until he realizes she has stopped. He gives his critique]  You think that because I do not stop you, that I am not listening.

  [She sighs in agreeance] 

  Ludwig van Beethoven : The manner in which you thump out the notes without the slightest thought as to their meaning is unforgivable. And your lack of passion is unforgivable. I shall have to beat you.

  [she offers her hand for punishment, rolling her eyes. He gives her a hard, painful slap] 

• Ludwig van Beethoven : [Beethoven raises his fist in the air and mutters his last words]  The comedy is over.

• Ludwig van Beethoven : [completely deaf, he is watching musicians perform his "Kreutzer" violin sonata]  I can't hear them, but I know that they are making a hash of it.

• Ludwig van Beethoven : Music is... a dreadful thing.

• Ludwig van Beethoven : A little test!

• Ludwig van Beethoven : You know why wigs went out of fashion? Because too many ended up in the bottom of baskets.