Copying Beethoven (2006)

A fictionalized telling of the last months of Ludwig van Beethoven's life, Copying Beethoven (2006) stars Ed Harris as the mostly deaf maestro with the wiggy hair. After witnessing his death in 1827, the movie flashes backward. Now, it's 1824 and the old crank is cranking out the greatest work of his life: the famed Ninth Symphony, but he's feeling a little Pathétique these days, what with his messy relationship with his nephew Karl (Joe Anderson) and the general cruddiness of aging in general. Along comes a comely young babe by the name of Anna (Diane Kruger), here to act as a "copyist" and transcribe the man's music. Apparently deaf to common sense itself, Ed doesn't flirt his way into her skirts, but he does a lot of screaming, teeming with madness, passion, talent, and pure sourpussiness. Diane puts up a fight when Ed gets crabby, and he begins to see in her a kindred spirit. She wants to be a composer too, but since she's a woman most people assume she's a prostitute or Ludwig's mistress. They'll grow close with Ludwig teaching her all he knows about music until Anna's ready to step into the spotlight herself. Of course, we all know she goes on to become the famous composer....nobody, since the movie made her up completely. In real life, both of the Ninth Symphony copyists were dudes. Oh well. This version of Beethoven's a bit of a pudgy drunk, but Ed somehow makes it attractive. At one point he's bathing himself in front of Diane and cracks a "Moonlight Sonata" joke when he pulls down his pants and shows her his ass! Copy that! After seeing Ed's ass we'd be happy to roll over, under or on top of this Beethoven! If only more musical biopics copied the skin formula of Copying Beethoven!