In this article we will discover all the movies that were produced about Beethoven, the composer. Almost every decade since the 1920s had a Beethoven movie and in this post we will review them all.
Just to help out Google’s search engine right away this article is not about Beethoven the dog, but Ludwig van Beethoven, the composer! Your correspondent hopes, Dear Reader, that you yourself are here for reading about movies based on Beethoven’s life. Not that this magazine has anything against lovely St. Bernard dogs, but that is for another magazine to cover…
Since the dawn of humanity we like stories and especially stories about heroes. Beethoven was a hero, no wonder that this giant captures the imagination of artists and as such movie makers were drawn to him, too. In all these movies there is a recurring motive and this is the motive of the tragic hero. In these plots Beethoven is a tortured man. He’s often ill, always anxious about money issues and unlucky in love. Above all, he is becoming more deaf day by day, losing his hearing completely. And yet despite all this, he’s brave and keeps going on, devoted to his craft and getting better and better at it all the time! This is truly a tragic Hero!
Some of these movies are historically more accurate than others, some of them are pure fiction. Still, if you are into movies (and Beethoven) it is recommended to watch them all, because they have historical perspective, how in different decades movie makers approached the same story, both visually and in storytelling.
In movies things are usually simplified and this fact is true in these movies, too. Beethoven was not always tortured, not always anxious, not always sad and not always fighting with fate. He liked to laugh, he liked to eat and drink, be with his friends, take a walk in the forest! He liked life, even though he had a tragically serious limitation. By all means his courage to carry on in life shows us an example!
List of Beethoven movies
1. The Life of Beethoven (German: Das Leben des Beethoven)
This movie was produced in 1927 in Austria, still a silent film. I was not able to dig up much information about it, not even on almighty YouTube. Interesting fact that the lead actor Fritz Kortner who played Beethoven disagreed with the Nazis and had to flee Germany in 1933. Later he played in more movies in the USA, two of them were anti-Hitler films. After the war he returned to Germany and directed several films.
Directed by: Hans Otto
Written by: Emil Kolberg
Starring: Fritz Kortner
Music by: Max Hellmann
Cinematography: Viktor Gluck
2. Beethoven’s Great Love (French title: Un grand amour de Beethoven)
This is a French movie from 1937. It has sound and in fact great collection of Beethoven music as a soundtrack for the film. The plot is predictable and not very accurate. It is about Beethoven, his love for music and women.
The lead actor, cinema legend Abel Gance portrayed Beethoven as a giant in history, a tortured soul struggling against poverty, deafness and the loss of his immortal beloved. 
Directed by: Abel Gance
Written by: Abel Gance, Steve Passeur
Starring: Harry Baur, Annie Ducaux, Jany Holt
Music by: Philippe Gaubert
3. Eroica (1949)
This Beethoven movie comes again from Austria, produced in 1949. The plot of this movie has many inaccuracies and should not be regarded as a biography. The events take place, when Napoleon approaches Vienna. The news reaches Beethoven, who admires the new leader and sees a hero in the French. The composer hurries home and finishes his Third Symphony, naming it Bonaparte.
Napoleon later invites Beethoven for a celebration party with a very detailed dress code, which superficiality makes him disappointed in his hero. As a result, Beethoven scratches the dedication from the front page and renames it to Eroica, Hero. For safety reasons Beethoven escapes to Hungary and visits his former pupils Therese von Brunswick and her cousin Giulietta Guicciardi. The young composer falls in love with Giulietta.
Later the movie deals with the serious questions of destiny, the overcoming deafness and the sad fact that Beethoven never had a fulfilling romantic relationship.
Directed by: Walter Kolm-Veltée
Produced by: Guido Bagier, Walter Kolm-Veltée
Written by: Walter Kolm-Veltée, Franz Tassié
Music by: Alois Melichar, Ludwig van Beethoven
The complete movie is available on YouTube, here.
4. The Magnificent Rebel
Yes Friends, even Disney made a Beethoven movie! The Magnificent Rebel was produced in 1962 and was aired in two parts. It is in brilliant colors and has the movie style of the 60’s. The filming was made in and around Vienna, making the looks authentic. The plot focuses of the composer’s life and puts emphasis on his courage, determination, his love of nature and freedom.
Directed by: Georg Tressler
Produced by: Disney
Starring: Carl Boehm, Giulia Rubini, Ivan Desny
Trailer for The Magnificent Rebel
5. Beethoven – Days in a life (Beethoven–Tage aus einem Leben) 
This Beethoven movie from 1976 is coming from the former East-Germany. The story plays during 1813-1819 period, when Beethoven was at the peak of his fame. Although his music is played all over Europe, the composer himself lives among modest conditions, dependent upon patrons. His hearing loss is progressing, making him more and more isolated.
Directed by: Horst Seemann
Writers: Franz Jahrow, Günter Kunert
Stars: Donatas Banionis, Stefan Lisewski, Hans Teuscher
6. Beethoven lives upstairs
This Canadian Beethoven film is from 1992. The story focuses on a young boy called Christoph, who is convinced his mother rented out the upstairs room to a madman. The person in question is Ludwig van Beethoven,
who is busy composing his Ninth Symphony. The boy gets to know the deaf composer, whose music wins the boy over.
The production enjoyed positive reception and later a theater play and an audio book for children followed. It won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s Program.
Directed by : David Devine
Writer: Heather Conkie
Stars: Neil Munro, Illya Woloshyn, Fiona Reid
7. Immortal beloved
Probably the best Beethoven film, not least because of the excellent Gary Oldman. Is this historically accurate? No, but still a charming and outstanding production.
After the death of Beethoven his assistant Anthon Schindler deals with his last will. A letter is found naming the immortal beloved as the heir. The question, who is this person? Schindler embarks on the quest to identify the mysterious beloved.
He meets all the important woman characters in Beethoven’s life to find out that the beloved muse is no other than Johanna van Beethoven, who although being pregnant with his child, marries instead his brother, Kaspar.
There are many excellent actors in this remarkable movie and it is recommended for everyone!
Director: Bernard Rose
Writer: Bernard Rose
Stars: Gary Oldman, Jeroen Krabbé, Isabella Rossellini
8. Eroica (2003)
This BBC production dramatizes the events at the Lobkowitz palace in 9 June 1804. This is the first public 
rehearsal of the Eroica Symphony, Beethoven’s Third. The focus is on the practice, but we learn to understand the historical and social background of the events. At the end of the rehearsal Haydn arrives, just to hear the last movement. Later he comments “From this day everything is changed.”. The film ends showing Beethoven at a tavern with his friend Ferdinand Reis, who shares the news about Napoleon who just declared himself Emperor. The betrayed Beethoven shreds the first page of the score that bears Napoleon’s name.
Directed by: Simon Cellan Jones
Writer: Nick Dear
Stars: Ian Heart, Peter Hanson, Jack Davenport, Leo Bill
9. Copying Beethoven
This 2006 movie from Metro-Godwyn-Mayer was directed by the acclaimed Agnieszka Holland and shows great care in all details. Unfortunately, the plot is a complete fiction and should be rather regarded as a movie about a deaf composer and his last Symphony, his relationship with a co-worker with whom he falls in love.
In the plot this character, Anna Holtz, helps Beethoven (played by Ed Harris) to finish his symphony and even help him – hiding among the orchestra members – to conduct the premiere. The composer wants her in his life, not as a love, but a friend and maybe as a daughter he never had.
Directed by: Agnieszka Holland
Writers: Stephen J. Rivele, Christopher Wilkinson
Stars: Ed Harris, Diane Kruger, Matthew Goode
10. Louis van Beethoven (2020)
This is a German speaking move created for the 250th Beethoven anniversary. The film has two parallel timelines, one plays in Beethoven’s adulthood and one in his youth in Bonn. 
The adult Beethoven is visiting his brother Johann in Gneixendorf, together with their nephew Karl. The composer is already deaf by the time and lives in the world of his own.
The young timeline is partly in his childhood and partly in his adolescence years.
Directed: Niki Stein
Writer: Niki Stein
Stars: Tobias Morelli, Colin Pütz, Anselm Bresgott
Running time: 120 minutes
11. Beethoven in Beijing
This is a remarkable documentary made in 2020. The film focuses of the famous Chinese visit of Richard Nixon (president of the USA) to Beijing in 1973. The Philadelphia Orchestra is dispatched as a cultural ambassador to perform for audiences in China. By the time Western-music is banned in China and this is the first time they hear an American orchestra. They play Beethoven. 
American and Chinese musicians narrate the story as China, after the death of Mao and the end of Cultural Revolution, embraces Western-music and Beethoven.
Today, China is a classical music superpower, and lives in a Beethoven fever.
Directors: Jennifer R. Lin, Sharon Mullally
Writer: Jennifer R. Lin
12. Beethoven’s Hair
This documentary is based on a book and traces an unlikely journey of a lock of hair cut 
from the composer’s dead body in 1827. The story starts with two Beethoven enthusiasts purchasing this item at an auction in Copenhagen, Denmark. The film reveals the history and the previous owners of the relic, and presents the results of a scientific lab analysis trying to establish the medical condition of the famous composer.
Director: Larry Weinstein
Writers: Russel Martin, Thomas Wallner
13. In Search of Beethoven
In this documentary Phil Grabsky director goes after the Beethoven phenomena. He involves first class musicians and conductors in the exploration. They not only talk 
about Beethoven, they also present their points with music. This makes it not merely a documentary, but a first-class soundtrack, too.
Director: Phil Grabsky
Writer: Phil Grabsky
