Factual error: What on earth is the conductor at the premiere of the 9th doing with a baton? This was not used until around 1849, and the premiere of the 9th is in 1824.
Immortal Beloved (1994)
Directed by: Bernard Rose
Starring: Gary Oldman, Isabella Rossellini, Jeroen Krabbe, Johanna ter Steege
Factual error: When the so called "Immortal Beloved" visits Beethoven's grave at the end of the film, it is an 8 foot obelisk, but the original grave was about 2 feet tall, and on the other side of Vienna, in a different cemetery. Beethoven was exhumed in the 1880's and moved to his current location with the 8 foot obelisk, along with Schubert. The woman is visiting a grave which was built 30 years after she died.
Factual error: Despite all the wonderful period instruments, particularly pianos, in this film, the sound coming out of them is that of a modern grand piano, which sounds nothing like the lighter instruments of the time.
Trivia: In his previous film, Leon (The Professional), also released in 1994," Gary Oldman makes several references to Beethoven.
Trivia: Beethoven never mentioned during his lifetime who was his "Immortal Beloved." The long-debated riddle of her identity was solved beyond reasonable doubt in 1977 by an American musicologist. The woman was identified as Antonie Brentano (1790-1869), the wife of a Frankfurt merchant and a mother of four.
Trivia: Countess Erdody is shown to be playing the violin which is inaccurate as she never did, and a disability (which is also not shown) prevented this. She was however a very able pianist.
Ludwig van Beethoven: It is the power of music to carry one directly into the mental state of the composer.
Anton Felix Schindler: There can be no peace without the truth.
