Eroica (2003 film)

2003 British film

Eroica

Directed by| Simon Cellan Jones
Written by| Nick Dear
Produced by| Liza Marshall
Starring| Ian Hart
Tim Pigott-Smith
Anton Lesser
Frank Finlay
Edited by| Joe Walker
Music by| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven
Distributed by| BBC

Release date

* 4 October 2003 (2003-10-04)

Running time

| 129 minutes
Country| United Kingdom
Language| English

Eroica is a BBC television film that dramatised the first performance of  Beethoven's third symphony, the Eroica. It carried the tagline 'The day that changed music forever'.

The film was directed by Simon Cellan Jones and was written by Nick Dear. Ian Hart starred as the composer, with Tim Pigott-Smith, Anton Lesser, and Frank Finlay along with Jack Davenport and Claire Skinner leading the cast. The music was played by Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. It won the Prix Italia for Performing Arts in 2004.[1]

## Plot

[edit]

The film is set in Vienna on 9 June 1804, the date of the private, first performance of Beethoven's third symphony, later to be known as the 'Eroica'. The performance, and most of the action in the film, takes place at the palace of one of Beethoven's patrons, Prince Franz Lobkowitz. Midway during the performance, Beethoven tries to persuade his lover, a widow named Josephine von Deym, to marry him, but she refuses because of the unfair laws regarding child custody — she is a member of the nobility, and cannot marry a commoner without losing custody of her children. Later, composer Joseph Haydn, now old and feeble, arrives just in time to hear the last movement of the symphony.

Beethoven's title page of Symphony No. 3 that shows his erasure of dedication of the work to Napoleon, to be renamed later "Eroica" instead.

During the last few minutes of the symphony, the film flashes forward, and we see Beethoven going to dinner with his pupil, Ferdinand Ries, where he is told that Napoleon has just declared himself Emperor of France, thereby completely betraying Beethoven's faith in his leadership of a republican nation. In a rage, he crumples up the title page of his symphony, which he originally intended to call the "Bonaparte". As he leaves the performance, Haydn is asked his opinion of the symphony, which he describes as "quite new", and then utters his now-famous and prophetic comment, "From this day forward, everything [in music] is changed". The film ends on a grim note; as the performance of the Eroica ends, Beethoven looks at his audience and is momentarily unable to hear any natural sounds – an ominous sign of his approaching deafness.

## Cast

[edit]

* Ian Hart as Ludwig van Beethoven
* Tim Pigott-Smith as Count Dietrichstein
* Jack Davenport as Prince Franz Lobkowitz
* Fenella Woolgar as Princess Marie Lobkowitz
* Claire Skinner as Countess Josephine von Deym
* Lucy Akhurst as Countess Teresa von Brunswick (Josephine's sister)
* Frank Finlay as Joseph Haydn
* Leo Bill as Ferdinand Ries
* Peter Hanson as Wranitzky (violin leader of the orchestra in the film and of Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique)
* Robert Glenister as Gerhardt (one of the prince's servants)
* Anton Lesser as Sukowaty (Beethoven's copyist).

## Soundtrack

[edit]

* Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (excerpt) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
* Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" by Ludwig van Beethoven

## References

[edit]

Eroica (press release), UK: BBC, 5 May 2003.

1. ^ "Winners 1949–2010", Prix Italia (PDF), IT: RAI, 2010, archived from the original (PDF) on 22 October 2013.

## External links

[edit]

* Eroica at IMDb

* v
* t
* e

Ludwig van Beethoven

List of compositions

Life|

* Birthplace
* Relationship with contemporaries
* Mozart
* Death
* Heiligenstadt Testament
* Immortal Beloved
* Concert of 22 December 1808

Music|

* Relationship with C minor
* Collected edition
* Musical style
* Compositional method
* Works catalogs
* WoO
* Biamonti Catalogue

Memorials|

* Beethoven Hall
* Beethovenhalle
* Beethoven House
* List of sculptures
* Berlin
* Bonn
* Mexico City
* New York and San Francisco

Depictions|

* Mähler's portraits
* Beethoven with the Manuscript of the Missa Solemnis
* Eroica (1949 film)
* Immortal Beloved (1994 film)
* Eroica (2003 film)
* Copying Beethoven (2006 film)
* Other films

Family|

* Johann (father)
* Maria (mother)
* Kaspar (brother)
* Johann (brother)
* Ludwig (grandfather)
* Johanna (sister-in-law)
* Karl (nephew)

Related|

* 1815 Beethoven
* Beethoven-Haus Baden
* Birthplace of Beethoven's mother
* Beethoven Peninsula
* Beethoven quadrangle / Beethoven crater
* Beethoven Burst
* Beethoven Frieze
* Beethoven Project Trio
* Beethoven Quartet Society
* British première of Symphony No. 9
* Eroica Peninsula
* Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies
* Three Bs

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Simon Cellan Jones

* Some Voices (2000)
* Storm Damage (2000)
* The One and Only (2002)
* Eroica (2003)
* Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking (2004)
* The Queen's Sister (2005)
* The Trial of Tony Blair (2007)
* On Expenses (2010)
* The Family Plan (2023)
* Arthur the King (2024)
* The Family Plan 2 (TBA)

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