New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Agnieszka Holland.
Cast: Diane Kruger, Ed Harris, Matthew Goode
Description: Ed Harris is in full "genius artist" mode again, this time to explain how the ailing composer wrote his 9th, with the help of hottie muse Diane Kruger. Pure highbrow tosh.
Country: US/GER/HUN. 2006. 104mins
Helpmeet: Anna (Diane Kruger) writes compositions of her own
It can't be comfortable to work with a genius, and Agniezka Holland's fiction makes it very uncomfortable indeed. The genius is the ill, deaf and cantankerous Beethoven (Ed Harris) and the put-upon co-worker is Anna (Diane Kruger), who helps to copy out his scores. She also has to empty his slops, clean out his rat-ridden apartment and persuade him to listen to compositions of her own.
Fortunately, Beethoven begins to see her value as a helpmeet and she begins to understand just why his music is unmatchable.
The film could have been risible in less sensitive hands, and there are one or two giggles to be had. But the period is well and extravagantly evoked, Harris is pretty damned good as Beethoven, and Holland's understanding of his copiously illustrated music, which includes the Choral Symphony and, more daringly, decent extracts from his late piano sonatas and quartets, makes this a film that sounds as good as it looks.
Is there any point to it, though, considering it is pure fiction and not fact? Well, Holland obviously thinks so and paints Anna as a figure who is at first derided and becomes a worthy participant in history through sheer persistence. And even the least sensitive filmgoer ought to respond to the music, and perhaps to Beethoven's dictum that academic shape and form is nothing compared to the sheer inspiration of dazzling sounds.
Both Harris and Kruger are much more than adequate, with Harris not only looking like Beethoven but spitting out his well-written lines with real panache. You can mock this film if you like, but it remains watchable throughout. And the ears have it when the eyes don't.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Any movie that brings Ludwig Van Beethoven's astounding Ninth Symphony to the attention of the general public deserves an Oscar!
Once hooked the born again music lovers will search out Beethoven's "Irish" Symphony, the magnificent Seventh.
Then they will be ready to view the very rare portrait of Beethoven being serenaded by a Nymph, just waiting for a journalist with imagination.
- Maurice Colgan, Swords, Ireland.
Morning:
14°c
