Simple
2005 02 21
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I'm just watching a little of Immortal Beloved. I wish I'd known it was on, as I missed some. It, like most biographical and semi-biographical films, is probably taking a lot of liberties with the truth in order to increase dramatic effect. As if life weren't, in its truth, dramatic enough on its own. Films like this paint Beethoven as gruff and crude or Mozart as a hairy lunatic. I admire these men for various reasons, and am aware enough to know that - while I may be highly entertained by overly dramatic films about them - I am not always being presented with the truth.
Sometimes we expect such perfection out of our heroes, out of those we admire. So many theories why we do this, and why we forget that our heroes are human beings, with the same turn to mistakes that we all have.
An old boyfriend didn't share my love for Beethoven, he was more a fan of Mozart, finding Beethoven too simple. That is one of the things I like most about him; the simple beauty, the delicacy. That might seem surprising to those whom I've heard think all Germans are ham-fisted and heavy, but they are not, not by a long shot.
Simple things have such power, because they are simple. Hearing the Ode to Joy still brings me to tears, because I find it so incredibly overpowering.