9/10: Love Before the Fall(NaN)

Copying Beethoven(en)

A fictionalised exploration of Beethoven's life in his final days working on his Ninth Symphony. It is 1824. Beethoven is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer. A fictional character is introduced in the form of a young conservatory student and aspiring composer named Anna Holtz. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna's assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her. By the time the piece is performed, her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his private world.

Land of Plenty(en)

After living abroad, Lana returns to the United States, and finds that her uncle is a reclusive vagabond with psychic wounds from the Vietnam War.

Pedro Páramo(es)

The third film version of the popular Mexican novel, about a wayfarer who travels to a mysterious arid village, to meet the father who long ago abandoned his wife.

The Selkie's Lover(en)

A seal in water and human on land, the mythical selkie cannot return to their true home in the sea if their seal skin is stolen. In this modern adaptation a selkie woman trapped on land in human form, longing to return to her underwater realm, unwittingly falls in love with a young fisherman.

Chopin, A Sonata in Paris(pl)

He is the talk of the town, the most romantic figure of decadent Parisian nights. When his lungs start bleeding, Chopin knows his days are numbered. Composing becomes his only obsession. The ticking clock rushes him to revolutionize music.

Legends of Peruvian Indians(ru)

The film is based myths of the ancient Peruvians, recreated Soviet ethnographers Yuri Beryozkin on drawings Indians Mochica. The action takes place 1,500 years ago. Legend tells of two brothers, demigods, brought the sacred frog. Growing up, the brothers went to the human world, giving them a lot of happiness and a refuge from the evil monsters. But one of the monsters Rikuay survived the battle with his brothers. He deceived his younger brother, went to his centipede, which led him to ally Rica - a witch, who asked his younger brother to give people a weapon that start killing people. Only the intervention of the gods, and his older brother saved people from total destruction

Three Colors: Blue(fr)

The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.

About the Looking for and the Finding of Love(de)

Director helmut Dietls and Patric Susskinds illustrate a legendary story of two lovers who cant keep themselves away from death.

Beethoven privat(de)

A Mighty Heart(en)

Based on Mariane Pearl's account of the terrifying and unforgettable story of her husband, Wall Street Journal reporter Danny Pearl's life and death.

Mr. Holland's Opus(en)

In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.

Beowulf & Grendel(en)

The blood-soaked tale of a Norse warrior's battle against the great and murderous troll, Grendel. Heads will roll. Out of allegiance to the King Hrothgar, the much respected Lord of the Danes, Beowulf leads a troop of warriors across the sea to rid a village of the marauding monster.

Whom the Gods Wish to Destroy(de)

A young hero defeats a dragon to find acceptance to the court of burgundy.

Once(en)

A vacuum repairman moonlights as a street musician and hopes for his big break. One day a Czech immigrant, who earns a living selling flowers, approaches him with the news that she is also an aspiring singer-songwriter. The pair decide to collaborate, and the songs that they compose reflect the story of their blossoming love.

House of Ricordi(it)

The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.

Orpheus(fr)

A famous poet in postwar Paris, scorned by the Left Bank youth, is in love with both his wife Eurydice and a mysterious princess. Seeking inspiration, the poet becomes obsessed and follows the princess from the world of the living to the land of the dead.

Sorry, Haters(en)

Against the anxieties and fears of post-9/11 America, an Arab cab driver picks up a troubled professional woman with unexpected results.

Conversando com Compositores: O Mercado da Música no Rio Grande do Sul(pt)

Frank Zappa: A Pioneer of the Future of Music(en)

Frank Scheffer's (collage like) documentary on the American composer and rock guitarist Frank Zappa, as broadcast by VPRO in the Netherlands April 22,2007. Most of what’s on here is seen before, particularly in Roelof Kier’s 1971 documentary and/or Scheffer’s own documentary “A present day composer refuses to die”. But there is some new stuff too, particularly interviews with Denny Walley, Haskell Wekler, Elliot Ingber and Bruce Fowler.

Night Without Sleep(en)

Upon awaking in the morning, a man finds his thoughts clouded by the possibility that he committed a murder.