Louis Van Beethoven

In 1779, eight-year-old musical prodigy Louis van Beethoven (Colin Pütz) grows up in provincial Bonn, Germany. Singer and actor Tobias Pfeiffer and organist Christian Gottlob Neefe take on the young genius after attempts to teach him by his father fail. Ludwig learns to go his own way, but offends society.

A momentous encounter with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the political upheavals of the time aroused a freedom-loving spirit in the young Beethoven. The missed love for a young noblewoman and a series of family tragedies almost made Ludwig give up until he moved to Vienna for an apprenticeship with composer Joseph Haydn.

All this is embedded in a framework story in which the older Beethoven (Tobias Moretti) stays on the estate of his brother Johann and his wife shortly before his death in 1826. Despite his great successes, Beethoven struggles with himself because his late work completely overwhelms his contemporaries. Now completely deaf, he looks back at missed opportunities.

Run Time: 2 hr. 0 min.