December 4th 2008

Fantastic: have just done the first narrative read-through with Juliet Stevenson for Beethoven. It's been a hectic few weeks - and scripting is all-consuming. But I'm very happy with how things stand. I also am still happy to have (bar one last interview) finished the filming now - finished off, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, in Vienna with Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber playing/singing Adelaide and An die ferne Geliebte. Beautiful music and the words (largely though not entirely by coincidence) resonate exactly with Beethoven's biography.

November 12th 2008

Things are going well - I have had meetings with the leading arthouse cinemas of LA, New York and Chicago and all are very excited by Beethoven. At a time when many films, and certainly that includes docs, are getting no cinema screenings at all, it's nice to feel wanted! And we're talking minimum 2, even 4, week runs. The dates are a little bit here and there - some wanting next May/June 09 - others March 2010. I've even been told to have a go at Oscar qualification (which means a minimum of one week in NY and LA) but that seems a little bit fanciful to me. I have also been talking to film & music journalists, music venues, etc, etc, and what is really great is how encouraging they all are. The fact that they know the Mozart film is really helping. Meanwhile, dusk & dawn, the emails fly between my editor in the UK and me. Snip, snip, snip we go and the film pulls ever tighter together. But it's hard now saying goodbye to an interviewee whose last piece may just have gone or even one or two music pieces. The first of the 9 symphonies is under threat - and guess which one? The second. I mentioned this last night to a very charming man from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and he said 'it's always the second which gets squeezed out!' - and you know what!? That made me determined to keep it in! I am writing this at 4.35am in Chicago airport, en route to New York and a 10am meeting with the Lincoln Centre - so fingers crossed that goes well. (Last time we screened Mozart there, there was a fight outside the cinema because tickets were sold out! I remember thinking 'how awful' and 'great!' at the same time... Well, I've resisted the lure of the brick-sized muffins till now but I'd better eat something; American airlines seem not to serve food anymore. I bet Beethoven would have hated all this travelling.

November 4th 2008

Washington DC. I'm here sorting out the US Fall/Autumn 09 release of In Search of Beethoven and obviously a fascinating time to get here - Obama has been elected and every conversation you overhear is talking about it. I walked down to the White House and they are already constructing the Inauguration Stands - can't be much fun for Bush to look out of his window and see the preparations well under way for his successor. Very gracious speech from McCain in defeat though - something that I see from the press has been noted in countries around the world. In Kenya, for example, a young man was quoted as saying he was moved to see that those who lose an election can accept it with dignity rather than provoking riots. Meanwhile, I suspect getting elected is the easy part for Obama... As my head is so full of Beethoven one can imagine how Ludwig felt when the dashing, energetic Bonaparte took over the reins of France and how disappointed he was when Napoleon (as he renamed himself) crowned himself Emperor. Keep an eye on Obama in case he starts to wear a crown. Didn't Julius Caesar also make the same mistake? I think, though, that Michelle Obama will keep him firmly grounded. I'm also visiting LA, Chicago and New York - working all the time on the script. The first narrative read is in less than a month so every second counts. It's amazing actually how little errors can slip in or interviewees can make tiny mistakes which need to be weeded out - especially in dates. Only one more shoot to do - Bonn & Vienna. Vienna will be a nice end to over two years of filming - I'll be filming two pieces: 'Adelaide' and 'An die ferne Geliebte' - sung by Christian Gerhaher. Interestingly, it's believed 'Adelaide' was the last piece Beethoven performed in public as a pianist. Anyway, first meeting of the day awaits. Bis später....