Gabriela Montero

Music is not "just" music. It can have immense power in good or evil. This documentary by Maria Stodtmeier and Isa Willinger highlights interesting and very current themes about the links between music and politics.

"What would the world be like without Beethoven?" That’s the provocative question posed by this music documentary from Deutsche Welle. To answer it, the film explores how Ludwig van Beethoven's innovations continue to have an impact far beyond the boundaries of classical music, 250 years after his birth.

Freely inspired by the life of the great Polish composer Frédéric Chopin, and more specifically by his romantic liaison with the celebrated French novelist George Sand, the film is structured around two mature works by the musician and writer: Sonata for Piano and Cello by Chopin and 'Story of My Life' by George Sand. The composer’s music is brought to life on screen through a choreographic staging where actors and dancers, who are seen alternately by themselves or in the company of musicians, attempt to recreate, within a symbolic decor, the universe inhabited by the two lovers.

Kulturzeit