Peter Ormrod lighting a candle after setting up a very clever mock candlelight effect using an overhead ‘pup’ which projected a pool of light through a tube of white cardboard. The light in turn bounced off the papers on the table
Anton Schindler, who was Beethoven’s factotum in the last year of his life, was played by Jonathan Burn
Beethoven and his nephew prancing in the fields
The film involved a huge amount of research. In the summer of 1974 I went to Vienna to see many of Beethoven’s actual lodgings.
Tony Britton, once in his wig and costume, looked superb. I gave him a huge number of portraits to study, plus very detail notes on Beethoven’s character.
Some of the shots involved giving the cameraman, Peter Ormrod, very complicated diagrams (right)
I did a rough storyboard of the whole film …
With just four days to go before the start of the shoot on November 19, I started planning how the shots would work in the Ranger’s Lodge.
While in Vienna I started to develop the script. By the end of August I had decided that the interior location would have to be three adjoining rooms.
Peter Settelen, Tony Britton, Peter Ormrod
Peter Ormrod shooting Beethoven on his deathbed. The house had no heating, so much of the time we were wearing outdoor clothing, being typical cold, damp November weather
The dream scenes of Beethoven and Karl dancing in the hills were shot at Forty Green near Beaconsfield. Here, Tony Britton, already fully dressed, is putting oil in his Bentley at a garage in Hillingdon
Beethoven attending to his Bentley at a garage on the A40.
After completion of photography at the Ranger’s Lodge there were two location shoots. First, for the castle where Karl made his suicide attempt, I used Benington Castle near Stevenage in Hertfordshire
On location near Forty Green in Buckinghamshire. L-R: Peter Ormrod, Gordon, Tony Britton, Peter Settelen, and Pat Whittaker (Sound Assistant)
Gordon setting up a shot with Tony Britton and Peter Settelen, who played Karl, Beethoven’s nephew.
Peter Ormrod, Tony Britton, Gordon, Peter Settelen, Pat Whittaker
Gordon after directing the big central meal scene.
Pencil drawing by Carl Friedrich August von Kloeber
Beethoven’s study in the Schwarzpanierhaus, by Johann Hoechle, 1827
