“The Symphony No 9, or the Choral, had such an enormous impact that a superstition sprung up among subsequent composers that it tempted fate to venture beyond nine symphonies, the number at which Beethoven laid down his pen.”

“They were afraid that the demons would repossess someone else. This is a ridiculous superstition.”

“The film gives us unusually authentic-seeming pictures of village life and ritual, and invests the people with a certain dignity and sensibility, even if ultimately they prefer superstition to science.”