Here are a few more:
Moonlight Sonata – the movie is pretty bad, but it has Paderewski in it, playing himself (and playing the piano). I saw it on video. If you have an interet in Paderwski I will give it a 5. Otherwise the rating has to be 1.
I cannot remember the name of this one. But it has Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in it. Liz is married to a pianist who cracks down once she decides to leave him for Richard Burton. He stops playing and becomes a depressive wreck. She then decides to come back to him and help him regain his piano prowess. Must be the only piano movie that has someone practising scales and Hanon! (no kidding!)
Serafina – A failed performer, now a piano teacher helps an African refugee to rescue her husband from prison, falling in love with her in the process. Nice soundtrack (Scriabin, Grieg and Mendelssohn). Rating 4.
Truly, madly deeply. This is about a woman (played by Juliet Stevenson) who plays the cello. Her partner (played by Alan Rickman) plays the piano and they form a duo. He dies unexpectedly, and she is grief stricken. So Alan Ricknman’s ghost comes back to continue playing with her. Eventually she finds someone else and both their lives move on – he to other realms beyond the limbo he found himself in. Beautiful soundtrack (mostly the Bach Cello sonatas). Rating 5.
The Baker Boys - Jeff Bridges and his real life brother Beau star as fictional brothers that have a two-piano act that travels from hotel to hotel. (Apparently they can play the piano for real) Everything starts to fall apart when they decide to revamp their act by hiring a singer (Michelle Pfeifer). No classical music (except for a brief mention of Clair de Lune), but hugely enjoyable. Rating: 5+
L' Effrontee (don’t know how they translated the title in English – saw it on the French channel) – director: Claudia Miller.
Charlotte (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is a young working class teenager who lives in a rundown neighbourhood. Life picks up a little color when a new friend (Clothilde Baudon), comes into the picture, a pianist from the other side of the tracks who is going to give a recital in town. The more sophisticated pianist jokes that maybe Charlotte should be her manager, and that sets off a series of misunderstandings that lead to some pretty wild moments. Rating: 4.
The tic code - A young boy with Tourette's syndrom is a piano (jazz mostly) prodigy. He befriends a jazz sax player (played by Gregory Hines) who suffers from the same condition. More about Tourette's syndrom than piano playing. There are some historical clips of Art Tatum and the suggestion that he too might have had the condition. A bit of a tearjerker (the boy’s father, who is divorced from his mother and lives in another town and is about to remarry, although rich, refuses to listen to the boy’s playing or even to consider giving him a piano). Rating: 4.
Great Balls of fire - Jerry Lee Lewis (played by Dennis Quaid) marries 13 year old cousin (played by Winonna Rider) and sets fire to pianos on stage. Great fun. Rating: 5+
An American In Paris. A Gene Kelly musical. One of the characters is a pianinst who fantasises about being a great concert pianist. Gershwin is in the soundtrack. Rating: 1 (if you hate musicals) or 5 (if you love them).
Best wishes,
Bernhard.