Favorite movie with or about pianos/pianists.

[shun]

Shine

[lung7793]

Haven't seen a whole lot, but I liked "the competition" (i think that's the name) with richard dreyfus

[thalbergmad]

The Beast with 5 Fingers

[franz_]

Shine.
Like 'the pianist' to.

[mr.beethoven]

shine, pianist, and ray gets my votes...

lol all the actors in those movies won the academy award for best actor!!
maybe its the good acting, maybe its the pianos?? 

[jazzmaniac]

Mine too is  "The Competition".  I've seen that shown on HBO but now they don't show it anymore.   Sync playing in the movie is bad, I think.  Their fingers do not coordinate with the sound.  But Richard Dreyfuss' acting in here is really excellent as well as his partner, I forgot her name. 

[arbisley]

Shine is my favourite, the Pianist is also interesting, but it is rather har to get the importance of the "piano" bit for quite a while. Maybe it's also because the DVD refused to play the bit where he actually plays to save his life!

[willmillar27]

Amadeus

[Mozartian]

Only real movie I've seen was Amadeus, which I hated (even though it was funny lol), they made Moz look so.. idiotic. Ahhh.

So my favorite is this one of Gould-

[pianolist]

The Music Box, by Laurel and Hardy.

www.laurel-and-hardy.com/featureshort/talkie/0081/81-shoot2.html

[phil13]

Shine

The Pianist

Impromptu

Running on Empty

This prompts a second idea: Favorite book with or about pianos/pianists?

Phil

[franz_]

This prompts a second idea: Favorite book with or about pianos/pianists?

Biography of Horowitz, still my favorite book.

[shun]

Favorite Book; I think it was called "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank".... something like that (I read it a long time ago).

[arbisley]

Favorite Book; I think it was called "The Piano Shop on the Left Bank".... something like that (I read it a long time ago).

I've read that too. Great book with all the history of piano making, but at the same time interesting, with all the aura of parisian life on the left bank in it.

[apion]

"The Competition"  -- you gotta love that scene when the heroine (or whatever) had to ditch the Mozart Piano Concerto and, innocently, opt instead for Prokofiev's 3rd (because the middle register of the Steinway sucked  ).  One of the greatest scenes of any music-related movie!

Also enjoyed the snippets of Beethoven's Emperor, Brahms 1st, and Saint-Saens #2 in G minor.

[pianohenry]

shine, even if only for the rach 3, the hungarian rhapsody, the flight of the bumblebee etc. etc.

[practicingnow]

Check out "Song To Remember" and also "Song Without End"...
Both great old Hollywood flicks about Chopin and Liszt respectively...
Lots of fun...

[dnephi]

Hamelin and the eight-the composer pianists.  Good read.

[rafant]

I'm a fan of "Sense and Sensibility", and "Emma", both films as a whole, not exactly films about pianists, but about young girls that play some piano, and I enjoy to hear those little saloon pieces played there.
I remember also an old version of "Little Woman", where almost at the end, one actor plays at the piano the Tchaikovsky's song "None but a lonely heart".
There is also the biographic series "The singing girls of Brahms", where a fan of the Brahms' piano music can find many to enjoy.

[willmillar27]

Laurel and Hardy - The Music box

Haha. It's a classic. Along with 'The Chimp'. Hilarious

On a slight tangent - My favourite film with violin's in is 'Music of the Heart' with Meryl Streep - based on a true story - it's terribly sad but brilliant - guest starring Itzhak Perlman to name but one.

[kapellemeister]

Does anyone remember "The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T", with sets designed by Dr. Seuss? One amazingly long, continuous piano with 500 boys playing the same piece, all directed by Dr. T (Hans Conried, I think?).

Lynn

[thaicheow]

"Rhapsody" (1954), starring Elizabeth Taylor too. Cheesy story, but who cares. With good music and beautiful people, this film is a feast for your eyes and ears.

"The piano", starring Holly Hunter. Very good performance. Strong cast, strong direction, and featuring Michael Nyman music. Provoking.

"1900". Nice music by Eric Morricone, but the film sinks as the story somewhat unconvincing. Anyway, nice production and VERY interesting musical numbers (a combination of Gershwin and Chopin! Only Moriccone can pull that off).

Currently just watch a french movie "The beat that my heart skips", a remake of Robert De Nero's "the hands". Indie movie. Hate it very much. Feel that it is a misleading portrayer of musical life.

Some more. "38 little movie about Glenn Gould", "The Red Violin", "Immortal Belove", "Amadeus", "Hilary and Jacky", etc.