Best piano related Film?

[Ludvig_Van_Me]

The piano? The pianist? Shine?


Thats all I can think of,  whats your favourite?

[Daevren]

The polisch chopin bio movie?

[bernhard]

If you are thinking in terms of best film – which has something to do with a piano – but the merits of the film as a movie are more important, then I would say:

1.Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn sonata where Liv Ulman plays the daughter of a famous concert pianist.

2. 32 short movies about Glenn Gould – where the movie itself follows the structure of the Goldberg variations.

3. Tous les matins du monde – This is a most wonderful film. There is no piano in it, but a lot of viol playing. Marin Marais is played by Gerard Depardieu, and bisedes being a betuiful movie there are many interesting discussions on the nature of music. Superb.

Even if I was not interested in the piano, I would still find these movies fascinating and superbly made.

Then there are the movies that are somewhere middle of the road: they are not great movies, or they are not really about piano, but they are watchable and good entertainment:

1.      The pianist. This is really about the Jewish situation in Poland during  WWII.

2.      The piano. This has evenless to do with piano, and I am not particularly attracted to Michael Nyman’s style. Apparently Holly Hunter made a point of playing the piano herself, but before everyone goes “wow”, Michael Nyman in interview revealed that he had to make the pieces much easier so that she could play them.

3.      Shine. Again, I don’t really feel that this movie is so much about piano, as about mental breakdown and the heroic efforts of an individual to overcome it. Besides I started to think it is a very bad influence on the young (who because of it all want to play Rach 3).

4.      The Mephisto Waltz – Curd Jurgens is a famous concert pianist that has a deal with the devil. Alan Alda is the journalist who goe s to interview him and is unlucky enough to have very similar hands. Curd is on his death bed and through black magic exchanges bodies with Alan Alda. Quite good actually (it has Jacqueline Bisset in top form on it).

Biographies of famous pianists/composers.

1.      Amadeus – Not much piano playing, and after watching Tom Hulce in “Animal’s House”, it was difficult to take his Mozart seriously. And by the end of it I was totally on Salieri’s side (including his music).
2.      Immortal Beloved. Gary Oldman looked suitably well cast as Beethoven, and any movie with Isabella Rosselini is worth watching, shame about the historical inaccuracies. Again, not much piano music, but at least I got to hear that great favourite, Fur Elise!

3.      32 shorts about Glenn Gould – This is my all time favourite piano movie.

4.      Impromptu. This has to be seen to be believed. Hugh Grant (yes, Hugh Grant) is Chopin, Judy Davies is George and Julien Sand (perfectly cast) is Liszt. The movie is actually quite good, but the director wrecked it by doing silly things like: George (angrily to Chopin at the piano) “Can you please give me a minute of your attention?” Chopin: “All right, I will give you a minute” and starts playing the minute waltz. Aarrgh.

5.      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.

Movies strictly for the piano obsessed.

1.      Madame Sousatska – Shirley Maclaine as the teacher from hell (or so I thought until I saw “The piano lesson”). But the student also comes form hell, so they sort of balance each other out. Apparently MacLaine’s character was based on real life piano teacher Adele Markus.

2.      The legend of 1900. Tim Roth is 1900, a piano prodigy raised in a ship and who has never set foot on land. There is a mildly interesting scene of a piano duel between him and Jelly Roll Morton, but the syrupy cheesiness of it all sort of spoiled it for me. Ennio Morricone, whom I usually like (his soundtrack for The Mission is superb), this time turned up a mediocre score. The director (Tornatore of Cinema paradiso fame) as usual lays the sentimentality with a heavy hand.

3.      The competition. Amy Irving and Richard Dreyfuss are young pianists competing against each other and falling in love. Need I say more?

4.      The miracle – a young American pianist who is about to enter an Italian competition meets and falls in love with an American woman who is in Italy in search of a miracle cure for a deadly disease. The credibility is stretched to its limits. The actual miracle is nothing. Check this out: the pianist is trying to make ends meet while he waits for the competition. He does so by playing in posh restaurants light classicals and muzak. Everyone is eating, talking, and generally not paying much attention to his playing. He is increasingly frustrated by the lack of consideration of the audience (come on, give me a break, what did he expect playing in a restaurant). Anyway, the girlfriend then goes to the stage and announces to the diners – and to his surprise – My boyfriend, playing the piano here, is going to a famous competition next week,and he is going to paly something special for you. Cue to the pianist, who is surprised and needs some encouragement and then launches into some esoteric piece (I cannot remember what it was, but imagine something on the lines of Sorabji, but shorter, since it is a movie after all). Immediately everyone falls completely silent. Some people cry with emotion. At the end they fill his hat with money. Puuulease.

Then you have some weird movies that have to be in a category on their own:

1.      The piano lesson – Isabelle Hupert as the teacher from hell (after a lesson with her, Madame Sousatska is fun fun fun). Not for the squeamish, this is excellent film making, with several good piano and piano lessons scenes.

2.      Fingers – Harvey Keitel plays a violent gangster who happens to play Bach. He wants to enrol in a music school, but they will only accept him if he auditions. Problem is, for some weird psychological problem he cannot perform in public. He just freezes. He tries to send the judges a tape, but they will have none of it. A really mesmerising and strange movie.

Have a look here as well:

https://www.pianoforum.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=misc;action=display;num=1071358031

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[chopiabin]

There's also a really bad 70's movie called Anna to the Infinite Power (or something like that) about a little gril learning piano. It ties in cloning, physics, and a bunch of other crap. The acting is often so terrible that it is fun to watch, and there's an interesting where Anna plays the Pathetique sonata.

[Ludvig_Van_Me]

Are there any that you would recommened?

It seems that people just want to tell me the ones they think are crap  

[bernhard]

Er...

1.Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn sonata

2. 32 short movies about Glenn Gould

3. Tous les matins du monde – This is a most wonderful film. [...] Superb.

Even if I was not interested in the piano, I would still find these movies fascinating and superbly made.

[...] they are watchable and good entertainment:

1.      The pianist.

2.      The piano.

3.      Shine.

4.      The Mephisto Waltz –  Quite good actually (it has Jacqueline Bisset in top form on it).

[...]

3.      32 shorts about Glenn Gould – This is my all time favourite piano movie.

[...]
5.      Great Balls of fire -  Great fun.

[...]
1.      The piano lesson –  this is excellent film making, with several good piano and piano lessons scenes.

[...]

2.      Fingers –  A really mesmerising and strange movie.

[Ludvig_Van_Me]

Thanks for the help bernhard

[bernhard]

Thanks for the help bernhard

You are welcome

[faulty_damper]

1. The piano lesson – Isabelle Hupert as the teacher from hell (after a lesson with her, Madame Sousatska is fun fun fun). Not for the squeamish, this is excellent film making, with several good piano and piano lessons scenes.

Is this the French film, titled in English as The Piano Teacher?  Hubert as a piano teacher who is into S&M?  And she cuts herself?  And gets off watching other people copulating?  And derives a Freudian stage of pleasure by urinating/defacating while watching them copulate?  Who sniffs "used" tissues at the porn store while getting off watching porn?

[rlefebvr]

If you are thinking in terms of best film – which has something to do with a piano – but the merits of the film as a movie are more important, then I would say:

1.      The piano lesson – Isabelle Hupert as the teacher from hell (after a lesson with her, Madame Sousatska is fun fun fun). Not for the squeamish, this is excellent film making, with several good piano and piano lessons scenes.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

Well, not as bad as Barton Fink, but close. If you are ever in the mood to watch a depressing movie with little going on about a repressed, depressed nut of a bit#%$ who is two seconds away from the shower scene in psycho, then this movie is for you. Yes, run don't walk....just make sure you are running in the right direction.

Remind me not to use Bernard as a movie critic.

P.S. if you use the fast forward you can shave off an hour off the movie.....

[janice]

Ok. When I was about 9 years old (give or take) my first piano teacher suggested that I see a new movie that was out, called "Song of Norway".  It was about the life of Edvard Grieg.  Anybody else ever heard of it or seen it?  I wonder if it is shown on any of the cable channels on tv?

[mozartgonebad]

TA TA TA DA!!!  
I havent posted in nearly a month...

back to the point:
i don't happen to know many actual piano related films, except for 32 short films about glenn gould or whatever it was, but I really like the movie The Pianist, about the WWII situation in Poland.

[goansongo]

A very good film to watch is, "A Song to Remember."  It's about Chopin growing up.  Of course, some parts of the movie might be a bit exaggerated, but the filim is pretty interesting overall.  

[mosis]

Bernhard,

I found that 32 Short Films on Glenn Gould was a poorly filmed, erm, film. :/ Some of the films were very vague, you never actually got to see anyone play piano, and oftentimes the music overpowered the talking and you couldn't hear anything. Also, the sound and video quality was very poor.

How do the movies follow the structure of the Goldberg Variations?

[bernhard]

Well, not as bad as Barton Fink, but close. If you are ever in the mood to watch a depressing movie with little going on about a repressed, depressed nut of a bit#%$ who is two seconds away from the shower scene in psycho, then this movie is for you. Yes, run don't walk....just make sure you are running in the right direction.

Remind me not to use Bernard as a movie critic.

P.S. if you use the fast forward you can shave off an hour off the movie.....

Eat your words, Ron.

Bernhard's excellent taste in movies has (sort of) been ratified by no less than the Nobel people.

Elfriade Jelinek (who wrote the book on which "The PIano Lesson" is taken from) just gotthe Nobel Prize for Literature.


Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[bernhard]

Bernhard,

I found that 32 Short Films on Glenn Gould was a poorly filmed, erm, film. :/ Some of the films were very vague, you never actually got to see anyone play piano, and oftentimes the music overpowered the talking and you couldn't hear anything. Also, the sound and video quality was very poor.

How do the movies follow the structure of the Goldberg Variations?

Er… 32 short films about Glenn Gould (= 32 variations)

The Goldberg variations alternate a tranquil, contemplative. lyrical variation with a more energetic, virtuosic variation. So does the movie.

The whole point is that after Gould abandoned the stage, no one ever got to see him playing the piano. So in the movie you also never see him playing, but you get to hear him (just as he wanted). The soundtrack is him playing of course, but there are some very clever ways the director found to have hear him and yet not see him playing, as for instance in the episode where he puts a longplay of himself playing for the hotel maid to listen to (and us as well).

Another wonderful episode is when they show him practising. He just stands by the closed piano and the piece unfolds in his mind (Gould claimed he never practised at the piano – all his practice was done mentally).

I cannot say much about the poor sound or video quality, since I saw it at the cinema, and the sound (and image) was superb.

I don’t know how much you know about Gould, but I read a bit about him before seeing the movie (years ago) and I found that it captured admirably a lot of Gould’s quirks of personality (that is, the movie’s weirdness mirrors Gould’s own). In fact this movie (simply as a movie) is one of the top ten best movies I have ever seen (I am not a Gould fanatic by any means).

Then again, maybe it is just my taste. In another thread I got criticised as a movie critic since I liked “The piano lesson”. However, all my critics can eat their words now; Elfriede Jelinek, who wrote the book on which the movie is based just won the Nobel Prize of literature.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[xvimbi]

Then again, maybe it is just my taste. In another thread I got criticised as a movie critic since I liked “The piano lesson”. However, all my critics can eat their words now; Elfriede Jelinek, who wrote the book on which the movie is based just won the Nobel Prize of literature.

Jelinek received the Nobel Price for her books, where she skillfully brings out opposing voices, not some ill-conceived movie-version of them  

[rlefebvr]

Eat your words, Ron.

Bernhard's excellent taste in movies has (sort of) been ratified by no less than the Nobel people.

Elfriade Jelinek (who wrote the book on which "The PIano Lesson" is taken from) just gotthe Nobel Prize for Literature.


Best wishes,
Bernhard.

Nobel, Snobell....I still hated the movie, but will give you a pass since it was well received by the Nerd of the Year committee.