Reviews

I admired the fluid yet intercut method of the editing in Pianoforte and its dismissal of the boring normal chronological documentation of a competition. It unified the competitors in their unique personal points of view and even intercut their performance of a single piece - where it became startlingly difficult to tell their styles apart in close proximity. Regrettably, video coverage of some of the pianists, notably the winner (a Chinese Canadian) was not available probably due to a lack of legal agreement. I would assume that another film company held the rights to that. Imperfections aside, the docu had the confidence to just be itself with all its omissions, and was still a great work. Although masked against Covid, you could tell some of the audience were weeping during one beautiful piece.

Living in Thailand at the age of 10, I saw this movie broadcast on TV. Thirty years later I still think of it. And eventually I became a dharma student. Coincidence? I think not! Such is the awesome impact of this movie. More than an important anti-war film, it can really bring out some seldom expressed feelings - not because of carefully crafted scenarios which bring moral indignation against war, confusion or cruelty, but instead showing a more natural horror of war's results. After watching the film for the third time, I still feel a deep visceral pang when Mizushima covers his face and runs past yet another mountain of rotting bodies he finds on the shores of the river.

What's really sad is that you can't get the movie on DVD!

I saw this film in Paris in 1990, so I can't remember details and offer only a shallow comment, but I do remember that I liked it very much. Not just because I had never seen a movie from Hungary and that it was made in the same time period as the French Nouvelle Vague, but because it presented a conflict that young women must have felt all over that part of Europe - that dancing, music, freedom (internal and external) could have a new meaning for them, as they existed in an old culture where older women still dressed in black and say little.

One of my favorite films from the sixties. The film was made on the Island of Vieques in Puerto Rico. It's ironic that a crashed military pilot evokes the "dark side" of human nature. It would be interesting to know if the film help to attract the U.S. military to use it as a training field.