For the uninitiated, Jakub Piatek’s Pianoforte begins with a note informing us of the importance of the Chopin Competition, which takes place in Warsaw, Poland. It has existed since 1927 and is the most prestigious piano contest in the world for young professionals aged 16 to 31. That, of course, establishes the film’s challenge: how to make an event that requires super-expertise, a still torso and moving fingers accessible to viewers, some of whom have no idea what a diminuendo is.
It probably helps that the film has shown up at Sundance while there’s still buzz for Tár, Todd Field’s film set within the classical music scene. Something about that overlapping interest ought to see this well-made documentary get some love beyond the European festivals which are its natural habitat.
The film presents several participants and their stories, giving a background to their hopes for victory. Thus, Pianoforte is really a drama disguised as something like a sports documentary. You kinda understand the effort, even if most of it is mental. There is the pressure of being world beaters for all involved. As one contestant says, even if you do win the prize money attached to victory, that money might prudently be used “to go into therapy”. How does you win the contest? If the advice offered onscreen is any indication, then, as one mentor says, “they have to desire you”. As you can guess, that advice goes to a young lady. “You play but you don’t tell a story yet” is another suggestion.
What’s in it for the contestants themselves, all of whom are already decent pianists? Perhaps it differs from one person to another, but one statement rings true: “I want a career and stability in the future”. Winning the Chopin Competition is a sure way to make it happen. The same contestant softly mocks people who say their reason for going through the stress is a need to “express [their] feelings in music”. Whatever the case, what this documentary is great at conveying is the sheer amount of practice, practice, practice that is required. This isn’t quite Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours; it is more like Every Waking Hour.
Unlike Piatek’s thriller Primetime, which he brought to Sundance a couple of years ago, Pianoforte is much slower, less showier. It spends quite a lot of time establishing the backgrounds of these aspirants and sometimes it seems like the material he obtained isn’t quite compelling enough to justify 90 minutes of runtime. But the difficulty of his project is clear: how much sustained visual tension can you generate from someone touching the keys of an instrument so solid it sometimes requires multiple people to move it?
It is, of course, a much easier thing to convey cinematically than, say, writing—but it is not exactly car racing or basketball, activities that have proven to be cinematic gold over and over. We do get the pianists who play with their feelings. Shots of hands on keys have quite a flourish—”loose wrist, stiff fingers” as a contestant is instructed—but these are not the most exciting things anyone has seen onscreen before. Fortunately (or maybe not), there is some drama when one pianist quits before the finale but because he’s sharing screen time with others, the emotion doesn’t quite reach the crescendo it would if Pianoforte was solely about his resignation from the Chopin Competition.
The film comes incredibly alive at the moment when the qualifiers for each stage of the competition are announced. We see the contestants and their teams look at their screens and erupt in palpable joy. You are reminded that for these people engaged in this highly-regarded but niche endeavour, this music, this contest, is central to their lives and to how they see themselves. One tutor explains how she was never quite driven enough to compete in her own day, even if she knew about the competition. And somehow you see what it means to her that her ward has that drive. That bit, which is one of the more pointed interview scenes in a documentary of random conversations, is a bit like seeing Carl Jung’s statement spring to life: “Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent”. Thankfully, the young man seems to be fine with what he has to do.
When we get to the final stage of the competition, with a dozen contestants left, the music, glorious, stately, is allowed more time, as though Piatek wants to serenade viewers, and it is at this stage the film really comes through as a suspenseful narrative. The music is blissful and the characters are more animated. But Pianoforte is about a competition. No matter how blissful it gets, you never forget that by the end, some hearts will be broken. For better or worse, the weird nature of documentaries of this sort is that their inevitable heartbreak is how you know the filmmaker is serious about his subject.
Just before that heartbreak arrives, a contestant considers getting a tattoo commemorating her appearance at the contest, alluding to athletes at the Olympics getting its famous rings engraved on their skin. You have heard about the Olympics. You probably have never heard of the Chopin Competition. And yet, after you see Piatek’s documentary, you understand why that seems like an appealing idea.
Director, Screenwriter: Jakub Piatek
Producer: Maciej Kubicki
Cinematography: Filip Drozdz
Editing: Ula Klimek-Piatek
Music: Anna Rok, Michal Fojcik, Joanna Popowicz
Production companies: Telemark
Venue: Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Dramatic Competition)
In Polish, English, Chinese, Italian, Russian, Slovenian
91 minutes
