“Pianomania” film well tuned [MOVIE REVIEW]
Pianomania
Stefan Knupfe, the protagonist in “Pianomania,” the German documentary written and directed by Lilian Franck and Robert Cibis, is, simply-put, a piano tuner. Simply-put doesn’t, however, come anywhere close to describing his tasks as the chief technician and master tuner of Steinway & Sons in Vienna. Stefan is concierge, master magician, cohort, consort, inventor, improviser and babysitter to some of the greatest living pianists.
In the course of his job he is asked to perform the impossible, as each individual pianist — from the ones you’ve heard of, like Alfred Brendel and Lang Lang, to the ones you may not have, like Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Hyung-Ki Joo — asks Stefan to produce a specifically different sound, oftentimes performing on the same piano. Steinway numbers every piano they produce. Stefan knows the capability of each. Brendel may want a round tone; Lang Lang wants a clean finish off the pedal, and Aimard wants the piano to emulate the sound of the clavier and the harpsichord for a series of Bach recordings he is about to undertake. By shaving the hammers or tightening the strings or even inventing a reflecting devise, Stefan is almost always able to accommodate those needs.
Crisis avoidance is also within his realm as when the piano Aimard is most comfortable with is sold and shipped to Australia (with Stefan also handling the shipping and delivery arrangements, as the Australian movers are inadequate). Traveling from concert hall to concert hall, from Vienna to Hamburg, Stefan is there to tune, cajole and hand hold, and we are taken along for the ride. The music is exquisite, the concert halls are sumptuous, the countryside is glorious, and Stefan is charming. The excellent feature film-style production values and numerous awards already won by this film should have made me stand up and cheer. Instead, after about 45 minutes or so of the 90 minute length, I kept asking if this was actually going anywhere. To enjoy this film, one has to care about everything-piano. Unfortunately, the question of whether Pierre-Laurent Aimard was going to have the piano of his dreams for his recordings left me rather cold. And, as one of Stefan’s colleagues described Stefan, I felt it also described the film: it makes something complicated more complicated. Certainly it delves into something most people have never considered — who takes care of the grand piano at Disney Hall and why does it sound one way when Andre Watts plays it and another when Yefin Bronfman plays the same instrument, even when they play the same piece? If you have ever posed this question, then you will definitely enjoy the film. As, ashamedly, I haven’t had our upright Kwai tuned in over 15 years, I’m clearly not the target audience.
“Pianomania” opens Friday, Nov. 4 at the Laemmle Royal.