Variety Critics’ Choice: Europe Now! 2014 / Grand Piano / Spain 2013
"Speed on a piano” is what Spanish genre stylist Eugenio Mira’s third feature has irresistibly been dubbed in festival circles — and true enough, this appealingly absurd thriller finds a prodigious pianist (Elijah Wood) quite literally playing for his life as an unseen gunman threatens to pull the trigger at the first missed note.
"Speed on a piano” is what Spanish genre stylist Eugenio Mira’s third feature Grand Piano has irresistibly been dubbed in festival circles, and true enough, this appealingly absurd thriller finds a prodigious pianist (Elijah Wood) quite literally playing for his life, as an unseen gunman (John Cusack) threatens to pull the trigger at the first missed note. The execution, however, is akin to a less kinked-out Brian De Palma potboiler, with Mira’s swooping, playful technique as intricate as the protagonist’s arpeggios. Setting out to tickle viewers rather than terrorize them, this not-quite-horror film – written by Damien Chazelle, whose Whiplash won top prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival – is refreshingly blood-shy. In a potentially Gothic twist, the piano is a spooky relic once owned by the musician’s deranged, deceased mentor, who also composed the fiendishly difficult piece that has previously proven his stumbling block.
Guy Lodge
90 min / Color, DCP
Director Eugenio Mira
/ Screenplay Damien Chazelle
/ Dir. of Photography Unax Mendia
/ Music Víctor Reyes
/ Editor J.L. Romeu
/ Producer Adrián Guerra, Rodrigo Cortés
/ Production Nostromo Pictures
/ Cast Elijah Wood, John Cusack, Kerry Bishé, Tamsin Egerton
/ Contact Bowline B. V., The Solution Entertainment Group
/ Distributor Bowline B. V.
Eugenio Mira (b. 1977, Castalla, Spain) is a director and musician known by the pseudonym Chucky Namanera. His debut Birthday (2004) was followed by Agnosia (2010), which critics described as a baroque retro-futuristic thriller. In the film, a young woman is kidnapped in order to extract important industrial secrets she received from her father. Mira is already a fixture at festivals of fantastic film. At one such festival, he met Elijah Wood, who is known for his interest in genre films and in promising directors in this cinematic field.
Bowline B. V.
Weidhof 1, 2935 RD, Ouderkerk aan den IJssel
Netherlands
E-mail: [email protected]
The Solution Entertainment Group
6087 W. Sunset Blvd, 90028, Hollywood
United States of America
E-mail: [email protected]
Rafael Cabrera Yagües
Other
Eugenio Mira
Film Director
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