A little bit of Music

Movies involving a little music.

Director: Jane Campion
Cast: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neil and Anna Paquin

I've been a little busy lately but still I had the time to watch this movie, which I had never seen before: "The Piano"(1993).
From Jane Campion comes this story about a mute woman and her daughter who move to an Island in New Zealand because of an arranged marriage.
Ada is the leading character played by Holly Hunter -role that I think is the best one of her career- and she's mute, not by born but still. The story revolves -even if only at decisive points- around the piano. Both life and relationships in the movie change and so the tune of the melodies played with the piano.
Arriving to their new home, the piano is given away by her new husband having somewhat "fatal" consequences.
The screenplay is wonderfully written, the direction superb and the main performances are more than fair to the film.

Director: Kay Pollak
Cast: Michael Nyqvist, Frida Hallgren and Helen Sjöholm.

Now let's travel to Sweden. "As it is in Heaven"-Så som i Himmelen (2004)- tells the story of successful conductor whom after a heart attack decides to put his career at a rest.
This will result on him returning to his childhood hometown in Sweden after being on international tours.
His life here will go on slowly, he'll be lonely at first and he'll be the outsider. After a while -for all knew his name and international fame- the local church chorus will ask him to coach them vocally, which is the moment where the movie really takes off.
From here all the lives of the people involved in the chorus will be looked at directly and we'll presence how they interact with each other and how they behave in the rehearsals and in life.
While the story is flowing we enjoy some musical bits and one of the greatest songs written for a movie of 2004 "Gabriellas Sång".
I have to say, the ending for some will be ok and for others it'll be more than perfect, truth is if you payed attention carefully throughout the movie you'll be able to enjoy more the ending.