Grand Piano (film)
| Grand Piano | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Eugenio Mira |
| Produced by |
Rodrigo Cortés Adrián Guerra |
| Written by | Damien Chazelle |
| Starring |
Elijah Wood John Cusack Tamsin Egerton Kerry Bishé Alex Winter |
| Music by | Victor Reyes |
| Cinematography | Unax Mendía |
| Edited by | Jose Luis Romeu |
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Production
company |
Nostromo Pictures
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| Distributed by | Magnet Releasing |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | Spain |
| Language | English |
Grand Piano is a 2013 English-language Spanish thriller film directed by Eugenio Mira and starring Elijah Wood and John Cusack. The film is about a once promising pianist returning for a comeback performance, only to be the target of a sniper who will kill him if he plays one wrong note. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest on 20 September 2013 and was given a VOD release on 30 January 2014. It was given a limited release in U.S. theatres on 7 March.
Tom Selznick was an up-and-coming concert pianist until he developed stage fright while attempting to play a complex piece, "La Cinquette". Five years later, he is slated to appear in Chicago for a comeback performance, dedicated to the memory of his late mentor, pianist and composer Patrick Godureaux (who composed "La Cinquette"). Godureaux posthumously acquired massive media coverage due to the mysterious disappearance of his vast fortune. Tom's return to the stage is prompted by the encouragement of his actress-singer wife, Emma.
As Tom arrives at the theater, his friend Norman (conductor for the evening) offers Tom confident assurance that he will perform beautifully. Shortly thereafter, a house usher hands Tom a folder of sheet music. Within, he finds the manuscript to "La Cinquette" and discards it. During the concert, Tom finds a note written on his sheet music that reads "Play one wrong note and you DIE". Believing it to be a prank, he ignores it, only to find further notes that threaten Emma, as well as a laser dot that tracks his movement. Disturbed, Tom leaves the stage, shocking the audience. He returns to his dressing room, where he receives a text that instructs him to locate and wear an earpiece, allowing communication with the would-be assassin, Clem. When Tom returns to the stage, Clem demonstrates the stealth and range of his silenced rifle by firing a shot into the floor to Tom's left; no one else notices.
Desperate, Tom surreptitiously uses his cell phone to contact his friend Wayne, who is in the audience. When Wayne's phone rings, it momentarily disrupts the performance; Wayne leaves the concert hall in embarrassment. As he plays, Tom taps a text message to Wayne, but the usher (who is revealed to be working with Clem) kills Wayne. Clem tells Tom to look up, and Tom sees Wayne's body on the rafters. Wayne's girlfriend Ashley leaves the hall in search of him, but she is also killed by the usher. Clem then tells Tom that instead of performing Beethoven's "Tempest Sonata", as Norman originally announced, he must perform "La Cinquette" flawlessly, as an embedded lock in the piano depends on a flawless performance. Clem further reveals that the release of said lock would yield a key to a safe deposit box containing Patrick Godureaux's disappeared fortune; Clem himself is the locksmith who worked with Godureaux to construct the mechanism. Tom insists that he can only perform "La Cinquette" with sheet music.
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