Better Late Then Never

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Having been a fan of classical music for about ten years now, I must confess I'd never heard of Seymour Bernstein. What's worse is that this was a man being touted as someone who 'needed no introduction'. Good thing then Ethan Hawke created the very appropriately titled Seymour: An Introduction which goes beyond music and gives a glimpse of an entire ethos and lifestyle.We see Bernstein sitting at the piano in his cozy little apartment, practicing (what I think is) a Scarlatti piece and trying to get a certain phrase just right. From here on out, the documentary alternates between several types of scenes: masterclasses, interviews, casual conversations, etc. We see how his masterclasses help his students with phrasing and so on. The documentary takes on a hypnotic quality--aided by the immense amount of Schubert--as Bernstein explains his views on music, life and everything in between.My first experience with classical music was Milos Forman's Amadeus which blew me away, because it wasn't just about music, but the people behind the music, their passions and obsessions. Seymour: An Introduction works in similar ways. Like Salieri, Seymour sees music as something more than just sound waves entering our ears. Music can be transcendent. It can be a force that unites people (as seen when Seymour reminisces about his wartime concerts). Ethan Hawke himself only appears about three times, making sure to not make the documentary about him, and you can feel he took great pains to paint Seymour in a light that adequately reflects the man's way of life.I did feel, however, that the documentary could have bothered to spend more time on a few select topics. Take the notion of interpretation, for example. Seymour says that Glenn Gould, while a genius, let his eccentricity seep into his interpretations too much. When Gould plays Bach, Seymour only hears Gould. However, in an earlier masterclass, Seymour himself suggested that a slight alteration in interpretation be made, because we 'feel' that it must be played in a certain way and so on. I'm not saying Seymour is a hypocrite. Far from it. What I am saying is that the documentary implicitly raises questions of interpretation: what makes a good interpretation and when does an interpretation deviate 'just too much' from the source material? When does a unique interpretation go from 'inspired' to 'eccentric'? Another example is when Seymour explains he quit performing due to stress. A close friend then raises the question of whether or not a performer has a certain responsibility to his talent, art and audience despite any amount of stress. Yet, the documentary never shows Seymour giving a direct answer to this question (though we can guess he feels he's accepted this responsibility in the way he passes on his craft to his pupils). I get that the focus is ultimately on Seymour, but it still bothered me that these kinds of interesting topics were being addressed yet sometimes not really dealt with.All in all though, the portrait it manages to paint of a man and his entire lifestyle in under ninety minutes leaves a lasting impression. Any niggling complaints about the documentary's reluctance to discuss certain musical topics in-depth are superseded by the romantic, gentle way Hawke portrays Bernstein.

Seymour: an Introduction is one of the most touching films I've watched. The title character, Seymour, is charming beyond words. He is beautifully portrayed by Ethan Hawke. The film provides candid interviews with former students and notables of the world of classical music. Each glimpse of this master teacher brings the audience closer to seeing a natural-born teacher in his element. Seymour has mastered the art of inspiring his students to reach the beyond their limits to create the best music they can. Seymour himself seems to magically sprinkle fairy dust on every piano he touches! He is an inspiration to both pianists and non-pianists everywhere. This film will, hopefully, in time, become a classic.

This documentary, filled with beautiful music, is an étude of acclaimed concert pianist Seymour Bernstein and a joy, start to finish. Bernstein retired so he could pour his musical ideas into the vessels of his students. And not just musical ideas; his philosophy is that having access to emotion in music encourages access to emotion and satisfaction in other aspects of life. We see him providing pianists of all ages with just the right amount of subtle guidance to dramatically elevate their performances, encourage them to compose as well as play, and, apparently, achieve harmony in life in general. Scenes take place in the one-room apartment he's had for 40 years on the upper East Side of Manhattan, near Central Park, in various venues where former students interviewed him, NYU Master Classes, in the piano testing room of Steinway New York, and finally, its main floor rotunda, where he plays a concert to an audience of former students, colleagues, and fans. The interactions with students, former students, and other musicians are revealing, and none more so than his conversations with the film's director, actor Ethan Hawke. Hawke met Bernstein serendipitously at a dinner and discovered in him a person with whom he could discuss the anxieties of performance, and the disconnect between good work and success and Bernstein, with what seems to be characteristic generosity, shared his insights. He certainly did not reach his current eminence without his own challenges. When he was young, his father would say, "I have three daughters and a pianist," which felt like a rejection of him as a son and pained him mightily. As a young man, he served in the U.S. Army in Korea and teamed up with a talented violinist and a tenor and, despite their commanding officer's skepticism, put on a concert for the troops—most of whom had never heard "serious" or classical music before. "They wouldn't let us off the stage," Bernstein says with glee, even 60 years later. The concert was so successful a tour of front-line camps was arranged. The memory is also bitter, because Bernstein remembers the war dead, and the pain of seeing those body bags has hardly faded. Except for these memories, the movie is strongly up-beat, with a man doing what he loves and people (students, audiences, moviegoers) responding to his skill and passion. As Detroit News critic Tom Long says, "The great joy of the film, whether you know piano or not, is watching Bernstein teach." This is a man you will be glad you got to know. The film ends with a typically modest and inspiring Bernstein statement: "I never thought that, with my two hands, I could touch the sky."

.....about a man who made it his life mission to feed others' souls through the study of music of great emotional richness, intellectual depth and beauty. A must see and a wonderful reprieve from the shallow, titillating stuff we are continually inundated by. Subtle camera angles, expert scene selections and gorgeous musical choices create a tempo to this movie that engages the watcher without doing all the work for him. Kudos to Ethan Hawke for recognizing the substance, wisdom and humanity of Seymour, for resisting the temptation to insert his ego into the story, and for allowing conversations that require the audience members (whether they play the piano or not) to exercise their minds, to think, consider, wonder, reflect about their own lives and passions. You may find yourself, like me, wanting to hear those kernels of wisdom and truth again and again, to deepen your understanding and glean more fully their meaning, and to be moved once more by Seymour's magical, beautiful artistry.