The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes – The Process Is Too Painful For What The Reward Is Worth

To kick start the “Cynthia is out of town for 2 weeks and I shall keep myself occupied”, I called upon the remaining member of the Movie Review Squad for an evening outing. I texted TK this morning and asked him if he was interested to join me for “The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes” and he replied yes – without knowing what he got himself into, I later realized. Poor TK. So much faith in me, eh?

Why did I pick that movie? Advertised as the winner of the Locarno International Film Festival helped. The beautiful poster helped. And the fact that I like foreign films helped too. But why did I pick that movie?!

Sigh.

TK was asleep, I would say, 75% of the duration of the movie. In fact, he was snoring halfway and I have to give him the elbow. Duh … I felt a bit embarrassed … ha ha ha.

To be fair, this movie does have the trademark of the European movies … when the ending is revealed, you will get that … ah-ha feel. It is like the entire movie is made to mislead you to somewhere only to tell you otherwise towards the end. In fact, this movie gave me the illusion of two possible endings. When I told TK what I thought the endings could be, you should see the sparkle in his eyes.

The storyline is simple. There is a beautiful opera singer, there is an evil doctor, and there is a piano tuner. The questions throughout the movie are (at least to me) … did the opera singer die and where is the focal point? The filming is somewhat abstract, borderline artistic. Most of the time I was trying to figure out what the scenes mean. And there are lots and lots of disjoint scenes. I can safely say, I have not seen anything like “The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes” before in my life. Not necessary means that it is good … just that it is different.

For those who are a big fan of Picture House movies, you may be able to appreciate the art within. As for me, the process is indeed too painful for what the reward is worth.