The Child Prodigy
I’ve known about André Mathieu’s music for quite a few years already. Indeed, in 1992, some of my young students took part in the documentary Jean-Claude Labrecque devoted to the composer and learned some of his “easy” pieces. I was also fortunate enough to dig into various sets of archives (almost non existing, up until now) to write articles and program notes.
So, of course, I had to see Luc Dionne’s movie, The Child Prodigy (presented in original French with English subtitles in some movie theatres). If the editing is not truly original (and ressembles one of a made-for-TV movie most of the time), the casting and actors’ direction is amazing. Patrick Drolet is totally inhabited by André Mathieu’s character – sometimes, it’s almost unsettling – and young Guillaume DuBon just burns the screen in many of his scenes, notably the ones played with Lothaire Bluteau (in the role of another prodigy of the piano turned gypsy) and Itzhak Finzi, a Bulgarian actor who plays Rachmaninoff, in one of the most touching scenes of the film.
Bruce Chun is a photo director often rather poetic but I will, above anything else, remember the essential role played by the music, whether Mathieu’s or Alain Lefèvre’s interludes, which become a second narrator. And, yes, I’ll admit it, I’ve listened to the soundtrack a few times since I came out of the cinema…
July 8th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
I have not seen this movie but want to — I love Mathieu’s music and I have heard that the performance element of the movie is excellent
July 9th, 2010 at 4:15 pm
It may not be the best ever movie but it was very well done and the music is definitely worth it!