Mondscheinsonate

Paderewski, at the time the greatest pianist in the world, was more than 75 when he made this fim, but he seems the most ageless of all. He plays with perfect control and concentration, not letting even a glance out of his performance before it's finished, and you can study his pianistic art in detail, as there are many close-ups of his recital showing his hands and how they work in extreme sensitivity and perfection. The film begins with his giving a concert, Chopin's great sixth polonaise and Franz Liszt's greatest rhapsody, and the Moonlight Sonata as an encore. In the audience there is a young couple with a child, and as the mother's attention constantly goes to the child and the ball she is playing with, you wonder what this will lead to. It's just the beginning of the story.

The story is a wonder in itself. Paderewski with some others in a plane on their way to Paris get stranded in Sweden (!) and have to leave the plane for repairs. They are lodged in a castle of nobility with only a few inhabitants, a grandmother and her granddaughter, but among the stranded passengers is also Eric Portman, and whenever he turns up, you know there will be mischief. The drama develops into some serious business, which ultimately is solved and saved by Paderewski. The final scene is without words, but the music and the scenery speaks for itself, as Ingrid descends the stairs, and you feel her quandary as painfully as she does herself.

This is totally different from all those concert films made in America with subplots of common people with no taste and plenty of musical ignorance mixed up with some oases of serious music; as here the style is genuine and kept at a high level all the way. Marie Tempest as the baroness takes the prize, though, and Paderewski makes an adorable character in his humble and continental courtesy as the most perfect of all old gentlemen. The music though crowns this exquisite excursion into the magic of music.