The grand finale
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The grand finale |
| Original title | The Competition |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1980 |
| length | 126 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Joel Oliansky |
| script | Joel Oliansky |
| production | William Sackheim |
| music | Lalo Schifrin |
| camera | Richard H. Kline |
| cut | David E. Blewitt |
| occupation | |
| |
The grand finale is an American drama from 1980. The script is based on a story by director Joel Oliansky, which he wrote together with producer William Sackheim.
action
Paul Dietrich is a disaffected pianist. Despite his talent, he has not yet been able to distinguish himself in any way. Since his father is seriously ill, he decides to take a job as a music teacher. However, he wants to take one last chance to win a competition and travels to San Francisco, where an international event is taking place under the direction of the famous conductor Andrew Erskine.
Paul, who offends the other participants with his arrogance, makes it to the final of the six best participants. The other finalists are the New Yorker Jerry DiSalvo, who has only mastered one piece, the globetrotter Michael Humphries, who likes to practice his exercises in the nude, the Canadian Mark Landau, who has mastered the scores perfectly but plays without emotion, and the Russian Tatjana Baonova, whose Teacher Madame Gorshew asks for political asylum.
The sixth participant is wealthy young American Heidi Joan Schoonover, who is attracted to Paul. Her teacher Grata Vandemann warns her not to disturb her concentration with personal matters. Paul doesn't want to be disturbed either and rejects Heidi. Paul is shaken by his own harshness and meets with Heidi, to whom he describes his situation. The two sleep together. Shortly before the final, Heidi realizes how much victory means to Paul. She wants to cancel her participation, whereupon the angry Greta accuses Paul of having persuaded Heidi to feel guilty.
Paul manages to get Heidi to continue participating. The final begins, all participants do their best. Heidi's piano malfunctioned, which stopped her performance. Heidi demands a new chance, receives it and plays masterfully. She is declared the winner, Paul takes second place. Heidi is happy because she and Paul want to become partners. But Paul suffers from another defeat and stays away from the victory celebration. But he changes his mind and returns to Heidi.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films saw the film as "a melodrama in the well-known Hollywood style, which not only mobilizes emotions, but also provides an overview of the relevant works through numerous excerpts from famous piano concertos. Despite all the banality, a refreshing entertainment from the dream factory. "
Janet Maslin of the New York Times wrote that the film is not soft-hearted, but tries to be serious. But the big sentimental moments make the film soft and tender again.
The Variety accuses the director, although witted but to look at the world of artists cynical. His bleak character study was stupid, however, which was due to his poor visual style and lack of musical feeling.
Awards
The awards and nominations were as ambivalent as the criticism.
On the one hand, David E. Blewitt was nominated in 1981 for Best Editing and Lalo Schifrin and Will Jennings for the song People Alone (sung by Randy Crawford ) for Best Song for an Oscar. Lalo Schifrin was also nominated for the Golden Globe in the category of best film music .
However, on the other hand, Richard Dreyfuss was nominated as the worst actor for the Golden Raspberry at the first presentation of this "award".
background
The film premiered on December 3, 1980. In Germany, it first appeared in cinemas on August 28, 1981.
Web links
- The grand finale in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The grand finale. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film Service , accessed February 25, 2011 .
- ↑ Critique of the New York Times (Eng.)
- ↑ criticism of Variety (engl.) ( Page no longer available , searching web archives ) Info: The link is automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
