Seymour: An Introduction (2015)

Just perfect...

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

"And now, for a man who needs no introduction – Seymour Bernstein!" While such a statement may be appropriate in some circles, if it were universally true, there might not be a need for the documentary "Seymour: An Introduction" (PG, 1:24). Seymour Bernstein, among fans of classical music, is a well-known New York concert pianist and music teacher. Viewers of this film will get to know him as such and will want to add to that resume "wise man and all-around good guy". Actor Ethan Hawke seems to think so. He was so impressed by meeting Bernstein that he decided to make a documentary about his life. The resulting film was seen on the festival circuit in the U.S. and Canada during the late summer and fall of 2014, received a limited theatrical release in those two countries in March 2015 and appeared at international film festivals throughout the spring of 2015. And if film festival love weren't enough, as of the writing of this review, on the Rotten Tomatoes website, this movie has an 88% rating from audiences and a 100% critics rating! When have 100% of film critics agreed on anything? I try not to be swayed by critics or popular opinion when I write my reviews, so I am now prepared to make my assessment as to whether I agree with the nearly universal acclaim this documentary has received.Seymour Bernstein demonstrated extraordinary talent on the piano as a teenager, grew up to become a world-renown concert pianist and composer, but then suddenly gave up performing at the age of 50 to focus on music education. Bernstein has had remarkable success in many aspects of music and his life is a very interesting story waiting to be discovered. But this documentary doesn't stop there. It reveals Seymour Bernstein as a remarkable person. He has a tremendous passion for classical music and has learned and taught much along those lines, but it's how his love of music has informed his life that is most compelling to those of us who know more about Post-It notes than musical notes.In directing this film, Hawke never gets flashy with his cinematic portrait of Seymour Bernstein, but uses a variety of effective methods to introduce us to the man and his music. We see archival footage of piano concerts and more recent footage of the master teaching his students. As we watch the latter, we are struck by the instructor's perfectly balanced approach – a dogged pursuit of perfection sometimes nearly overshadowed by his generous and encouraging nature. We also learn who Bernstein is as a man and a musician through interviews with his current and former students and conversations with the man himself, as he tells his story and reveals what he learned about life along the way. To illustrate this last point, it may be easiest to give you a sample of Bernstein's pearls of wisdom, in his own words: "The true essence of who we are resides in our talent – whatever talent we have." "The people who don't want me to succeed for their own selfish reasons can't touch me." "The most important thing that music teachers can do for their pupils is to inspire an emotional reaction, not just for the music, but more importantly, for life." "We sense in music a reflection of ourselves, a reminder of our own potential for perfection." "I never dreamt that with my own two hands, I could touch the sky." There's plenty more where that came from, but beyond telling Bernstein's story and encouraging him to reflect back on his 88 years, there's a bit of a real-time drama going on in this movie as well. In the midst of the interviews and the background footage, as the documentary is being filmed, Bernstein is preparing to perform his first public concert in many years. We see him choose his piano like a master chef selects just the right spice and uses just the right amount. Bernstein has the refined ear of a man who has been doing this for decades, but the boyish enthusiasm of someone sitting behind the keys for the first time. As he plays the piano he selected just for this occasion at New York's Steinway Hall Rotunda for an audience consisting of Hawke's theater group, the moment elicits an emotional reaction in Bernstein. The music still touches him, much as his story and his generous and wise spirit touch us."Seymour: An Introduction" is the rare completely non-controversial, heart-felt documentary that you can just sit back and enjoy, but it could have been a little sharper than it was. The bare-bones style of telling its story was generally appropriate for the film, but it wouldn't have distracted from its subject to be just a little more creative in its presentation. In addition, some of the camera work and some of the editing choices came across as slightly amateurish. This documentary isn't as close to perfect as the music that Bernstein plays, but definitely has the power to elicit an emotional reaction of its own. I'm giving this one a "B+". That qualifies as a general recommendation from me and is positive enough to group me together with all those professional critics who favorably reviewed this movie. Count me in, ladies and gentlemen. Seymour Bernstein is a man well worth meeting and I'm glad Ethan Hawke made the introduction.

Some very thoughtful and well-written reviews have been posted about this film. Justifiably so!For me the beauty of it is in it's pure portrayal of a regular guy who understood early what captivated him.....and his joy for it and exploration of it has never wavered. He remained a performing musician for as long as it made sense to him and then transitioned to being a valued teacher of other musicians.Seymour is also a thinker and has come to some meaningful and wonderful conclusions about life and purpose. He articulates those in his ever gentle manner. I very much identified with the part where he speaks of looking within for answers and meaning more than looking to external entities or individuals to provide you with those. So, so true.I was quite choked up towards the end but not from sadness; no, quite the opposite. From bearing witness to a life that has been, all of, fulfilling, purposeful, simple, deep, accomplished, stressful, pained from difficult relationships, enlightened and content.Ethan Hawke, who has never really resonated with me (sorry, bro), as writer and director, has produced a fantastic film. I would say this is his calling and I walked out of the movie thinking, 'oh my gosh, I hope he does more films like this.' Go see it.

Sane, clean and perfectly put together, this film is a quiet rebellion against vulgarity and sensationalism so prevalent in today's entertainment and art. The documentary is a portrait of a classical pianist, drawn by a movie star, in which a master musician ponders on the relationship between a person and his inner creative self. A topic like this always runs a risk of coming across as abstract and esoteric, which in this film is delightfully not the case. The conversation ends up being about subjects painstakingly relevant to any performer: stage fright (and what an artist should make of it), craft, truthfulness to the source, eccentricity versus authenticity, teaching, artistic bravery and success.The film is filled with wonderful stories like this one: drafted into the army during the Korean War, Seymour finds himself marching for miles tirelessly while his fellow soldiers, seemingly stronger and more fit than he is, faint of exhaustion. He attributes his endurance to his "musician mind set", an explanation, both, unexpected and convincing in the context of the film.Seymour's every action is motivated by honesty. If there was a stage in his life where he did not feel completely in peace internally, he corrects that eventually, always bringing himself to a state of a perfect inner comfort. There are a few examples of these struggles in the film – the most notable one, of course, is Seymour quitting his successful concert pianist career in favor of teaching. Very appropriately, the film mimics its subject in its honesty and uncompromising taste. Unfortunately, it also does so in its limited popularity. Call me naive, but I really don't get how a piece of nonsense like Fifty Shades of Grey grows in its media presence with every new bad review it gets, and how a treasure like "Seymour…" gets overlooked by 99.9% of cinema goers.One more thing. The film is a visual and musical feast. From Seymour's shaded solitary apartment in Manhattan, to the breathtakingly beautiful views of Central Park, to the Rotunda of Steinway Hall, to piano pieces by Chopin, Schumann, Beethoven and Bach, there are countless delicacies for the audiences to savor. If the film had no other merits, but cinematography and musical score, it'd be still worth watching.

.....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.