Film discussion: Seymour: An Introduction

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, June 2), we will be discussing Seymour: An Introduction, a documentary about Seymour Bernstein, a great concert pianist who stopped performing in 1977 to devote himself to teaching.

This is a relatively short movie (just 88 minutes), but from what I’ve read, it packs a huge emotional wallop. Seymour himself is the kind of teacher student rhapsodize about: He’s caring, supportive and gentle, drawing out the best of each student’s talent with real empathy.

As a result of Seymour’s gentle approach, some critics have called the movie “the anti-Whiplash,” that exciting-but-scarring movie about a music teacher who believes in the emotional fist rather than the open hand. And I’m sure there’s something to that.

But I think first-time director Ethan Hawke has set his sights higher than mere rebuttal. In my research on the movie, critics and commentators emphasize again and again that Seymour has bigger ideas in mind, using Seymour’s life to show the transcendent power of music and the importance of all kinds of art to the living of a full life.

I usually shy away from discussions of movies that are clearly inspirational. If they’re good, it’s hard to get beyond just nodding your head in admiration. And if they’re not good (and many aren’t), it’s equally hard not to give way to a mean-spirited cynicism when the sentiment gets too glurge-like.

But I’m looking forward to Seymour: An Introduction because everything I’ve read about Seymour himself says that he really is an inspirational character, a man without pretense or ego, a man whose commitment to his students is more important than his pride or reputation.

And it’s good to spend time with people like that.

So, I hope you’ll join me in The Music Hall Loft at 7:00 and help me to enjoy and appreciate this movie in the way it deserves.

And if you’re working on your June calendar, I hope you will consider coming to the discussion next week of Wild Tales, an Argentinian movie that the term “black comedy” might have been invented to describe. It’s a series of short movies on the theme of revenge, and those of us who saw it at Telluride by the Sea thought it was the funniest (and darkest) comedy we’d seen in years.

The discussion of Wild Tales will come on a Thursday (June 11) instead of the usual Tuesday. But even if it violates your weekly movie-going routine, I can guarantee that you will both gasp and laugh a great deal.

And on the last day of June (Tuesday, June 30), we will be discussing Lambert and Stamp, another documentary, that shows how two aspiring moviemakers in the early 1960s brought about the emergence of one of my favorite rock bands of all time: The Who. This should be good.

See you tomorrow.