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I love the scene in The Fabulous Baker Boys where Jack is in the smoky afterhours bar playing jazz. The thing he really loves and not the popular songs that are his "job" to play.
Definitly a good story/movie and for the most part good piano and singing. The rehearsals for the new singer are hilarious.
Ragdoll
At first, she only flew when she thought no one was watching.
There are lots of cartoons and animated movies with pianos in them.
Tom & Jerry's "Cat Concerto" was already mentioned (great short), but "Johann Mouse" also deserves a mention, where Tom learns to play a waltz, one note at a time, and then, he plays like a great virtuoso.
There's a Pink Panther cartoon where the Pink Panther is chased by an agressive piano. I don't know the title; I believe it plays mostly at a winter sports resort.
And of more recent time: Shrek 2 and 3, and Tangled. Both have pianists with a hook for a hand, but both manage to play well.
My grand piano is a Yamaha C2 SG. My other Yamaha is an XMAX 300.
Not a piano movie per se, but one that comes to mind is Topsy Turvy. A very under-appreciated film IMHO, though my opinion is probably tainted by the fact that I played in the orchestra for my first production of the Mikado at the age of 12 and have loved Gilbert and Sullivan's works ever since
One of the things that I think really comes through in the film is the way in which the piano permeated Victorian life. They keep showing up everywhere, and really enhance the emotion of a number of great scenes. Part of what makes this film so special (again IMHO) is the unique way in which it was created. As with a number of Mike Leigh films, there was no script going in. Once hired, the actors spent months studying their characters and the period, and then began the process of creating each scene through collaborative improvisation. A method that I thought created one of the most "real" seeming period/biographical films I've ever seen.
Equally important, the director insisted that all of the actors be able to sing and/or play all of the music in the film. As a result, the performances are a bit unpolished perhaps, but charmingly authentic and believable. Nothing drives me more crazy than a film about music in which the actors obviously know nothing about music. Allan Corduner cast as Sullivan for example, had worked toward a career as a concert pianist before becoming an actor and had to prepare a variety of pieces in different styles as part of his audition for the role. The scenes with Sullivan and his mistress playing and/or singing together for real are intimate and charming, which seems to me so much more impactful than overdubbing some perfect studio recording.
While I'm far from an expert on the subject, it also seemed to me that they did a great job of capturing the sound of a variety of Victorian era pianos. From the wonderfully awful out of tune brothel piano, to Sullivan's home upright, to the practice grand and the salon concert, it never felt like the piano was out of place for its time or the feel of the occasion which again could have easily happened by overdubbing a recording of a big powerful 20th century concert grand.
If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend. One of my favorite films of all time.
On a completely different plane, "The Commitments" is another all time favorite music film Lots a great piano/keyboard moments, singing "lighter shade of pale" to Bach on the church organ, "borrowing" the gran's upright so they can practice, the pianist practicing his parts on the back of the truck on the to the hall, great stuff and great music
Thankfully another music film with actors who can actually sing/play
Well others have already mentioned/posted about the 1996 movie "Shine" (David Helfgott) but I like the scene wherein he entered a bar which had an upright piano...some of the people thought he was a so-so piano player or some kind of a lunatic who knew nothing at all about pianos and then he started playing "Flight of the Bumblebee" and every "doubting Thomases" were silenced
Amadeus gets an honorable mention in my book, but this scene is, to me, the greatest piano scene in any movie. "Sock it to us, Liber-arch-ay."
Every day we are afforded a new chance. The problem with life is not that you run out of chances. In the end, what you run out of are days.
I know it's very depressing, but the scene in "The Pianist" where Spilzmann sits down in the freezing cold to play the Chopin G minor ballade for the German officer after not having played for years. I know it's a stretch to believe he could have done that, but still it really moved me.
Not a piano movie per se, but one that comes to mind is Topsy Turvy. A very under-appreciated film IMHO, though my opinion is probably tainted by the fact that I played in the orchestra for my first production of the Mikado at the age of 12 and have loved Gilbert and Sullivan's works ever since
One of the things that I think really comes through in the film is the way in which the piano permeated Victorian life. They keep showing up everywhere, and really enhance the emotion of a number of great scenes. Part of what makes this film so special (again IMHO) is the unique way in which it was created. As with a number of Mike Leigh films, there was no script going in. Once hired, the actors spent months studying their characters and the period, and then began the process of creating each scene through collaborative improvisation. A method that I thought created one of the most "real" seeming period/biographical films I've ever seen.
Equally important, the director insisted that all of the actors be able to sing and/or play all of the music in the film. As a result, the performances are a bit unpolished perhaps, but charmingly authentic and believable. Nothing drives me more crazy than a film about music in which the actors obviously know nothing about music. Allan Corduner cast as Sullivan for example, had worked toward a career as a concert pianist before becoming an actor and had to prepare a variety of pieces in different styles as part of his audition for the role. The scenes with Sullivan and his mistress playing and/or singing together for real are intimate and charming, which seems to me so much more impactful than overdubbing some perfect studio recording.
While I'm far from an expert on the subject, it also seemed to me that they did a great job of capturing the sound of a variety of Victorian era pianos. From the wonderfully awful out of tune brothel piano, to Sullivan's home upright, to the practice grand and the salon concert, it never felt like the piano was out of place for its time or the feel of the occasion which again could have easily happened by overdubbing a recording of a big powerful 20th century concert grand.
If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend. One of my favorite films of all time.
Rob
Ditto Rob. One of my favorite movies as well. Those old bird cage pianos were, at one time, a sturdy English instrument. Still a beauty on the outside but impossible to work on today. Great post. Thanks!
David Chadwick RPT Newark, Ohio 1931 Mason Hamlin AA
One that it seems few people have ever seen is Caveman's Valentine staring Sam Jackson as a homeless ("I'm NOT homeless, I live in a cave") fomer piano prodigy suffering from schizophrenia and paranoid delusions. The character gets involved in a murder mystery and has to pass himself off in high society. Great scene where he's playing at a party while trying to keep a lid on his personal inner demons. Not the only musician he's played, he also played a guitarist in the role he had in Black Snake Moan. In any case, I really enjoyed caveman's valentine, a strange but very entertaining film.
One that it seems few people have ever seen is Caveman's Valentine staring Sam Jackson as a homeless ("I'm NOT homeless, I live in a cave") fomer piano prodigy suffering from schizophrenia and paranoid delusions. The character gets involved in a murder mystery and has to pass himself off in high society. Great scene where he's playing at a party while trying to keep a lid on his personal inner demons. Not the only musician he's played, he also played a guitarist in the role he had in Black Snake Moan. In any case, I really enjoyed caveman's valentine, a strange but very entertaining film.
As far as I can see, nobody has mentioned yet the celebrated scene in Green Card where Gerard Depardieu pretends he is a pianist and composer. The result is shattering -- quite funny:
This example I would support very strongly. In this scene the whole history of the ragged relationship between the mother (the concert pianist) and her daughter (the wife of a country pastor, who has given up her ambitions to care for her mentally disturbed sister) is played out not only on the piano through the Chopin Prelude, but also on the face of Liv Ulmann. An absolute masterpiece.
However, what is not shown on this clip is that the daughter played the Prelude first to impress her mother, after which the concert pianist shows how really to play the piece correctly, thereby utterly destroying all her daughter's feelings. Without the "prelude" to this clip, the scene does not quite make sense.
"Impromptu", a film about Sand and Chopin is quite enjoyable. "The Pianist" is another great film, although not all about the piano, but a pianist in WW II hiding from the Nazis. The most recent "Sense and Sensibility" involves the piano in a nice manner, as does "Pride and Prejudice", although neither is a "piano" movie. Years ago there was a Hollywood story about Eddie Duchin which featured nice piano work from Carmen Cavallero, too. "Ray" has a lot of fine piano scenes, too. How about that movie about the guy who lived all his life on a ship? I can't remember the name right now, but he is a mythical prodigy. Does anyone remember this one? Well, I can think of many more, but probably most have been mentioned. How about "Dangerous Moonlight" with the wonderful Warsaw Concerto?
Sorry! I whimped out and wrote the above before reading all six pages of posts. Most of my ideas were already cited. The Legend of 1900 was mentioned and is the movie I couldn't name above. I think any movie with a piano-dominant musical soundtrack should qualify and there are so many good ones.
Any scene with Ingrid Bergman in it could qualify as the greatest movie scene of all time, piano or no.
This scene had Ingrid Bergman, Liv Ullmann, and a piano in it. What more do you want? It was also made by Ingmar Bergman to complete the list of delicacies. For a scene populated with so many "man" (and I count the Steinway & Sohne played also as "men") it was quite female dominated.
Furthermore the only actual man in the scene (the pastor) is at-the-side implicitly put down by Ingrid as not really manly (in comparison with Chopin, another man present through his music) -- he seems to pick up the snipe in his stride. This scene has so many psychological levels, it is almost polyphonic in tune with the piano, I vote for this one as indeed the greatest piano scene ever. It is really not the piano that is being played but the minds of the characters present and absent including the public.
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Lots a great piano/keyboard moments, singing "lighter shade of pale" to Bach on the church organ, "borrowing" the gran's upright so they can practice, the pianist practicing his parts on the back of the truck on the to the hall, great stuff and great music 
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