The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2006)

What an amazing movie - so strange, so romantic, so beautiful, so different, so dreamy, so delicate, so imaginative. This is a film that should be seen if only because it is one of the most beautifully shot films of the last several years. Praised to the high heaven "Pan's Labyrinth" simply pales and disappears in comparison. The Brothers Quay are the visual masters with astounding talents for capturing dreams and transferring them to the screen in the most hypnotizing ways imaginable. We may not be able to always understand the meaning of a dream by trying to interpret its objects but it would not stop us from feeling the beauty and magic of the film. There is a story of course, a fairytale about an evil doctor who abducts a beautiful opera singer with a magnificent voice whom he wants to transform into a mechanical singing device and a piano tuner of earthquakes who falls in love with her and tries to save her but every image and every sound of the movie are the story themselves. Everyone who feels at home in the worlds of David Lynch or Peter Greenaway, Luis Bunuel or Jan Svankmajer, Guy Maddin or the Brothers Polish; who is impressed by Georges Franju's "Les Yeux sans visage", Jean Cocteau's "Belle et la bête" (1946), by both Patrick Susskind's and Tom Tykwer's "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer" (2006), and by dark romantic fairy tales of E.T. A. Hoffmann, should see and listen to "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes", the film which charm starts with its title. Excellent , and according to my own grading system, a visual and sound masterpiece, I wish I'd seen it in the theater

The Brothers Quay are directors, judging by conventional thought, should have stuck to making short films. I myself actually really liked their first feature, Institute Benjamenta, but judging by their sophomore effort, The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes, I'm willing to agree they don't come close to equaling their past genius at feature length. Piano Tuner is, without a doubt, a gorgeous film to look at, and often to listen to. Unfortunately, it's borderline painful to sit through with its convoluted narrative and glacial pace. Reading the plot synopsis, it sounds like a pretty good story. But the Brothers fail miserably to bring it to life. One thing they should consider avoiding completely in the future: dialogue. My God, it's awful here. A huge bust.

PTOE is a sumptuous, seven course feast for the senses.Nic Knowland's HD cinematography is wonderfully rich and textural. The sound design is eerie and extremely effective.The art direction is equally fantastic.Amira Cesar is endowed with an ethereal, otherworldly beauty and is perfectly cast in the film. As is Gottfried John who delights as the diabolical Dr. Droz.The Quays have succeeded yet again in creating a strangely compelling parallel universe, falling somewhere between German Expressionism and Kafkaesque Surrealism.The twins have generally been tagged as image-makers rather than story-tellers. That is not necessarily true, as each picture says a thousand words.If you approach PTOE on a purely sensory level - you will be in for a spellbinding ride in which time will cease to exist. If you approach it as a conventional narrative, you will instead find yourself looking constantly at your watch.Alice or the white rabbit - it's really your choice.

This is not a movie for people who do not know a great deal, and people who are not willing to think - the authors, whoever they are, made a great film, but not for people who do not like to work their brains - the Heros of the story are Dr. Droz, and Assumpta. In the end, Assumpta becomes Dr. Droz, as the assumption of the movie is that all enlightened people are spiritually one. The puppet is that part of Assumpta that was not quite enlightened, and the tree she cuts down represents all the unenlightment in her life found in her friends and herself - when she finally becomes one with all the other enlightened people in the world (at the end of the movie), we see her looking in upon the lives of the piano tuner, and Malvina, who represent people who have tried to be enlightened, but gave up forever, and are now being used by the Droz to teach the world about the fact that it is being controlled and managed by a secret organization of Enlightened Masters who are one with each other completely. There is not even a slight hint of illogic in this movie, maybe that is why you might be having a hard time understanding it - I have yet to see a comment that even gets close to grasping the profound meaning of this movie - no one has a clue, and that is too bad - you would think that a professional critic would at least have some clue as to what the movie wants to say to the thinking world!