The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes (2005)

Directors:

Stephen Quay
Timothy Quay

Writers:

Alan Passes (writer)
Stephen Quay (writer)

Release Date:

17 February 2006 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Music | Romance

Plot:

Dark fairytale about a demonic doctor who abducts a beautiful opera singer with designs on transforming her into a mechanical nightingale. |

Plot Keywords:

Puppet | Fairy Tale | Surrealism | Dream Like

Awards:

3 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Amira Casar	...	Malvina van Stille
Gottfried John	...	Dr. Emmanuel Droz
Assumpta Serna	...	Assumpta
César Sarachu	...	Adolfo Blin / Don Felisberto Fernandez (as Cesar Sarachu)
Ljubisa Gruicic	...	Holz (gardener) (as Ljubisa Lupo-Grujcic)
Marc Bischoff	...	Marc (gardener)
Henning Peker	...	Henning (gardener)
Gilles Gavois	...	Echeverria (gardener)
Volker Zack	...	Volker (gardener)
Thomas Schmieder	...	Thomas (gardener)
Regine Zimmermann	...	Dresser
Emil Petrov	...	Musician

Also Known As:

Der Klavierstimmer der Erdbeben (Germany) (TV title)
L'accordeur de tremblements de terre (France)

Runtime:

USA:99 min | Canada:99 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

Germany | UK | France

Language:

Portuguese | English

Color:

Color | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

UK:12A | Singapore:NC-16 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud)

Filming Locations:

Leipzig, Saxony, Germany

Company:

Arte

Soundtrack:

Nisi Dominus

Beauty and the dreams

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