Music of the Heart (1999)

Story of a schoolteacher's struggle to teach violin to inner-city Harlem kids.

Director:

Wes Craven

Writer:

Pamela Gray

Stars:

Meryl Streep, Cloris Leachman, Henry Dinhofer

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 9 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Meryl Streep	...	Roberta
Cloris Leachman	...	Assunta
Henry Dinhofer	...	Lexi at 5
Michael Angarano	...	Nick at 7
Robert Ari	...	Supervisor
Aidan Quinn	...	Brian
Teddy Coluca	...	Taxi Driver
Angela Bassett	...	Janet
Josh Pais	...	Dennis
Barbara Gonzalez	...	Janet's Secretary
Jade Yorker	...	DeSean at 11
Victoria Gómez	...	Lucy at 10 (as Victoria Gomez)
Justin Pierre Edmund	...	Bongo Kid
Justin 'DJ' Spaulding	...	Naeem at 9 (as Justin Spaulding)
Zoe Sternbach-Taubman	...	Guadalupe at 9

Storyline

The true story of a young teacher who fights against the board of education in her bid to teach underprivileged kids in a Harlem school the beauty of music through the violin. In her struggle she loses everything as the system comes down on her with all their might but her determination for the kids happiness helps her to battle back with wonderfully inspirational results.

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Plot Keywords:

violin | teacher | school | female protagonist | musician | 

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Taglines:

She gave them a gift they could never imagine. They gave the system a fight it would never forget.

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Genres:

Drama | Music

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for brief mild language and sensuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

The third collaboration between Wes Craven and actress Angela Bassett, who played Janet Williams. She appeared on the show Nightmare Cafe (1992), also created by Craven, and she was the lead female character in Vampire in Brooklyn (1995).

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Goofs

In one of the classroom scenes early in the movie, Streep is shown wearing boots; when the camera comes back to her later in the same scene, she's wearing shoes instead.

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Quotes

Roberta Guaspari: [to her students right before a big concert] I want you all to take a second and just... breathe. Deep breaths. Now listen to me. I want you all to play from your heart. Forget about the audience, watch me, you'll do just fine. Just play from here.
[puts hand over her heart]
Roberta Guaspari: Okay?

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Crazy Credits

Please support arts and music education.

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Connections

Featured in WatchMojo: Top 10 Good Movie Teachers (2015)

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Soundtracks

Con Sandunga
Performed by Tambó featuring Johnny Almendra and Louie Baveo
Written by Julito Collazo
Courtesy of RykoLatino, a Rykodisc Label

User Reviews

A wonderful, wonderful movie for any music-lover, one of the very few I rate "10"!

Even though I had been wanting to see "Music of the Heart" for a while now, and I expected to like it, I didn't expect it to be one of my favorites of all time. Which it now is.

Meryl Streep, in the lead role, is nothing short of fantastic. She studied violin virtually every day, for 2 to 4 hours a day, for 3 months because she insisted on doing all her on-screen playing. She was so good that duing warm-up for the Carnegie Hall scene, famous violinists Issac Stern and Jascha Heifitz stood in amazement at how good she was. Watching the movie, I honestly became unaware that she was an "actress" in a movie, and that seldom happens with me.

The most enjoyable scenes were those showing young children make music. And the Carnegie Hall performance, with all those real-world virtuoso violinists, is one of the most moving scenes imaginable, when you consider what had transpired leading up to it.

This movie is based on the real story of a real music teacher in Harlem. It is a wonderful story of how one person through love and persistence can affect so many in such a positive way. This movie, unlike most, will stay with me for a long, long time.

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

29 October 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Fiddlefest

Filming Locations:

Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$27,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$3,653,281, 31 October 1999

Gross USA:

$14,859,394

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$14,936,407

Company Credits

Production Co:

Craven-Maddalena Films, Miramax

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1