Sundance 2023 review: Everyone’s a winner in the stirring ‘Pianoforte’

Alex is getting his body worked over by his coach. “You’ll be playing for him.” At several points during Pianoforte, Jakub Piątek’s mesmerizing account of the 2021 edition of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, I felt I could be watching a sports documentary. When Russian pianist Eva receives seven specific and different instructions in seven seconds from her coach, it reminded me of the demanding practice scenes with the gymnast—also named Eva—in Věra Chytilová's 1963 film Something Different. Then they do etudes.” Leonora, the sunniest character in the documentary, describes it as the ‘Olympics of piano’, adding: “If you win the 40,000, you might be using it to go to therapy.” Leonora says this jokingly, but it’s probably not far from the truth. At one point we see Hao—who’s still in high school—do ‘mental practice’, sitting in front of the piano without touching the keys.