Ask any moviegoer worth his or her bread (and I mean REALLY worth it!): "Unfinished Play for Mechanic Piano" is definitely one of the best ten movies ever made (I knew a very competent and cultured actor, the late Vistrian Roman, who declared it THE BEST of it all - and I could find no arguments to contradict him... Only a matter of personal taste makes me place on the top Tarkovsky's "Stalker"). Fact is that, as a few other admirers stated above, this Tchekhovian masterpiece IS INDEED PERFECT. Every detail is at its place, the structure is admirably built, the pervasive reality of the estate gradually grows to become unbearable, the characters are incredibly complex and deep (and, of course, played by a crew of genius actors!), and the photography is simply an ongoing series of paintworks.
I saw it for the... seventh time? Or maybe was it the eleventh?... a few days ago - and it made me laugh MORE than even, in the beginning, only to make me cry WORSE than ever in the end. It was hard for me, then, to hold the cinematographic culture course, and talk to my pupils, with a dry knot in my throat... This movie's emotional power is simply irresistible, and the philosophic content, abysmal... Once you see it, once you UNDERSTAND IT, your world will never be the same.
