{"id":155820,"date":"2025-09-14T08:50:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-14T08:50:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/155820\/"},"modified":"2025-09-14T08:50:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T08:50:24","slug":"two-pianos-is-another-rich-thoughtful-drama-from-arnaud-desplechin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/155820\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Pianos is Another Rich, Thoughtful Drama from Arnaud Desplechin"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The past rears its not-so-ugly head in Two Pianos, Arnaud Desplechin\u2019s latest film exploring the ways gorgeous people make an even bigger mess out of the messiness of life itself. Set amidst the world of classical music in Lyon, this tale of a tortured pianist\u2019s reunion with his also-tortured first love contains the literary and melodramatic elements one normally expects from Desplechin, who\u2013\u2013having not received a theatrical release since 2017\u2019s Ismael\u2019s Ghosts\u2013\u2013has unfortunately fallen out of favor in the U.S. Fortunately that\u2019s not the case in his home country, where he\u2019s maintained a prolific output that continues attracting some of France\u2019s top actors. With Two Pianos he\u2019s put together a rich, thoughtful look at how we can shape our lives around our biggest regrets.<\/p>\n

Once a child prodigy at the piano, Mathias (Fran\u00e7ois Civil) returns to his hometown after he\u2019s summoned by his mentor El\u00e9na (Charlotte Rampling) to duet with her in several concerts. Back in Lyon for the first time since leaving eight years ago to teach music in Japan, Mathias heads straight from the airport to meet El\u00e9na at a swanky party where his underdressed appearance\u2013\u2013upon entering he\u2019s offered a necktie to look more appropriate\u2013\u2013establishes the awkwardness of his presence. At the same time, Claude (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) gets ready to head to the same party with her husband Pierre (Jeremy Lewin), arriving late and right as Mathias gets ready to leave. A chance elevator run-in causes her to immediately run in the opposite direction, while Mathias faints on the spot.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s only the start of problems for Mathias: noticing a young child who looks exactly like him, he gets his mother (Anne Kessler) to pull out an old photo and ensure he\u2019s not misremembering. While it\u2019s unsure whether or not Mathias\u2019 encounters with the young boy are real or imagined, a sudden tragedy links them back to Claude, and the former lovers have no choice but to confront each other and the baggage they\u2019ve spent years dutifully hiding.<\/p>\n

To reveal every thorn of Claude and Mathias\u2019 pasts would ruin the fun of Desplechin and co-writer Kamen Velkovsky\u2019s twisty narrative foundation, though it\u2019s easy to figure out that the two characters\u2019 relationship was an affair while Claude was with Pierre\u2013\u2013one can\u2019t have a French romantic drama without a sprinkle of adultery. Rather than tease out these plot details, Two Pianos efficiently gets them out of the way to focus on how Claude and Mathias exist under the self-imposed weight of past actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While at the aforementioned party, the domineering El\u00e9na scolds Mathias over his hiding away in Japan when he should have been touring and performing like her. \u201cI was built for war,\u201d she tells him, and likens herself to a monster in how her lifestyle means she never really has a home. El\u00e9na later confides in Mathias that memory decline means their concerts will be her last, and her icy demeanor cracks open to reveal the fear underneath. She realizes the fortress she built for herself over a decades-long career is about to become a prison and, faced with the fate she wrote for herself, is horrified. Charlotte Rampling delivers her best performance in years as El\u00e9na; when she finally exits the story (in true Desplechin fashion, via a letter she reads directly to the camera), a thin mask of self-assuredness covering her vulnerability makes for Two Pianos\u2018 most powerful moment.<\/p>\n

Depending on how you look at it, El\u00e9na\u2019s story can function as a parallel to Claude and Mathias\u2019 or as a warning. Both of them spent nearly a decade cocooning themselves in guilt and self-lacerating wounds, and while they\u2019re young enough to do away with those arbitrary barriers if they wished, the work in doing so might be too difficult. It\u2019s certainly not due to anyone but themselves, as the screenplay cleverly subverts. Much of what Claude and Mathias treat as dirty secrets are unspoken truths to those around them, who don\u2019t see much fuss in what eats at them; at one point Claude\u2019s friend tells Mathias that \u201csorrow is a waste of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desplechin would have little concern if it were so easy for people to toss away their sorrows. His interests lie in people\u2019s flaws and the myriad ways they influence and manifest different trajectories in their lives. While more formally restrained here than 2022\u2019s Brother and Sister or the Phillip Roth adaptation Deception, opting for unassuming handled camerawork via DP Paul Guilhaume, there are plenty of sudden tonal shifts in line with characters\u2019 emotional volatility. At one point Claude can go from practically ripping her clothes off in a building entrance with Mathias to a full-blown screaming and crying meltdown several cuts later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s most impressive is how Desplechin\u2019s direction, as well as Civil and Tereskewicz\u2019s performances, never make these moments jarring. They unfold as waves of emotions, relatable in how one\u2019s feelings can turn on a dime and understandable given the anguish Claude and Mathias feel at constantly batting away their desires. Two Pianos amounts to a glimpse into a brief, tumultuous time in these two people\u2019s lives, where they take a short look at what could have been and nearly combust at the sight of it. Desplechin\u2019s ability to find the raw, human qualities in that experience\u2013\u2013and to respect them enough to understand that they can stand on their own rather than be weighed down by narrative contrivance\u2013\u2013makes his movie an ideal example of what a prestige film should be.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two Pianos premiered at TIFF 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The past rears its not-so-ugly head in Two Pianos, Arnaud Desplechin\u2019s latest film exploring the ways gorgeous people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-155820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}