Green Book (2018): A biographical comedy-drama inspired by the true story of a 1962 tour of the Deep South by African American classical and jazz pianist
Don Shirley as played by
Mahershala Ali.
The Getting of Wisdom (1977): Drama about a young girl's struggle for acceptance and love in a girls' school in colonial Australia. The setting is her piano studies for her performance at a competition.
La La Land (2016):
Ryan Gosling plays a jazz pianist Sebastian Wilder, trying to make it in Hollywood.
The Last Song (2010): Based on a
Nicholas Sparks novel and centered on a rebellious girl, Ronnie, who is sent to a Southern beach town for the summer to stay with her father. Through their mutual love of music, the estranged duo learn to reconnect. Ronnie plays the piece she helped finished on her father's funeral. This movie starred
Miley Cyrus and
Liam Hemsworth.
The Mephisto Waltz (1971): A horror film where a dying pianist arranges to change souls with an aspiring musician, played by
Alan Alda, so he can continue to play piano. As the title suggests, the film makes much use of Franz Liszt's
Mephisto Waltzes.
Nodame Cantabile (2007):Based on the
manga of the same name; Shinichi Chiaki is a top student at Momogaoka College of Music and has secret ambitions to become a conductor. There, he meets Megumi Noda or 'Nodame', a piano student at Momogaoka, notorious for messiness and eccentric behavior. Despite being very talented, Nodame prefers to play by ear rather than according to the musical score; thus, she is regarded as sloppy and playful. When they meet by accident, Nodame quickly falls in love, but it takes much longer for Chiaki to even begin to appreciate Nodame's unusual qualities. Their relationship causes them both to develop and grow.
Nothing Lasts Forever is a 1984 American science-fiction comedy film directed by Tom Schiller, starring Zach Galligan, Lauren Tom, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sam Jaffe and Mort Sahl. The film opens to Adam Beckett (Zach Galligan) reluctantly performing as a purported pianist to an audience in New York City. Shortly before the scheduled release date, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer announced Nothing Lasts Forever was being postponed. MGM never released the film theatrically, nor has it ever been available on home video in any format in the United States.
The Passionate Pianist (1957): An Australian TV movie that about a teenage boy who prefers
football to practicing piano.
The Pianist (1991): Two sisters are infatuated with a Japanese pianist played by
Eiji Okuda.
The Pianist (1998): A drama starring
Serge Reggiani and
Laurent Terzieff that follows the contrasting lives of two pianist friends set during the Spanish Civil War.
The Piano (1993): A period drama about a psychologically mute Scottish woman who expresses herself with both sign language and her piano playing.
Secret (2007): A Taiwanese drama about a music student majoring in piano.
September Affair (1950): A fictional story about an architect and a pianist who is preparing to play
Rachmaninoff's
2nd Piano Concerto. They have an affair when they are wrongly believed to have perished on board an airliner that crashed into the sea.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999): Psycho-drama with Matt Damon (as the pianist), Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Cate Blanchett.
Tokyo Sonata (2008): Film about a middle-class family in Tokyo, the Sasakis, which consists of Ryūhei Sasaki, his wife Megumi, and their two sons Takashi and Kenji. The final scene depicts Kenji performing "
Clair de Lune" from the
Suite bergamasque at his audition with Megumi, Ryūhei, and his piano teacher watching. His performance is flawless.
The World of Henry Orient (1964): Concert pianist Henry Orient (
Peter Sellers) is followed around New York City by two teenage girls while pursuing an affair with a married woman.
Your Lie in April (2016): Based on the
manga of the same name; A
child prodigy pianist (Kōsei Arima) loses his interest in piano after his abusive and demanding mother dies. During his teenhood, his classmate Kaori Miyazono would help him play the piano again.