Note: Watched a French movie for the first time in quite a while. The movie was just as great as I was expecting from the critical acclaim. Everybody takes different things away from works of art, and movies are no exception, I guess.

The movie contained some possibilities for identification for a person like me, who grew up with a dominant father who, during my upbringing, spiralled deeper and deeper into his own inabilities, until loosing my mother and finally having no other exit than death too early. Things which leave some marks of rage and despair on sons. And of course the piano playing. For me the movie was about Tom’s (the main character) way out of his rage and despair. True he had had some musical talent as a youngster, but to me it was apparent from the outset that he would never, ever be a concert pianist. You simply can not make up for years and years of missed practice with a bit of talent from your youth. But that was not the main issue. For me the issue was of Tom deliberately seeking out another path, than the one laid out for him genetically and through his upbringing with his father. He never becomes a concert pianist, but he manages something more profound. He does away with the inabilities and helpless rage that he inherited. Not by playing piano his entire youth, but by reaching out for something else.