Finding redemption through music

Crossing Rachmaninoff
Director Rebecca Tansley
Release date February 25

Rebecca Tansley’s Crossing Rachmaninoff, which had limited screenings as part of last year’s NZ International Film Festival last year has since screened to acclaim at the 29th Festival International des Programmes Audiovisuels (FIPA France) as well as the 2015 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival (China) where it was a semi-finalist.

The story of one man’s journey to redemption through Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2; Crossing Rachmaninoff follows Italian-born Italian-born Flavio Villani as he prepares for a major performance with the Orchestra Filarmonica of Calabria that will confirm his arrival as a concert pianist and vindicate his decision to be a musician.

Mr Villani emigrated to New Zealand in 2008 where he studied piano performance at the University of Auckland under Stephen de Pledge. The film follows him as he completes his studies and his travels  to the US and Italy where he spends time with his family.

The film also looks at Mr Villani 's relationship with his strict Catholic family and their less than approving view of his lifestyle – that of a musician as well of a young gay man.

We see how he struggles to master the Rachmaninoff both technically and emotionally. Seeing him slowly coming to understand the music through the demand of his teachers and his own desire for precision and empathy with the piece.

The film provides a narrative, tracing his desire to be a pianist as well as the decision he has made to leave his native Italy and move to Auckland to study. It also focuses on him learning the Rachmaninoff work.

It achieves a sense of the physicality and drama of the piece by extensive close-ups of Mr Villani ’s tortured face and his hands racing across the landscape of the keyboard.

In 2011, Mr Villani was selected by Creative New Zealand to play Michael Parekowhai's magnificent carved Steinway piano at the Venice Biennale.

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