Reviews & Interviews

Since the movie is about a concert pianist who loses his hands in a train wreck (funnily enough, “train wreck” is also the musician’s argot for a disastrous, i.e., derailed performance), a live pianist seems also a prerequisite. This vital role was played with tremendous finesse and passion by Frederick Hodges, flown in for the event from the Bay Area. Hodges is a gifted pianist in the Gershwinian mold, and also one of the great ragtime players of our time: classically trained and an admirer not just of refined American pianism of the Jazz Age, but also of some of the towering virtuosos (especially Russians) of the 20th and 21st centuries, Hodges has the robust technique and musical sensibility to bring the film’s central character, pianist Paul Orlac, to life—and nearly to death.