A gifted piano tuner with a meticulous skill for tuning pianos (and for cracking safes) is the subject of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Daniel Roher’s latest film. Erica Worth meets him.
The Canadian film director Daniel Roher is in London, and I’m catching up with him to talk about Tuner, which comes to UK cinemas at the end of May. I’ve already seen it (and I liked it a lot), so here’s a quick synopsis without giving too much away: Tuner follows Niki White, a gifted young piano tuner in New York, whose extraordinary sensitivity to sound – a rare auditory ability which becomes both a gift and a curse – allows him to hear nuances most people miss. Once a promising musician, Niki (played by charismatic actor Leo Woodall) now works alongside his ageing mentor Harry Horowitz (the lovable Dustin Hoffman, no less), travelling from home to home restoring grand pianos and quietly navigating a life shaped by disappointment and isolation. When criminals discover that his finely tuned hearing can also be used to crack safes, Niki is drawn into a dangerous criminal underworld that clashes with his gentle nature and his growing relationship with Ruthie, a music student who offers him a glimpse of a different future.
Above: Dustin Hoffman and Leo Woodall
I’ll stop right there. You don’t want to know how it all turns out, do you? But I can say that this film blends crime thriller, romance and character drama, using sound – specifically the wondrous tones of a piano – as the central theme.
Why a tuner?
From my own experience, piano tuners tend to be discreet folk, lurking in the shadows backstage or tuning home instruments without fuss – so it’s hard to think of a tuner as the main character in a Hollywood movie. I ask Roher what made him come up with the idea. ‘I had recently met my future wife, an actress, who was at the time on the cusp of making her first feature film. She was taking me around to meet her friends Michelle and Peter. Peter was a piano tuner. He took me into his workshop – and I stumbled upon an explosion of key actions and wires. He started talking to me about the art of piano tuning, which I’d not heard too much about in my life! All of a sudden, he’s talking to me about entropy and atrophy, and the forces of chaos, and how the universe wants to pull a piano out of tune. His job as a tuner is to fight that chaos and to restore the order, so that a musician can be empowered. I was so captivated about all of that.
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‘And then Peter continues to tell me all about his day-to-day life – and all the super wealthy clients he has. These people plonk their Steinway under a staircase, and stick some photos on it – that kind of thing, and they treat him badly. But then a person who really knows about music will treat a him like a proper person – they respect him. In that situation, a tuner is revered. Basically, without a piano tuner there are no piano players. They are the unsung heroes of the piano world. So I thought what an interesting dichotomy. I got inspired by his world and I spent a day with him, watching him work, and it was a really special thing. That was the inception moment of the story.’
Indeed, watching a piano tuner at work is fascinating stuff, but, as I mention to Roher, a tuner usually works alone without colleague or partner. ‘That was fiction. I invented that part,’ he chuckles. ‘I wanted the idea of the old piano tuner paired with his younger apprentice. Together they get through the day. Dustin’s character is vintage, a throwback, he doesn’t even know how to send an email. There’s something beautiful and yet sad about this revered master of his craft. And now the sun is setting on his life – that’s his character. I was inspired by the two of them together.
Authentic as it gets
The two actors work together in perfect harmony (excuse the pun), as if feeding off each other. ‘They say you shouldn’t write for specific actors,’ Roher says, ‘as you’ll only get your heart broken. But I wrote this for Dustin. I’m a huge fan. And I found out that when he was 15 years old, he wanted to be a piano player! Dustin remembers seeing Art Tatum as a young man. Leo was more of a challenge. I saw him on the British TV show, One Day, and I could see his special quality. I knew him slightly, via my wife, so I sent him the script and I’m delighted to say he really loved it.’
‘Both Leo and Dustin worked really hard at the piano. We all tried very hard to make it as “real” as possible so that people in the piano world found it acceptable’
In order to project a convincing performance on screen, Woodall spent much time in the company of piano tuners, watching them work and copying their skills. And what about the moments when Niki is seen playing the piano? Is that him, actually playing? ‘Yes, it’s him! Both Leo and Dustin worked really hard at the piano. We all tried hard to make it as “real” as possible so that people in the piano world found it acceptable. At the end of the film, in the final scene, Leo is playing. Yes, it’s edited, but that’s all him. It’s virtuosic playing, too!
Dustin Hoffman with Daniel Roher
‘Of course I’m anxious about the piano folks and what they’ll think. A lot of you are pernickety! I grew up playing ice hockey, and when I see ice hockey in a movie, it’s never right. I feel like a lot of pianists will think the same. I just want to say “we tried our best”, and if it doesn’t sparkle for everyone, I’m sorry.’
For those expecting to hear the ‘standard’ repertoire of Chopin, Beethoven or Debussy featured here and there, you won’t get it, and I mention to Roher. ‘I was more interested in having Ruthie [Niki’s love interest] being more of a romantic, he replies, ‘so we have some Ravel and Mussorgsky as her points as inspiration. I wanted a jazzy feel as well. Executive music producer Marius de Vries composed the onscreen music, while Will Bates wrote the score of the movie music.’
And what about the many pianos we see throughout – those Yamahas and Bösendorfers? ‘Yamaha Canada were so cooperative and generous with us. They wanted to participate – to have their pianos in the movie. It’s not so easy to bring in such a huge concert grand for a movie. Yamaha always showed up.’
Tuner is about dreams, disappointments, life’s temptations and passions… with the focus being on one young man’s love for the piano – something that will resonate with most readers of this magazine. ‘Music is such an important part of life, isn’t it?’ remarks Roher. ‘This guy is wounded, and he wants to be a pianist. “Music is how we decorate our time”, someone once said. Loss and identity, and how we invest so much in our personhood, is what makes us. If you are a pianist who develops a hearing problem, and you cannot play the piano, imagine the loss of personhood. The end of the movie is all about being OK, though. In the end, all will be OK.’
Tuner plays in UK cinemas from May 29.