The Concert

A delightful short film - a musician on his way to the Albert Hall finds that his feet make music on the crosswalk as if it were a piano.... others get involved tuning etc. even the birds make the telephone lines into staffs... fun for all.

As an early HBO viewer, I used to love the Short Take interludes between the movies (sometimes more than the movies themselves). Some very high quality flicks were shown during these sweet filler times.

The Concert is one of those sweet memories. A nice little piece, about finding music in the most unlikely of places (behind the Royal Albert Hall, in the middle of a zebra crossing). I was lucky enough to capture it on video during one of the airings, but I would *love* a copy of this movie on DVD.

I've been searching for the title of this piece for quite some time, and now that I've found it, I wanted to share my love for the piece with others.

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be much market for these sorts of pieces. It is available on VHS but not DVD. If you do get a chance, see the film.

When a suited and booted gent is chauffeured to London's Royal Albert Hall, we feel sure we are in for a gala concert. He is primmed and trimmed by his valet and then steps out - of a phone box onto a zebra crossing outside the building. What's miraculous is that the black and white steps crossing the road correspond to piano keys and soon we are getting a nifty little dance! A passing policeman stops by to investigate, then a traffic warden, some other musicians - even some cars and buses take orderly positions on the street to enjoy the show. It takes a friendly pop at the grandiosity of concert performing and at luvviedom whilst also including a little bit of sitcom style character humour as Julian Chagrin engages in quite some agile stepping and a few local workers keep him in tune. It's quite imaginative this, and worth ten minutes, I'd say.

a concert pianist performs his piece by stepping on the piano-like lines of a crosswalk near royal albert hall. the street becomes his stage and the world, his audience. it's short, sweet, and worth a laugh or two.

p.s. i've always wanted to comment on one of these all-but-unknown shorts, and now i have. i can die happy.