Vitus

The Story about a boy-genius who wants nothing, than being a normal boy, is a well played and charmful story. The Boy is played by a real-life-boy-genius who plays the piano amazingly. Grandpa is the same actor as "Hitler" in "Der Untergang" and shows herewith his incredible talent for various roles.

The Movie has no gunfights, carcrashes or nudescenes. Its a simple, heartwarming story, which takes you away from the fast and hectic daily life into a almost 2-hour-story, which is nothing but good and charming.

A silent movie, but nevertheless a real good one.

We just saw Vitus at the San Francisco International Film Festival, with an audience that packed in the theatre and gave the director a round of applause at the end. In the context of Fredi Murer's career, this film address themes that he explored in earlier works such as Alpine Fire and Full Moon, but here with a lighter, less moralistic tone. Murer clearly has a great rapport with children and brings out a credible performance from the nonprofessional actor (but real-life musical virtuoso) Teo Gheorghiu -- especially considering that so much of the film rests on this young pianist's shoulders. Bruno Ganz, whom English-speaking audiences rarely get to hear performing in his own Zurich dialect, unsentimentally embodies the traditional Swiss values that are disappearing under a wave of American-style materialism and yuppie anxiety.

Parents, take your young geniuses to see this film, and take its humane message of love, self-recognition and forgiveness to heart.

I saw this movie at the Palm Springs Film Festival and absolutely loved it. I didn't want it to end. It just got better and better. I almost didn't go to see it because there were so many other choices. I thought it was just going to be about a child prodigy, but it was about so much more. There were many stories besides the many one, and every one of them was unique and kept my interest. Screenwriters could learn a lot by analyzing the elements that composed this film and then writing more good ones like this. The acting was superb. I thought that the young piano player stole the show. He was perfectly cast. However, the real life piano player who played the character was also excellent in his role. It was so nice to have a complex plot without being in the middle of a story with family members screaming at each other. They may have had different plans for the piano player's life, but at heart they all loved each other.

Vitus portrays a kid who struggles to choose between his parents dreams and his own. Anyone with over ambitious parents can relate! The acting is incredible. Seeing the grandfather in the role was excellent- I first saw him as Hitler in the German film Untergang (Downfall) about Hitler's last days. He does a marvelous job in both films. Anyone interested in foreign film should see it- it's stirred up a bit of chaos for directly portraying Hitler and evoking sympathy for him.

In Vitus, the young boy who plays Vitus at age twelve is an actual Piano prodigy. There was no need to fake piano playing- he really is playing in the film. The person who elected to do this was genius, they added and incredible amount of credibility to the entire feature. The movie is excellent and comes to the US soon. A US remake is already being discussed- a testament to the excellence of the film.

Sure this is a movie that everyone loves to hate. A foreign movie about a boy who is gifted on the piano. His parents notice this and immediately set about to make sure the boy is properly educated and makes sure he plays the piano. The boy just wants, you know, to be a boy. No one seems to understand except his grandfather. So you know, they have a SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP. Sure, this is a predictable and syrupy feel-good fluff, but damned if I didn't enjoy it. I LOVED this movie. This is the type of movie that you could say the sum is equal to it's parts, as all the cast and the script combine together to make this as enjoyable as possible. A special nod goes out to the 3 kids playing Vitus, who are all quite great, and to Bruno Ganz who is quite marvelous here too. Again, this wont make any awards list, or be even nominated for anything (it's just a little TOO predictable), but this sure would make audiences cheer.