An exciting few days in the Czech Republic releasing
CONCERTO – A BEETHOVEN JOURNEY. Who
doesn’t love Prague? What a wonderful city – especially if you visit a little
after the tourist season. It is only of
those wonderful European cities of music – like Vienna and Paris – that hours
can be spent just wandering around, popping into churches and concert halls,
drinking coffee and eating the occasional cream-filled cake. The first screening was for the music folk of
Prague – not least the Prague Spring Festival and also the Rudolphinum concert
hall. The project had started here in
2012 so it was nice to bring the finished film to them to view. My local distributors had done a good job of
subtitling and posters, etc, not to forget the drinks and snacks afterwards. The whole evening went very well – and
everyone seemed to really enjoy and appreciate the film. The next day we repeated the process with the
local film and music press – and that too went well. Leif Ove is one of those pianists that if you
know him you love, and if you see him in the film for the first time you also
love him immediately. The problem, as ever, is how to draw people into the
cinema to see someone they have not heard of – which is why we stress the
Beethoven angle. But it’s tricky. I have two subsequent public screenings to
the east then north of the country and while everyone who came loved the film
the attendances were poor. (50 people in a 200 seater cinema). That’s why Hollywood spends millions on
marketing… Not an option for us. However, what was really encouraging was how
popular EXHIBITION ON SCREEN is with audiences and how they are really looking
forward to next year’s films….
