The Piano Lesson

Feb 5, 1995

1h 35m

★ 7.2

Overview

1930's Pittsburgh, a brother comes home to claim "my half of the piano", a family heirloom; but his sister is not wanting to part with it. This is a glimpse of the conditions for African-Americans as well as some of the attitudes and influences on their lives. But whether he is able to sell the piano so that he can get enough money to buy some property and "no longer have to work for someone else" involves the story (or lesson) that the piano has to show him.

Genres

Drama

TV Movie

Production Companies

Craig Anderson Productions

Signboard Hill Productions

Hearst Entertainment Productions

Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions

The Piano Lesson Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Boy Willie

Charles S. Dutton

Berniece Charles

Alfre Woodard

Doaker

Carl Gordon

Avery

Tommy Hollis

Wining Boy

Lou Myers

Lymon

Courtney B. Vance

Maretha

Zelda Harris

Grace

Rosalyn Coleman

Ace

Tommy Lafitte

Miss Ophelia

Lynne Innerst

Papa Willie Boy

Harold Surratt

Horse Trainer-Owner (uncredited)

Jackson Nunn

Kyle and Jen, estranged siblings, travel from New York City to rural Pennsylvania to pack up the home of their recently deceased mother. While there, they make a discovery that turns their world upside-down. A Picture of You is a serious movie about life that gets sideswiped in the supermarket parking lot by a funny movie about death. It’s a story about family, loss, secrets, letting go, and starting anew.

6.6

The Fabulous Baker Boys

Oct 13, 1989

The lives of two struggling musicians, who happen to be brothers, inevitably change when they team up with a beautiful, up-and-coming singer.

6.6

G

May 10, 2002

A young Hip Hop star named Summer G falls for a middle to upper class sister while in college. After she rejects him for a fellow social climber, Summer G spends ten years building a Hip Hop empire, then moves to the Hamptons where he finds the object of his affections.

5.3

Phantom Punch

Sep 1, 2008

From his discovery by a priest while serving time at the Missouri State Penitentiary to the infamous 'Phantom Punch' by Cassius Clay which effectively ended his career, the movie spans the years from 1950 to Liston's mysterious and untimely death in 1971.

7.0

Ragtime

Nov 20, 1981

A young black pianist becomes embroiled in the lives of an upper-class white family set among the racial tensions, infidelity, violence, and other nostalgic events in early 1900s New York City.

7.4

Matewan

Aug 28, 1987

Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan's vested interests so that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.

0.0

Truth Unspoken

Jun 11, 2013

Romantic misunderstandings abound with tempestuous couple Jay and Tracy, as Jay plans on proposing marriage, only to discover that Tracy has been cheating. Soon Tracy learns, however, that Jay has secrets of his own.

2.3

Fifth Fugue

May 2, 2009

A young student takes lessons with a piano teacher.

6.1

The Echo

May 25, 2008

An ex-prisoner moves to an old apartment, where one gets to see in the middle of a domestic problem between a police officer, his wife and his daughter. When he tries to intervene, he will be caught in a mysterious curse.

4.1

Blueprint

Dec 8, 2003

The story of the first cloned human being - told in her own words: At the age of thirty the world-famous composer Iris Sellin learns that she has an incurable illness. She - a person who wanted to live for ever - does however not give in. In order to preserve her art and also herself, beyond death, for all posterity, she has herself cloned. Her daughter Siri, whom, in this way, she turns into her virtual twin, learns as a child that she is the world's first cloned human being. In fact a blueprint: a blueprint of her mother. From that moment on nothing is as it was before...

7.4

Shine

Aug 15, 1996

Pianist David Helfgott, driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.

4.0

The Planet of Junior Brown

Sep 6, 1997

Powerful story about love, struggle and passion of an over protective mother and her piano prodigy.

4.1

A Legal Marriage

Apr 29, 1985

At the beginning of the 1941 war, a young talented artist Igor and his theater were evacuated to Tashkent. Here he meets music teacher Olga, who is seriously ill with malaria. Igor understands that only treatment in the capital will save the girl. But they are allowed into Moscow only on special passes. And then Igor almost by force drags Olga to the registry office. Feeling responsible for the girl, Igor begins to patronize her more and more...

7.4

Tokyo Sonata

Sep 27, 2008

A young boy takes interest in piano while his family begins to disintegrate around him after his father loses his job.

7.5

When We Were Kings

Oct 25, 1996

It's 1974. Muhammad Ali is 32 and thought by many to be past his prime. George Foreman is ten years younger and the heavyweight champion of the world. Promoter Don King wants to make a name for himself and offers both fighters five million dollars apiece to fight one another, and when they accept, King has only to come up with the money. He finds a willing backer in Mobutu Sese Suko, the dictator of Zaire, and the "Rumble in the Jungle" is set, including a musical festival featuring some of America's top black performers, like James Brown and B.B. King.

7.7

In the Heat of the Night

Aug 2, 1967

African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but that of another man, he joins forces with Gillespie to track down the real killer. Their investigation takes them through every social level of the town, with Tibbs making enemies as well as unlikely friends as he hunts for the truth.

0.0

Reminiscence

Mar 10, 2025

Aurora, daughter of retired Jazz composer Hugo, is informed that his father’s Alzheimer’s disease has worsened significantly. She will use their memories together and the music they composed in order to try to get him to recognize her one last time before he moves permanently abroad to continue fighting his disease.

6.2

The Concert

May 4, 1954

Celebrating the end of World War II and liberation of their city, a group of students is set on holding a cultural evening. They invite Ema, a reclusive piano teacher from the same building, to play for them. Ema declines, but starts reminscing back on her own life and the historical events that have seemingly overshadowed it.

6.0

Estrellita

Oct 12, 2007

A widow grieves, discovers her deceased spouse's secret, and builds a relationship with a talented boy who used to play the violin with her husband in a local bar.