Mr+Holland's+Opus

Filmed in 1995 and starring Richard Dreyfuss, who was nominated for the Oscar as the best actor, it´s one of my favourite films. The film is about a young pianist who doesn´t earn a lot of money playing in parties and small clubs, and he decides to work as a teacher in a high school in Portland in order to have a good job and earn money. But, above all, he wants to compose a symphony. At the beginning he doesn´t like teaching music. He doesn´t get on with his students. But, as the time goes by, he starts to love his job and he realizes he can help his pupils both with the music and with their lives. One of his students is a girl, who is quite bad at playing the violin. She´s depressed because she´s the only one in her family with a lack of skills. She´s about to give up the violin but the teacher doesn´t allow her and they work together very hard. Some years later, the girl becomes the governor of the State and a great violinist. But his life changes suddenly when he has a son and he´s born deaf. That´s the worst thing it could have happened to him. However, he overcomes it and he teaches his son to feel and love music. In the meantime, he´s composing his symphony, which is his dream but, although he works as much as he can, he never has time to finish it. In the early nineties, the Government decides to cut down costs and the subject of music is removed from the curriculum, and the teacher- in his mid 60´s- has to retire. Then, the high school headmistress throws a party in his honou where his former pupils, among them the violinist-governor, play the symphony he had been composing during all his life and his dream comes true.

Begoña Soto (Avanzado 1)