Word: rubinstein
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...ARTHUR RUBINSTEIN-LOVE OF LIFE
This is one of those documentaries that get by, not on their own quality but on the richness of their subjects. Arthur Rubinstein is a full bounty, as much a great pianist as a cosmic romantic force. Unhappily, French Co-Director François Reichenbach is a sloppy, indiscriminate documentarian. His last contribution was the scrambled paean to the glories of rock culture, The Medicine Ball Caravan (1971). The Rubinstein film betrays the same makeshift style, the same kind of groupie's reverence. It does not serve Rubinstein well, but serving him at all makes the film notable...
...Arthur Rubinstein-Love of Life was made for French television in 1968, when its subject was a peppy 81. The movie received an Oscar in 1969, but is only now showing up in theatrical release, owing largely to distributors' reluctance to handle documentaries on any subjects more serious than the making of a pornographic movie. The biographical material in the film is sketchy. Rubinstein talks about his life in Poland, a youthful suicide attempt thwarted by a weak rope, his first success in Paris, flight to the U.S. If the journalistic material is cursory, though, the music is close...
...compression and immediacy of the camera allow time for reflective watching as well as listening. One notices, for instance, that Rubinstein's ears are large and prominent, as if to accommodate more music. When he plays in a short-sleeved shirt, the muscles of his forearms seem to move in rhythm. His face is marked in performance by both intense concentration and the graces and passions of the melody. He is always a showman who does everything with panache-watch him put on one of his rakish fedoras, brim snapped up and cunningly creased down wide in front...
...best moment in the movie is Rubinstein's most private one. He visits Israel's memorial to the Nazi holocaust. More than one hundred members of his family had been killed by Hitler, and the camera moves in for a tight closeup of his reaction. Rubinstein, simply and without show, turns his back and, as the camera pursues him, walks away, keeping his face averted until he has composed himself. In this short scene, we get a sense not only of the passion but the deep dignity from which such a great talent is born and nurtured...