Two Pianos

Pianist Mathias (François Civil) returns home to Lyon after years away teaching and performing in Japan. He’s been summoned back to duet with his former teacher Elena (Charlotte Rampling) during her final concerts—a re-encounter with a demanding mentor that proves less daunting than Mathias’s experience of running into a charismatic but erratic ex, Claude (Nadia Tereszkiewicz). One of France’s biggest rising stars, Civil (who studied rigorously to perform Bach on-screen himself) is a worthy partner for the legendary, typically commanding Rampling. Psychologically charged homecomings and the unexpected reunions they can bring about—romantically charged and otherwise—are a recurring through line in the films of Arnaud Desplechin (Brother and Sister, Rendez-Vous 2023), thematic fodder that he revisits in typically boisterous form against the backdrop of a city he’s never filmed before. A Kino Lorber release.