The Piano Lesson honestor Malcolm Washington came to Deadline’s Contenders London with the stars of his feature helming debut — John David Washington and Danielle Deadwyler — as well as creater Alexandre Desplat, to converse his alteration of the commemorated 1987 percreate by August Wilson. Set in the Depression-era 1930s, The Piano Lesson is a story that cgo ins on a brother and sister’s disconcurment about what to do with a family heirloom.
Fielding the first ask, Malcolm Washington elucidateed that the film’s cultured visual style was key to approaching Wilson’s story. “There’s such a pretty poetry and rhythm to the dialogue that’s inherent to the text,” he said, “and we wanted to consent the job of alteration gravely, but esteem the medium in which we’re laboring. And that inherently uncomferventt a ponderation of image and sound — how they function together when you split the two. I wanted to set it up instantly to let the audience understand what benevolent of film they were getting into. So for the first seven minutes, there’s not any dialogue at all; it’s equitable image and music and sound schedule to benevolent of clear the way and reset your papostponeed.”
That said, Deadwyler remarkd that Washington gave the cast plenty of leeway. “There was no preenvisiond framing that Malcolm laid upon us,” she said. “I skinnyk we were equitable driven by heart. We were driven by character intention. We were driven by the speculative imaginings that were a part of the conversations that we were having. So he gave us free range, particularly during rehearsals, and those ideas and the way that we joind each other assistd him to create wdisappreciatever he did with the camera. I consent in being wholly and utterly reliable of my honestor. I don’t see at percreatebacks, I don’t do any of that.”
As for the prescertain of altering a commemorated percreate, John David Washington (who is Malcolm’s brother) depictd the cast as “baged.” He broadend, “It was so baged becaemploy, right away, we were appreciate, OK, we’re making our film. There’s a lot of versions of this story that exist, and this one is ours. We’re going to pass it thraw our filter of honesty and truth and vulnerability, put ourselves on the line, and fine-tune it to the point that, when you get to the end, the spirit of it is still there. The words are singing, the images are now coming alengthy with it, and we’re trying to create a brimming cinematic experience where you experience all the experienceings, where you’re using all the tools.”
