Music of the Heart

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Music of the Heart is a 1999 American drama film directed by Wes Craven and written by Pamela Gray, based on the 1995 documentary Small Wonders.

The film is a dramatization of the true story of Roberta Guaspari, portrayed by Meryl Streep, who co-founded the Opus 118 Harlem School of Music and fought for music education funding in New York City public schools. The film also stars Aidan Quinn, Gloria Estefan, and Angela Bassett. It was director Wes Craven's only foray outside the horror/thriller genre, aside from his contribution to the multifaceted and directorially diverse Paris, je t'aime. It was also his only film to receive Academy Award nominations.

Video Music of the Heart

Plot

In New York City in 1981, Roberta Guaspari Tzavaras is a violinist who has been relatively successful in the is divorced from her US Navy husband George Tzavaras and feeling devastated, almost suicidal. Encouraged by her mother, Assunta Vitali Guaspari, she attempts to rebuild her life and a friend from student days recommends her to the head teacher of East Harlem's Central Park East School. Despite earning two degrees in music education, she has little experience in actual music teaching, but she accepts a substitute violin teaching position at Central Park East. With a combination of her toughness and determination, she inspires a group of kids, and their initially skeptical parents. The program slowly develops and attracts publicity, eventually expanding to Central Park East II and River East Schools.

Ten years later, in 1991, the adversaries of the Central Park East, Central Park East II and River East School string programs win a decisive institutional victory. They work with the New York City Board of Education to help eliminate funding for string programs, which leads to Roberta's early dismissal. Determined to fight the cuts, she enlists the support of former pupils, parents and teachers and plans a grand fund-raising concert, 'Fiddlefest', to raise money so that the program can continue. But with a few weeks to go and all participants furiously rehearsing, they lose the venue. Fortunately, the husband of a publicist friend is a violinist in the Guarneri Quartet, and he enlists the support of other well-known musicians, including Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman. They arrange for the concert to be mounted at Carnegie Hall.

Other famous musicians, including Mark O'Connor, Michael Tree, Charles Veal Jr., Arnold Steinhardt, Karen Briggs, Sandra Park, Diane Monroe, and Joshua Bell, join in the performance, which is a resounding success.

The film's end credits declare that the Opus 118 program is still running successfully. They also report that the school's funding was restored during the making of the film.

Maps Music of the Heart

Cast

• Meryl Streep as Roberta Guaspari
• Aidan Quinn as Brian Turner, Roberta's love interest
• Angela Bassett as Janet Williams, school principal
• Gloria Estefan as Isabel Vasquez, a teacher
• Jane Leeves as Dorothea von Haeften, a wealthy socialite
• Kieran Culkin as Alexi Tzavaras, Roberta's son
• Jay O. Sanders as Dan Paxton
• Cloris Leachman as Assunta Vitali Guaspari, Roberta's mother
• Jean-Luke Figueroa as Ramone Olivas, a student
• Olga Merediz as Ms. Olivas, Ramone's mother
• Charlie Hofheimer as Nicholas Tzavaras, Roberta's son

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Production

Roberta Guaspari and the Opus 118 Harlem School of Music was featured in the 1995 documentary film Small Wonders, which was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. After seeing Small Wonders, Wes Craven, known for his work on horror films, was inspired to make a full-length film about Guaspari. Madonna was originally signed to play the role of Guaspari, but left the project before filming began, citing "creative differences" with Craven. When she left, Madonna had already studied for many months to play the violin. Streep learned to play Bach's Concerto for 2 Violins for the film.

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Awards and honors

Streep received nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her lead performance.

The film's theme song, "Music of My Heart", scored songwriter Diane Warren a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Song, and a Grammy Award nomination for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

The film marked the screen debut of singer Gloria Estefan.

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Critical reception

The film received mixed reception, though many reviews tended to be slightly positive. Most critics applauded Meryl Streep's portrayal of Roberta Guaspari. The film had a 64% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes. CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade. Critic Eleanor Ringel Gillespie of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution concluded that "There are more challenging movies around. More original ones, too. But "Music of the Heart" gets the job done, efficiently and entertainingly." Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and wrote that "Meryl Streep is known for her mastery of accents; she may be the most versatile speaker in the movies. Here you might think she has no accent, unless you've heard her real speaking voice; then you realize that Guaspari's speaking style is no less a particular achievement than Streep's other accents. This is not Streep's voice, but someone else's - with a certain flat quality, as if later education and refinement came after a somewhat unsophisticated childhood." Steve Rosen said that "The key to Meryl Streep's fine performance is that she makes Guaspari unheroically ordinary. Ultimately that makes her even more extraordinary."

In 2014, the movie was one of several discussed by Keli Goff in The Daily Beast in an article concerning white savior narratives in film.

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Soundtrack album track listing

1. "Music of My Heart" - Gloria Estefan and *NSYNC (4:32)
2. "Baila" - Jennifer Lopez (3:54)
3. "Turn the Page" - Aaliyah (4:16)
4. "Groove with Me Tonight" (Pablo Flores English radio version) - Menudo (4:37)
5. "Seventeen" - Tre O (3:48)
6. "One Night with You" - C Note (5:04)
7. "Do Something" (Organized Noize Mix) - Macy Gray (3:53)
8. "Revancha de Amor" - Gizelle d'Cole (4:06)
9. "Nothing Else" - Julio Iglesias, Jr. (4:23)
10. "Love Will Find You" - Jaci Velasquez (4:34)
11. "Music of My Heart" (Pablo Flores Remix) - Gloria Estefan and *NSYNC (4:23)
12. "Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins" - Johann Sebastian Bach, played by Itzhak Perlman and Joshua Bell (3:56)

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Box office

The film opened at #5 at the North American box office making $3.6 million in its opening weekend.

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References

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External links

• Music of the Heart on IMDb
• Movie stills
• Opus 118 Harlem School of Music

Source of article : Wikipedia