Seymour: An Introduction

A film that presents the power of introspection and being yourself.

A documentary that sometimes hits like a great work of art, because of the life that Seymour Bernstein has crafted for himself as a musician. The thread that runs through the vignettes of his life of concert pianist and high-level piano teacher is his search to create an integrated life — to insure his physical and emotional state is in balance.

The movie, on an educational level, emphasizes the tremendous detail of the craft of music-making and the resulting magnificent emotion that comes from succeeding.  But a great deal of the movie is about thinking about your own life and choosing what is right for you in achieving happiness.

This could be a lengthy post, because of the richness of the visual, aural qualities and psychological insights, but I limit myself here to just one sequence in the middle of the film to give a taste of the movie.

There is a short puzzling exchange between Seymour and a self-described mystic, who speaks in sloppy religious terms about the universe and god, but from that sequence comes something important. Seymour, in his quiet, transparent, methodical way is shown walking down a New York side street enjoying a stroll, and in voiceover, doesn’t accept what the mystic says. Instead he says he believes there is in every good person a “god within”.  My wife and I looked at each other as this scene unfolded and said: this should have been the title of the movie.  The idea that you create a god within yourself was a beautiful twist away from mysticism.  It encapsulates his search through life for a full melding of rational craft and psychological peace and intense metaphysical emotion.

The reason why this movie sometimes plays like an art work is that just as high art has the goal of portraying the perfect man, so here you are presented with a man who has perfected himself. Of course the life he has chosen won’t be, in any details, how anyone else wants to live, but in his microcosm, he has reached happiness, inner comfort and success in this world. What more can you ask for.