''Lecture 21'' (aka 'Lezione 21' 'Lesson 21') is a 2008 British-Italian film written and directed by

Alessandro Baricco Alessandro Baricco (; born 25 January 1958) is an Italian writer, director and performer. His novels have been translated into a wide number of languages. Early life, family and education Baricco was born in Turin, Italy. He has earned degre ...

and starring

John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in t ...

Noah Taylor Noah George Taylor (born 4 September 1969) is a British-born Australian actor. He is best known for his roles as teenage David Helfgott in '' Shine'', Locke in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'', Darby Sabini in the BBC One series ''Peaky Bl ...

and

Leonor Watling Leonor Elizabeth Ceballos Watling (born 28 July 1975) is a Spanish film actress and singer. Early life Leonor Ceballos Watling was born on 28 July 1975 in Madrid, to a Spanish father from Cádiz and an English mother, the youngest of four sib ...

. The film is in English. The film is set in 1824, 1997 and 2007 and tells the tale of a Professor (

) delivering a lecture about a musician (

) coming to a remote village in the mountains to better understand Beethoven's 9th symphony before he dies. The film is presented as a documentary, as

and her friends recall the lesson, the audience views what happens as though it were real. The lesson is interspersed with documentary-style interviews of a variety of musicians, who provide a secondary

narration Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

. It also features

Clive Russell Clive Russell (born 7 December 1945) is a Scottish actor. He is known for his roles as Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline in ''Ripper Street'', Angus O'Connor in ''Happiness'' and Brynden Tully in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones''. He also a ...

, Matthew T. Reynolds, Daniel Tuite, Andy Gathergood,

Rasmus Hardiker Rasmus Hardiker (born 31 January 1985) is a British actor, best known for voicing Scott and Alan Tracy in the reboot animated television series '' Thunderbirds Are Go''. He played Raymond in Steve Coogan's sitcom ''Saxondale'' and Ben in the Ja ...

Michael Jibson Michael Jibson (born 16 December 1980) is an English actor, director, writer and voice over artist. Jibson started his career in the theatre. He has been nominated for an Olivier Award twice, once when he was only 22 in 2003, for his work on ...

and

Natalia Tena Natalia Gastiain Tena (born 1 November 1984) is a British actress and musician. She is known for playing Nymphadora Tonks in the ''Harry Potter'' film series (2007-2011), and the wildling Osha in the HBO series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011-2 ...

. It had its North American premiere at the Miami International Film Festival in 2009.

Reception

Kent Turner of ''Film-Forward.com'' described it as 'a brisk, irreverent music-history lesson by way of Terry Gilliam'.

References

External links

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Rotten Tomatoes
2008 films English-language Italian films Films set in 1997 Films set in 2007 Films set in the 1820s Works by Alessandro Baricco 2000s Italian films Fandango (Italian company) films {{2000s-Italy-film-stub