MovieChat Forums > Guilty by Suspicion (1991) Discussion > Fake musicians

Fake musicians

posted 18 years ago by Jeffthinx
7 replies | jump to latest

As long as I'm commenting about this movie, which I am watching right now, I just saw something that has always been one of my pet peeves. At about an hour into the movie when they are at a restaurant, we see a nice looking piano player/singer. She's not really playing the piano (and maybe not actually singing either). Gees! If they're not really playing, don't show us their hands!!! How hard is this? It's tough to hide fake musicians on other instruments (although, now that I think of it, I think I read somewhere that Robert DeNiro spent a considerable amount of time studying the saxophone so that he would look authentic in "New York, New York"), but it's easy to hide on the piano...just don't show their hands on the keys! Good movie makers have known and used this tactic for decades.

[–] halfwayintelligent 17 years ago

To see a good example of what you are talking about (good fimmakers hiding the fake piano playing) look at Francois Truffaut's "Tirez sur Le Pianiste" aka "Shoot the paino player". It's also a good flic as well.

[–] puirt-a-beul 17 years ago

You're not wrong, jeffthinx!

It's made even more crazy in this case because there was no reason they couldn't use a real musician. She didn't do anything in the movie but "play" that piano.

You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

[–] museamuse 17 years ago

I noticed the fake playing too and I can hardly play the piano. This really rubs me the wrong way. But I enjoyed the film on the whole.

[–] pmcgowan88 16 years ago

Yea, pretty much any musician shown in any movie is always overdubbed. It's just too hard to get a good recording of a band without having visible mics. Even Ray had several scenes with overdubbed music over the displayed band. So deal with it man, sometimes they get it better than not.

"Life is not about finding our limitations, it's about finding our infinity."
-Herbie Hancock

[–] Skoony 14 years ago

You should watch Moonraker. Early in, when Bond visits Drax (the villain), there is an actual close-up of Drax not playing the piano. It's so visible it hurts, and I can't believe they actually decided to use it.

[–] james_oblivion 13 years ago

No worse than in Casablanca, really.

[–] fanaticita 8 years ago

The singer was Dianne Reeves, a famous jazz singer and piano player. No fake musician!!! Look her up. She also appeared in Good Night and Good Luck.