Double Feature: Igor Levit – No Fear & Bolero

IGOR LEVIT – NO FEAR (2022, dir. Regina Schilling)

At 34, Igor Levit is an exceptional artist in the world of classical music. A young rebel, who – at the piano – transforms into a mature musician, an old soul. At age nine he arrived in Germany, a Jewish immigrant of Russian descent. Having an opinion and publicly expressing it, is not a choice, it is a survival strategy he pursues in his life and in his music. Igor Levit – No Fear follows the artist over two years as he explores his „life after Beethoven“, as he searches for his next challenge, his identity as an artist. We observe Levit recording new pieces, his intense immersion into the music, his collaborations with conductors, orchestras and recording artists, his warm embrace of the audiences. And then Covid hits. Having booked over 100 concerts all over the world, just to see them being cancelled one after another, Levit is among the first to adapt, establishing a musical lifeline between him and his community on instagram and twitter. And throughout this process, he discovers a new freedom, away from the constraints of touring, publishing and marketing.

BOLERO (2024, dir. Anne Fontaine)

Paris, the Roaring Twenties. Choreographer Ida Rubinstein chooses Maurice Ravel to compose the music for her next ballet. She wants something bold, something sensual. Well known and established, Ravel finds himself unable to write anything. Reliving his memories, facing his old loves and failures, the composer will give birth to his greatest success ever: the Bolero.