Gauche the Cellist

Gauche the Cellist (セロ弾きのゴーシュ, 1982) — watch this Japanese animated film online on iFILM. Director Isao Takahata adapted it from a short story by Kenji Miyazawa, three years before he co-founded Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki.

Gauche plays cello for a small-town orchestra rehearsing Beethoven's Sixth. His conductor berates him; his peers put up with him. Ten days until the concert. Then, night after night, talking animals show up at his mill — a cat, a cuckoo, a badger, a little mouse — each asking him to play, each accidentally teaching him something the rehearsal room never could. Takahata strips the film almost bare: sixty minutes, very little dialogue, music and hand-drawn images doing most of the work. It moves slowly on purpose, and that patience is the point — a quiet film about listening rather than drilling, and it rewards the same quality in its audience. Stream Gauche the Cellist online on iFILM.