Coda (I) (2019)

Katie Holmes: Helen Morrison

Photos 

Quotes 

• [opening lines] 

  [voiceover] 

  Helen Morrison : Nietzsche famously said that without music, life would be a mistake. German philosophers tend to exaggerate. But he did have a point. I know that without music my own life would've been incomplete in some fundamental way. Like if I'd had no friends or no memories. I even tried to be a pianist for a while until I realized just how fragile piano playing really is. Especially in front of 2,000 people.

• Paul : The classical market is a lot like the wine market. It survives by creating the illusion of meaningful diversity. There wll always be the demand for the opportunity to distinguish oneself by pretending to see a world where others see nothing.

  Helen Morrison : Sometimes there really is a world.

  Paul : Well, the fact that you perceive a difference doesn't necessarily make that difference meaningful.

  Helen Morrison : Are you calling me a snob?

  Paul : No! No! Oh, but seriously. Do we actually need another recording of the "Goldberg Variations?"

  Richard : Or another pianist maybe?

  Paul : Yeah, exactly. Sturgeon's law, 90% of everything is crap.

  Richard : That's a lot.

  Paul : Yes!

  Francine : Did you know you were managed by the enemy, Henry?

  Henry Cole : So long as he keeps getting me gigs, I'll let the philistine speak his mind.

• [voiceover] 

  Helen Morrison : Most people want to overcome something. Until they don't anymore. Hopefully, overcoming isn't just a matter of will, but what life does naturally with time... if you're lucky.

• Henry Cole : The, um.. the verse on your car, where did you find it?

  Helen Morrison : In your book.

  Henry Cole : It has been out of print for years.

  Helen Morrison : Do you still write?

  [silence] 

  Helen Morrison : Henry?

  Henry Cole : Mm?

  Helen Morrison : You seemed so far away for a second.

  Henry Cole : I did?

  Helen Morrison : Yeah.

  Henry Cole : I'm sorry. What did you say?

  [voiceover] 

  Helen Morrison : Success often conceals a flaw, a wound, some deep-seated doubt. It might be forgotten for a while, but it's always there, operating in the background, lurking behind the mask.

• [voiceover] 

  Helen Morrison : Perhaps what eternal recurrence means is not that our life will actually repeat itself forever, but rather that we should not rest content until we have reached a point where we love it enough just as it is, to wish it were indeed so. Play it again, I say.

• [voiceover] 

  Helen Morrison : The mind is where it all happens. It's best not to wander in there too long. You never know when it's going to turn on you.

• Helen Morrison : Why the "Fantasie?" Is it because it is meant as a cry of despear after the separation from Clara?

  Henry Cole : When Schumann was asked what he meant by the piece, do you know what he said? Nothing. He just sat down at the piano and played again. However, some scientists claim we owe the "Fantasie" as well as numerous other masterpieces to treponema pallidum.

  Second Reporter : Is she a composer?

  Henry Cole : She's the syphilis bacterium.

• [voiceover] 

  Helen Morrison : Some pianists are cerebral, others sentimental. Henry Cole is an existential pianist. He plays with his whole life.

• Henry Cole : I am an old man.

  Helen Morrison : What's the matter? You have something against younger women?

• Helen Morrison : I would like to do an article on you.

  Henry Cole : Ah...

  Helen Morrison : Something comprehensive.

  Henry Cole : It sounds unpleasant. I appreciate it, but there is a lot to be said for staying at the surface of things.

• Henry Cole : Music is never about despair. It's a celebration. A victory. And being appreciated is not enough. Most people want to overcome something.

  Helen Morrison : Were you celebrating a victory tonight?

  Henry Cole : You're prying again.

  Helen Morrison : Sorry.

  Henry Cole : I just play the notes.

  Helen Morrison : You had me fooled.

  Henry Cole : Well, thank you.

  [begins to close the door] 

  Helen Morrison : I'm sorry, um... you don't remember me, but... you changed my life fifteen years ago.

  Henry Cole : I did?

  Helen Morrison : You were giving a master class at Julliard and, um, I had just been cut, first round of a minor competition. I lacked the basic talent of... not shaking.

  Henry Cole : How unfair.

  Helen Morrison : "What matters most is experience," you said, "Not performance. The greatest gift what truly sets people apart is... the ability to feel."

  Henry Cole : I said that?

• [voiceover] 

  Helen Morrison : It's been said that over the music of Beethoven is spread the twilight of eternal loss and eternal hope. The same goes for life, I suppose. Except for the eternal part. German composers are good company.

• [voiceover] 

  Helen Morrison : Apparently, this rock is where Nietzsche had his vision of the eternal recurrence of all things. The idea that every event and every life will repeat itself infinitely. But if I can't recall having been here before, what difference does it make? Unless he meant something else, like fate. Or simply that life is a challenge.

• Helen Morrison : Now, I have a friend like that. He's also a pianist. He's unique.

  Henry Cole : Being unique, is a desirable attribute for stamps or landscapes. In a pianist, it usually spells trouble.

  Helen Morrison : [thoughtful pause]  No one plays like you, Henry.

  Henry Cole : Well, thank you, Ms Morrison. It's kind of you to say.

• Helen Morrison : [Henry's admiring a vase of calla lilies]  Do you like flowers Mr Cole?

  Henry Cole : [turns and approaches]  I like all quiet forms of life.

  Helen Morrison : Fish?

  Henry Cole : Them too.

  Helen Morrison : I'm sorry, I haven't eaten all day.

  [eats an amuse-bouche] 

  Henry Cole : I'm a little surprised to see you here.

  [crosses his arms] 

  Helen Morrison : I was in the neighborhood.

  [Henry, silently skeptical, arches his eyebrows] 

  Helen Morrison : Actually my friend told me you would be here.

  Henry Cole : Ah.

  [sighs] 

  Helen Morrison : Did you like my flowers?

  Henry Cole : I did, thank you. You didn't write a review.

  Helen Morrison : I'm working on something else.

• [voiceover] 

  Helen Morrison : It's hard to explain how I felt as Henry Cole played that night. What does great music feel like? Like a form of knowledge, maybe, or even wisdom? But it isn't wisdom of course, nor anything else I can put into words. The best I can do is to say it's somehow about what it feels like to be alive. That music was filled with grief and longing and dogged resolve. And as I listened, I felt suddenly richer, more compassionate. And I wanted to share the moment with the whole world. I guess the word I'm looking for is gratitude. Gratitude for Schumann, Bach, Beethoven. Gratitude for Henry Cole and all those who celebrate the music of life.