Clara Haskil shied away from media, did no interview, and none of her famous concerts were ever filmed. And yet she gradually succeeded in exerting a unique charisma. Why, and how does this unique woman exude such fascination until today?
How can one define the enigma of the interpreter she so perfectly embodies? This question, which permeates throughout the whole film, allows Clara Haskil to be discovered as a person and an artist and whom Vladimir Horowitz, Pablo Casals, Christian Zacharias or Charlie Chaplin recognized as the “perfect interpreter”.
The film tells the story of the incredible fate of pianist Clara Haskil. She was celebrated very early as a prodigy. At the tender age of five, she was sent by her family from Bucharest to Vienna, and later, under the care of her strict uncle, to Paris to continue her studies. She will suffer from chronic health issues, survive two world wars, anti-Semitism, before having to go into exile in Vevey, Switzerland. That’s where she found the proper support, in the early fifties, to begin the career she deserved for so long, world fame and undeniable recognition.
