Au bout des doigts (2018)

Mathieu is a young man from the Paris suburbs who hangs out with his group of friends and commits a few burglaries. As a child, he met Monsieur Jacques, a neighbor and piano teacher, who managed to turn him into a true virtuoso. After Monsieur Jacques dies, Mathieu inherits his piano, but his mother cannot afford to pay for piano lessons. Mathieu sinks into a melancholy tinged with rage at being unable to pursue a musical project worthy of his talent. By chance, while Mathieu is playing on a public piano at the Gare du Nord, he catches the attention of Pierre Geithner, an important figure at the Paris Conservatory. Pierre witnesses a police chase involving Mathieu and realizes that he has committed offenses. One day, he finds him again at the station piano and tries to persuade him to come to the conservatory. Mathieu immediately turns down the offer, but one day he is caught red-handed by the police during a burglary. Ahead of his court appearance, he nevertheless turns to Pierre, who finds him an honorable way out: avoiding prison by requiring him to come to the conservatory every day for six months to do community service. But while Mathieu thinks he will be doing simple manual work, Pierre makes him reveal his piano-playing talent and enter a very high-level international competition. Mathieu also meets Anna, a cello student at the conservatory who will help him regain some of his zest for life.