After meeting a stray dog, the life of a street musician who lives in poverty and loneliness takes a different turn. At the beginning, the old man is reliant on his metronome to keep the beat, simply because he is down and out of loving feelings in his heart, and his music is clearly lifeless. After his encounter with the stray dog, his heart opens up and his music becomes inspired by loving feelings and free. He is thrilled when he realizes that he does not actually need the metronome anymore! The old man is now playing with ‘rubato’, a musical indication from the composer asking the musician to play slightly loosely with tempo so as to allow more feelings to show. That is the subtle but important distinction between a robot precision playing (lifeless) and a more inspired and expressive playing that stirs the listener’s soul. At the end, before starting to play, he looks up the dog wagging tail to give him the beat, just like a metronome would, then starts playing and the two of them are totally in-sync… so lovely and free!

Sweet little film with a wonderful message for everybody. Everything looks so realistic