Question: Build a movie plot around this: Why does Paul decide to travel to San Francisco ? For an international piano competition
Answer:
Paul Dietrich (Richard Dreyfuss) sits in a budget hotel room ahead of a wake-up call from the front desk, preparing for a piano competition in Cincinnati. He showers and changes into a formal suit to perform at a small event in a cramped auditorium. After he places third, he feels there is no point in competing further: he tells his parents that he has applied for a teaching position in the public school system. His father Stan (Philip Sterling) has continued to work against doctor's orders to support Paul's career, but Stan feels Paul has a talent he needs to continue to develop. Paul visits the school where he would teach, and sees his friend Gary (Howard Osias) trying to teach a class of beginners how to play octaves, and the experience discourages him. Returning home, his mother (Gloria Strook) is shocked when he tells her that he wants to take one last shot at competing before he attends the interview for the job.Meanwhile, world-class pianist turned teacher Greta Vandemann (Lee Remick) introduces her protege Heidi Joan Schoonover (Amy Irving) to the idea of entering her first piano competition: the Arabella Hillman Competition in San Francisco, offering a $20,000 grand prize, two years of concert bookings (including a Carnegie Hall recital) and a medal. Since Heidi has never hinted that she is ready to start competing, Greta has submitted an audition tape in which she has imitated Heidi's style, and the ruse has earned Heidi a spot among 12 semifinalists.On the plane to San Francisco, Heidi works on a concerto by studying the fingering on her seat tray. Paul drives to the competition from Chicago and takes a room in a budget motel for the week. At the Soviet Consulate, aides are escorting a Russian piano teacher, Madame Gorshev (Bea Silvern) and her student Tatiana Boronova (Vicki Kriegler)--who is a semifinalist-- to their private suite on the grounds. The woman is edgy but tries to put Tatiana, who speaks no English, at ease.At the concert hall entrance, Heidi meets hunky semifinalist Girolamo "Jerry"...