A Late Quartet (2012)
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 105m
Director: Yaron Zilberman
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken, Mark Ivanir, Imogen Poots, Liraz Charhi
Synopsis:
The future of the successful Fugue Quartet is cast into doubt and upheaval when the cellist contracts Parkinson's and announces that their next concert will be his last. The situation is rendered more volatile still by the second violin's desire to alternate chairs with the leader, and by the leader's affair with the second violin's daughter.
Review:
As the synopsis suggests, a film of two halves, and it might have been better to restrict things to a meditation on the quartet as indissoluble unit, four parts working in sympathy, suddenly under threat, rather than up the stakes with some brisk bedhopping! It is impeccably acted and directed with sobriety, matched shot-reverse shots with fixed camera making it anything but the Allen-esque assemblage of apartment head-to-heads and cross-generational indiscretions it otherwise resembles. And how refreshing to have a US film which gives the music due weight, notably in the teaching scenes with Walken and Ivanir, whose teaching styles are also revealingly distinguished. That a professional quartet would ever seriously consider alternating chairs between the violins, however, or admitting a new cellist mid-concert, is a matter for the movies alone.
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 105m
Director: Yaron Zilberman
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken, Mark Ivanir, Imogen Poots, Liraz Charhi
Synopsis:
The future of the successful Fugue Quartet is cast into doubt and upheaval when the cellist contracts Parkinson's and announces that their next concert will be his last. The situation is rendered more volatile still by the second violin's desire to alternate chairs with the leader, and by the leader's affair with the second violin's daughter.
Review:
As the synopsis suggests, a film of two halves, and it might have been better to restrict things to a meditation on the quartet as indissoluble unit, four parts working in sympathy, suddenly under threat, rather than up the stakes with some brisk bedhopping! It is impeccably acted and directed with sobriety, matched shot-reverse shots with fixed camera making it anything but the Allen-esque assemblage of apartment head-to-heads and cross-generational indiscretions it otherwise resembles. And how refreshing to have a US film which gives the music due weight, notably in the teaching scenes with Walken and Ivanir, whose teaching styles are also revealingly distinguished. That a professional quartet would ever seriously consider alternating chairs between the violins, however, or admitting a new cellist mid-concert, is a matter for the movies alone.
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 105m
Director: Yaron Zilberman
Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken, Mark Ivanir, Imogen Poots, Liraz Charhi
Synopsis:
The future of the successful Fugue Quartet is cast into doubt and upheaval when the cellist contracts Parkinson's and announces that their next concert will be his last. The situation is rendered more volatile still by the second violin's desire to alternate chairs with the leader, and by the leader's affair with the second violin's daughter.
Review:
As the synopsis suggests, a film of two halves, and it might have been better to restrict things to a meditation on the quartet as indissoluble unit, four parts working in sympathy, suddenly under threat, rather than up the stakes with some brisk bedhopping! It is impeccably acted and directed with sobriety, matched shot-reverse shots with fixed camera making it anything but the Allen-esque assemblage of apartment head-to-heads and cross-generational indiscretions it otherwise resembles. And how refreshing to have a US film which gives the music due weight, notably in the teaching scenes with Walken and Ivanir, whose teaching styles are also revealingly distinguished. That a professional quartet would ever seriously consider alternating chairs between the violins, however, or admitting a new cellist mid-concert, is a matter for the movies alone.