Quartet (2012)
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 98m
Director: Dustin Hoffman
Cast: Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon
Synopsis:
Consternation reigns at a retirement home for musicians, when preparations for the annual fundraising gala are interrupted by the arrival of an uncooperative diva, also the old flame of the principal tenor.
Review:
In fact the film is far less schematic than this synopsis makes it sound; indeed, it is positively leisurely, ambling around for an extremely lengthy first act as if Hoffman were in awe of his cast of distinguished British thesps and ravishing locations. The very fact that Courtenay's character, however, is a tenor is not even deemed worth mentioning, and we are cunningly spared the expected pay-off of seeing the Rigoletto performed (this is, after all, a putting-on-a-show entertainment with a geriatric twist): the film's approach to its musical content throughout is decidedly dilettante - a pianist playing the Brindisi with the right hand while failing to observe the note values, a Haydn quartet movement played with chunks missing. This is at odds with the innovative policy of peopling the home with real-life musicians playing projections of themselves, though it is understandable that their theatrical counterparts should not wish to be seen miming to a soundtrack. The heart of the piece is a poignant, if ultimately life-affirming, contemplation of the artist's, along with the person's, inevitable deterioration towards senility, and as such it is impeccably acted (except by Gambon) and delicately pointed.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 98m
Director: Dustin Hoffman
Cast: Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon
Synopsis:
Consternation reigns at a retirement home for musicians, when preparations for the annual fundraising gala are interrupted by the arrival of an uncooperative diva, also the old flame of the principal tenor.
Review:
In fact the film is far less schematic than this synopsis makes it sound; indeed, it is positively leisurely, ambling around for an extremely lengthy first act as if Hoffman were in awe of his cast of distinguished British thesps and ravishing locations. The very fact that Courtenay's character, however, is a tenor is not even deemed worth mentioning, and we are cunningly spared the expected pay-off of seeing the Rigoletto performed (this is, after all, a putting-on-a-show entertainment with a geriatric twist): the film's approach to its musical content throughout is decidedly dilettante - a pianist playing the Brindisi with the right hand while failing to observe the note values, a Haydn quartet movement played with chunks missing. This is at odds with the innovative policy of peopling the home with real-life musicians playing projections of themselves, though it is understandable that their theatrical counterparts should not wish to be seen miming to a soundtrack. The heart of the piece is a poignant, if ultimately life-affirming, contemplation of the artist's, along with the person's, inevitable deterioration towards senility, and as such it is impeccably acted (except by Gambon) and delicately pointed.
Country: GB
Technical: col/2.35:1 98m
Director: Dustin Hoffman
Cast: Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon
Synopsis:
Consternation reigns at a retirement home for musicians, when preparations for the annual fundraising gala are interrupted by the arrival of an uncooperative diva, also the old flame of the principal tenor.
Review:
In fact the film is far less schematic than this synopsis makes it sound; indeed, it is positively leisurely, ambling around for an extremely lengthy first act as if Hoffman were in awe of his cast of distinguished British thesps and ravishing locations. The very fact that Courtenay's character, however, is a tenor is not even deemed worth mentioning, and we are cunningly spared the expected pay-off of seeing the Rigoletto performed (this is, after all, a putting-on-a-show entertainment with a geriatric twist): the film's approach to its musical content throughout is decidedly dilettante - a pianist playing the Brindisi with the right hand while failing to observe the note values, a Haydn quartet movement played with chunks missing. This is at odds with the innovative policy of peopling the home with real-life musicians playing projections of themselves, though it is understandable that their theatrical counterparts should not wish to be seen miming to a soundtrack. The heart of the piece is a poignant, if ultimately life-affirming, contemplation of the artist's, along with the person's, inevitable deterioration towards senility, and as such it is impeccably acted (except by Gambon) and delicately pointed.