Only a few weeks ago I saw the wonderful movie called The Late Quartet, the title is a pun, meaning one of Beethoven's late string quartets and a quartet of players who had been together for
for many years. They were in serious trouble as an organization of very, very close friends. The movie starred Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walkin, Kathleen Kennar and Mark Ivanir. It had several themes about friendship, aging and about music. The acting was superb -- especially Walkin -- the story nuanced and adult and the periods of music, which were not constant at all, were wonderful. The final scene in Carnegie Hall was heart rending and wonderful at the same time. Unforgetable.
Today I saw a movie called The Quartet which was directed by Dustin Hoffman and is getting far more attention in the press than the earlier movie did -- due to industry politics and probably money. I enjoyed this movie because music was almost constant. It was set in a retirement home for musicians in a grand British mansion with grand gardens whereas the former movie was set in nice, but sometimes gritty parts of New York City.
This movie has Maggie Smith as a retired opera singer and Pauline Collins, Tom Courtney and Billy Connelly as appropriately voiced other retired opera singers who had once upon a time sung Rigoletto together. The story here was far thiner, the acting thiner too. Maggie Smith is not convincing as a retired opera singer; she is grande dame in the wrong sort of way. What a shame that the better movie will have the smaller audience.
6 comments:
June -- these movies sound interesting. Where did not find them, local video place, Netflix, etc? Would like to find both. -- barbara
Barbara, The Quartet is new, currently in the theatres, so not likely to be on Netfilx for a while. The Last Quartet was in the fall -- thus, fairly new too. I'm sure both will be available in a few months. I feel incredibly lucky to live near a theatre that shows art films.
Two movies I need to see, thanks to you.
Good to hear from you, Kass. I think you'd enjoy both.
June (in response to the most recent comment on my blog) - I am old enough to know how invisible I am to most. I realize all of this "big brother" stuff is going on in my head. I'm working on finding the same liberation in my head that I experience, as you do, when I go out in public.
Good luck, Kass. YOu're a wonderful communicator, you'll find the connections but it takes time and belief both in yourself and the basic goodness in the world. I don't mean to sound like a sermon, I'm thinking of being here for less than four years and starting from scratch in the friend department.
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