After a quarter of a century playing and burnishing their artistry together, the renowned New York Fugue String Quartet faces an impending shakedown after its senior cellist Peter Mitchell (Walken) is diagnosed with early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and decides to bow out. The quartet’s self-sufficient homeostasis starts to crack, violist Juliette Gelbart (Keener) who always regards Peter as a father figure, has a difficult time to come to terms with the news, and her husband Robert (Hoffman), the second violinist, seizes this as an opportunity to suggest that after the quartet’s re-grouping, he wishes to alternate the role of the first violinist role with the current one Daniel Lerner (Ivanir), which a perfectionist Daniel demurs. Misery loves company, where there are professional dissensions, there are also inapt personal mishaps, miffed after finding out Juliette doesn’t stand by him of his said suggestion and feeling her emotional aloofness hurtful, Robert inanely sleeps with dancer Pilar (Charhi), and more inanely, his one-night-stand is discovered by a sharp-minded Juliette the morning after, ergo their marriage is teetering on the rocks. What’s adding insult to injury is that Daniel irrevocably gets besotted with Alexandra (Poots), Juliette and Robert’s daughter, also a violinist in training, he has to brazen it out as if it is not an entirely improper act at that moment and Alexandra must be the one to be answer for initiating this cradle-snatching romance (and blessedly, to end it as well). The whole enchilada ticks all the boxes of a middle-class ethical drama with fusillades of platitudinous dialogues and incidents, veiled with a faintly self-absorbed narcissism. However, the quintet of main performers (Poots included, shedding light on the crux of a perfect quartet) largely countervails the first-time filmmaker Yaron Zilberman’s greenness with eloquence and devotion. Catherine Keener holds it on her own with a steely combo of detachment and vulnerability when the world around her starts crumbling down, among the quartet, she is the only one who is passively buffeted by the negative tidings one after another, maybe because of her sex, in conjunction with a key mother-daughter confrontation (with both her parents are professional musicians on tour, it is somehow unfair for Alexandra only tees off on her mother for bad parenting), Zilberman’s slant of a woman with a profession seems to be still in thrall of regressive sexist prejudice. Among the stronger sex, both Hoffman and Ivanir are somehow mired in their characters’ insensible weakness, thus it is up to a sangfroid-retaining Walken to stand out as Peter has a more life-threatening condition to grapple with and he comport himself as the epitome of a venerated muso who is capable of conducting his exit with dignity intact and ego unruffled, not to mention he becomes the catalysis that eventually helps the quartet regain its life force after the internecine snafu. By and large, A LATE QUARTET is a philharmonic drawing-room drama wreathed with classical music intoxication (the central piece is Beethoven’s Op. 131), which is performed with virtuosity by Brentano String Quartet, and surely art-savvy audience will dig in, but chances are they might also feel a tad disappointed by the discrepancy between itshigh-brow milieu andmiddle-brow execution. referential entries: Dustin Hoffman’s QUARTET (2012, 6.0/10); Joel Hopkins’ LAST CHANCE HARVEY (2008, 6.8/10).
Poots。
生命有如赋格。提问,回答,前逃后追……然后彻底释放的飞翔!PS:哭湿一包湿巾!音乐的美,妙不可言!
光是soundtrack顶的了三分。
四位老戲骨合演一部講述中年or老年危機的電影,選擇了正確的卡司演出一個合適的故事,奠定了影片品質,外化的戲劇衝突和內斂的敘事手法,加之精彩的配樂,佳作一部。影片分別展現四位老夥伴各自的煩惱,健康、事業、愛情、理想,生活本身便是煩惱,但沒有煩惱又怎麼稱得上生活呢?
最后演奏会上四个人眼神交流和身体语言的各种展现很棒,沃肯年纪越大戏越好了!
题材新,口味清,内敛,煽情少。剧中舒伯特死前,听贝多芬131,是男主离团的隐喻。光享受音乐,也是件不错的电影
演技是没的说,但四人的感情和生活的叙述有点浅和乱。
沃肯的最佳男配有点悬啊
真好,特别好。艺术永远与人的内心直接相通。
音乐传递感情,没有感情音乐也受影响。结尾的谢幕还是挺伤感的,中间老乱
二十年唇齿相依,台上他们默契无间,台下却各有藏不好的故事、逐不去的隐痛和解不开的心结。生活总是凌乱的;音乐,却自有凌驾一切的秩序与纪律。在这最高纪律统御下,巨轮泰坦尼克倾覆前,亦可罔顾死亡咻咻逼近,从容尊严再奏一曲。同样在这纪律下,一切需求皆让位、皆暂缓,纠结纷乱瞬间亦可被抹平。
期望越大,失望越大。
首席小提琴特别眼熟,看了半天才认出是终极斗士里的GAGA先生,这切换的也太无压力了
都是很有功力的演员,剧情有点矫情啊。
Keener的角色比较弱,不应该,但也不需那么苛刻
孩子在地铁里念出奥格登的诗句,诗句哀悼衰老;病人在美术馆看破林布兰的眼神,眼神写满死亡。年幼的生命读不懂衰老,病痛的肉身看不破死亡。人生就是一场不能暂停的四重奏,在漫长的演奏中,乐器会走音,乐谱会模糊。心生不甘,死亡侵袭,都要坚持演奏。用最好的马毛做琴弓,降服如野马般无常的命运。
舒伯特临终前最大的心愿就是能听到贝多芬的131号作品,弦乐四重奏,第一小提琴、第二小提琴、中提琴、大提琴,每个人心中一把琴,抒发各自对命运的感念。强大卡司,细腻情感,两首诗歌,伟大的131号。贝多芬说,演奏131号作品时不、可、以、停。
对于大部分人来说或许是个过于平淡的片子,不过戏骨就是戏骨啊。。。
每次人物心情到一个节点时,音乐都会响起。感觉Robert和Jules吵架声音都有工整的对位哈哈。情感刻画得也特别好,虽然很想责怪乐团成员都太自我了,但Robert谈到自己的困境、Daniel谈为什么放弃独奏为什么坚持四重奏还是特别能让人产生共鸣。感觉电影把演奏家的人生各方面都展现了,包括love&passion。
莫执着于我因何来到此时此地,专注于我下一步要往何处去;莫执着于我下一步要往何处去,专注于此时此地。在开始之前,结束之后,万物永存于现在。