When I was training youth leaders I might
have used The Magnificent Seven, The
Great Escape or The Commitments
to illustrate some aspects of Group Dynamics. But I cannot think of a movie that
examines a group that has been together for over 25 years – until now. Yaron Zilberman’s 2012 A Late
Quartet could well do that.
The title is ambiguous. It could refer to a piece of music,
specifically one of the string quartets
composed late in Ludwig Beethoven’s career; Number 14, Opus 131. Or to the fictional world renowned Fugue
String Quartet we see preparing to perform it, again. This group may become a ‘late’ Quartet as
internal differences threaten to rip it apart.
The four musicians are a married couple,
Juliette (viola) and Robert (2nd violin), played by Catherine Keener and Philip Seymour
Hoffman, Daniel, the group’s 1st violinist
and Leader (Mark Ivanir) and the cellist Peter (Christopher Walken) who was
once their professor, but who tells the group early in the film that he is
developing Parkinson’s Disease and will soon have to retire. The question is, will his retirement mean
the end of the Fugue’s existence together?
It certainly releases powerful reactions and buried passions.
This particular piece of music is
unique. Not only is it considered to be
the Beethoven’s finest quartet, indeed perhaps the finest ever composed by
anyone, but it has seven movements as opposed to the usual five, and Beethoven
expected them to be played ‘attacca’ – without pause. This puts considerable strain on the
musicians, not least because during the forty minutes it may take to play the
piece the instruments may well go out of tune.
The musicians have to listen hard to each other and adapt their
technique to compensate. This alone could
be a suitable metaphor for the life of a group, but there is so much more. Let me be clear, this film is not programmed
to illustrate a theory, it is a human drama
about people who happen to be musicians,
and how their ambitions, expectations, desires and frustrations affect
the group they belong to. But the
metaphor is obviously intentional and well worked.
The four actors work wonderfully together
and give the impression – certainly to a non-musician such as myself – that they are actually playing the
music. In fact it is played by the world
famous Brentano String Quartet. Christopher Walken gently underplays his part
as the ‘father’ of the group, quietly
courageous enough to face his increasing debility, wise and
humble enough to plan his future – and that of the group – after his inevitable
retirement. Catherine Keener and Philip Seymour Hoffman
sink into their roles, veteran performers as they are – or sadly in Hoffman’s
case, were. I had not noticed Mark Ivanir
before, but he has been a very busy actor for some time with minor parts in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, The Good Shepherd,
Johnny English Reborn and many TV and video game roles. Here he playing with the heavyweights and he
holds his own. The young English actress Imogen Poots here tackles her first really major role, playing Juliette and Robert’s daughter
Alexandra.
I was moved and educated by this movie, not
only by its dramatization of human nature and group dynamics, but by the
insights into the music and the demands of quartet playing it provided. I
have bought the Brentano recording to add to my Beethoven collection and
strongly recommend the CD and the DVD.
