A Late Quartet (2012)

Members of a world-renowned string quartet struggle to stay together in the face of death, competing egos and insuppressible lust.

Director:

Yaron Zilberman

Writers:

Seth Grossman (screenplay), Yaron Zilberman (screenplay)

Stars:

Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Catherine Keener	...	Juliette Gelbart
Christopher Walken	...	Peter Mitchell
Philip Seymour Hoffman	...	Robert Gelbart
Mark Ivanir	...	Daniel Lerner
Imogen Poots	...	Alexandra Gelbart
Madhur Jaffrey	...	Dr. Nadir
Liraz Charhi	...	Pilar
Wallace Shawn	...	Gideon Rosen
Pamela Quinn	...	Parkinson's Class Instructor
Brooklyn Parkinson Group	...	Parkinson's Class Participants
Cristian Puig	...	Flamenco Guitarist
Rebeca Tomas	...	Flamenco Dancer
Megan McQuillan	...	Sotheby's Executive
David Redden	...	Auctioneer
Ted Hartley	...	Winning Bidder

Storyline

After a classical string quartet's 25 years of success, Peter, the cellist and oldest member, decides that he must retire when he learns he has Parkinson's Disease. For the others, that announcement proves a catalyst for letting their hidden resentments come to the surface while the married members' daughter has disruptive desires of her own. All this threatens to tear the group apart even as they are famous for playing Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14, opus 131, a piece that is played non-stop no matter how life interferes.

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Plot Keywords:

string quartet | cellist | parkinson's disease | violinist | musician | 

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Taglines:

No arrangement is more beautiful...or more complicated.

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Genres:

Drama | Music

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some sexuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

Sotheby's David Redden appears as the auctioneer in the film's auction scene.

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Goofs

Daniel discusses with Alexandra how the smallest difference in horse hair can change the timbre of the violin and he pronounces it as tim-ber instead of the correct pronunciation as tam-ber.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Peter Mitchell: Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future, and time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present, all time is unredeemable. Or say that the end precedes the beginning, and the end and the beginning were always there before the beginning and after the end. And all is always now.

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Connections

Featured in Maltin on Movies: Identity Thief (2013)

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Soundtracks

The Blue Danube (main theme)
Written by Johann Strauss (as Johann Strauss II)
Performed by Mark Steinberg

User Reviews

Harmonies and Dissonances: The Essence of a String Quartet

The moments when and idea for a story, the intelligence of a script to tell it, the sensitivity of the director to make it work, and the cast of extraordinary actors to make it visual come all too infrequently these days in the films that cross our theater screens. A LATE QUARTET is such a complete success on so many levels that it should be considered a standard for filmmaking excellence. It is cerebral, yes, it is best appreciated by people who are involved in some way with classical music even if that be solely as an audience, but the dynamics of this little 'community' of people drawn together by a lasting contract to rehearse and perform for the better part of their time and the effect of physical proximity and the risks of intellectual/artistic distances have rarely been so exquisitely painted.

The honored Fugue Quartet has been living and performing together for 25 years: first violin Daniel Lerner (Ukrainian American actor Mark Ivanir), second violin Robert Gelbart (Philip Seymour Hoffman), cellist Peter Mitchell (Christopher Walken), and violist Juliette Gelbart (Catherine Keener) make such perfect music together that we would never guess their lives are askew. Peter is diagnosed as having Parkinson's Disease and understands that his performing days are now severely limited; the Gelbart's marriage is at risk because of the tatters of time and the dealing with daughter Alexandra (Imogen Poots) who reacts to her history of being an alone child by entering into a physical affair with obsessive Daniel and Robert's ill-advised one night stand with the young beautiful Pilar (Liraz Charhi); Robert's surfacing jealousy of wanting to be first violin: the struggle with whether the quartet should disband due to Peter's illness or continue with a new cellist. All of this complex interplay of human relationships is underlined by the quartet's rehearing of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14, opus 131 - a long quartet of seven movements played without interval. It is a sensitively drawn allegory that takes us all the way to the end of the film.

In addition to the bravura acting of the four lead actors there are side stories that are enormously touching: the affair between Alexandra and Daniel, the conflict between Alexandra and her absentee mother (a brilliant scene), the schism between Robert and Juliette as the foundation of their marriage begins to crumble, and the extraordinarily sensitive moment when Peter longs for his deceased wife Miriam - first while listening to a recording of Miriam singing Marietta's Lied from Korngold's opera 'Die Tote Stadt' and then as the image of Miriam (Anne Sofie von Otter) is seen and heard in is mind.

Each of the actors in this masterfully crafted film is astonishingly fine. If there were an Oscar for Ensemble this would have won hands down, but the performances by Christopher Walken (the finest of his career) and Philip Seymour Hoffman are exemplary and the characters Catherine Keener, Mark Ivanir and Imogen Poots create are utterly unforgettable. The highest recommendation for this work - it is a film every sensitive person should see.

Grady Harp

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 November 2012 (Canada)

Also Known As:

A Late Quartet

Filming Locations:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$75,279, 4 November 2012

Gross USA:

$1,562,548

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$6,303,709

Company Credits

Production Co:

Opening Night Productions, Concept Entertainment, Unison Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1