If the mainland can make this kind of movie, I can kneel and open my arms and wait for the snow in July to touch my cheeks into tears. But in an English film, I'd better turn my eyes and complain with "Hum" twice.
Philip.S.Hoffman is now synonymous with "boom acting". But compared to this "Uncle Textbook", who is so accurate in whatever he does that makes us admirers of incomplete beauty go mad, the title of this film makes it clear that there is a more important invisible protagonist-Beethoven.
Work No. 131, the first time I heard it should be a certain Lao Bei biographical film.
What about music lessons when we were young? Everyone knows it anyway. The next class of "Spring River, Flowers and Moonlight Night" goes directly to "Symphony of Destiny" without giving a buffer in the middle. Therefore, the only impressions of "chamber music" are Haydn's "The Great Harmony of Life" and Schubert's "Come after me, sir".
When I first experienced the first chapter of Lao Bei's Quartet No. 14, which seemed like a ghost, I felt awkward. As a second-year middle school student who was born rebellious, my inner OS at that time was: No matter how great a musician is, if you are deaf, you will be deaf.
It is true that the late quartets of Lao Bei are rarely given public performances. The French quartets seem to prefer Brahms and Debussy. Once on the subway, I encountered a student band lining up this one, and while waiting for the bus, I listened to two violins hitting the wall. Suddenly squatted down and cried enough.
It has been many, many years from the middle school to this place, separated by many people who have left and irreparable things, separated by a continent that dare not want to go back. This is a look back at the chapter "forever lost". Those who want to be more complete are qualified to shrug and say "呿" after listening.
The film uses cello Peter suffering from Parkinson's disease as an introduction, which seems to imply that the whole film will maintain the same structure as No. 131: melancholy adagio --> cheerful allegro --> linking middle board --> tense variation- -> wild scherzo --> pleading adagio --> bursting allegro.
Even the character settings are consistent with the music: the principal violin is calm and self-controlled to pursue perfection, the sub-violin is strong, dexterous and energetic, the viola is sensitive, restrained and affectionate, and the cello is stable, broad, firm and tolerant.
If such a reunification can be achieved, it may become a milestone for music-themed films. Composer as the protagonist ("The Biography of Mozart", "Beethoven"), with the performer as the protagonist ("Shining Style", "She is Lonely Than Fireworks"), with the conductor as the protagonist ("Shining Style", "She is Lonely Than Fireworks") The Conductor's Choice"), which focuses on the relationship between the conductor and the principal violin ("Symphonic Life"), all have excellent works. And the string quartet is still a piece of virgin territory waiting to be classic.
There is of course a reason for this. The 40-minute piece of music is enough to present the contradictions and relationships between the four instruments. Once they are visualized as characters and stories, it is easy to fall into a tangled relationship. Either one or the other lacks layers.
The film took a lot of ingenuity to bind the four musical instruments with complex emotional entanglements and social relationships: the two violins were students of the cello; the mother of the viola and the cello were members of the group; the chief violin and the viola were once ambiguous; The violin and the viola are married, and their daughter and the chief violin are composing a teacher-student relationship.
In theory, such a tangled relationship can provide enough motivation, in fact, such an over-bundling makes any one motivation unable to be fully developed. The illness of the cello, the battle between the chiefs of the two violins, the marriage crisis between the viola and the second violin, the forbidden love of the first violin, each contradiction is overshadowed by another before it can be extended.
Whether it’s cello Peter’s frustration with the loss of his wife’s illness, or the second violin Robert’s seeking affirmation, or the first violin Daniel’s release of passion, the frank meeting between violin Juliette and her daughter is only a “statement” of status and lack of “deduction”. "the process of.
The "love" between Daniel and Alex is without a run-up and jump, the one-night stand between Robert and Pilar lacks a landing buffer, and the quarrel and understanding between Juliette and Alex shows the abrupt feeling of "this is just what the plot needs".
These plots are only crisscrossed by the pre-bundled character relationship settings, and there is no deep echo or promotion relationship between them. The whole plot is like a zongzi that forgot to put stuffing in it, unraveling one layer of skin is followed by another layer of skin. The more I peeled it, the more threads I saw, but I couldn't smell the scent of rice, which gradually made people lose their appetite.
In a situation where there is not enough foreshadowing, unfolding and buffering, the veteran actors also collectively show a sense of "vagueness". Couples are not like couples, couples are not like couples, mothers and daughters are not like mothers and daughters, and the opposite scenes are almost always a subtle embarrassment of "I'm not very familiar with you." Hoffman's "Textbook Acting Demonstration" finally shows the sense of being out of context of "Regulation Demonstration". Only the interaction between Peter, who is in the position of the big parent, and the three juniors is reasonable.
After these kinds of "deficiencies", the ending naturally has a far-fetched "people come crazy". Alex resolutely gave up his "true love" with Daniel after reading an exclusive interview with his mother. The quartet took to the stage as if nothing had happened. The problem of alternately sitting as the chief executive disappeared out of thin air, the anger of "You slept with my daughter" was unprovoked, and the cold war of "You are having an affair" was stopped like this. Playing without a conductor begins in harmony with this faction.
Peter announces his retirement in the middle of the song (the "Farewell Show" sister has met, but never left in the middle! If this happens, the audience is not crazy), Juliette and Robert hugged each other. Gap. After putting on a new cellist, everyone sat down and started again from the pleading adagio to the final allegro... Excuse me, is this a magical situation?
It is commendable that No. 131, who was supposed to be the core soul, really has the rhythm of closing the film - all in one piece. At first, I was really worried about how to present such a long piece to the audience, but at the end the director told me very readily, "You think too much". Cut each chapter for 20 seconds and cut them together. Just put the last chapter into the subtitle and make the ending song! So is the film's self-titled "Late Quartet" a miracle?
The big out-of-control of this film fully demonstrates the lack of abstract expression ability of film and television art compared to other kinds of art. Impressions such as "the first violin is exquisite, the second violin is colorful, the viola is deep, and the cello is broad" can be experienced by the audience of the quartet, but in a movie, it is necessary to arrange a line that is not natural, borrowing Directed by Alex to the audience. The more content there is in the "description", the less space is left for "perception", and the "interaction" between the author and the audience will be more wishful thinking. This is by no means a good example of the uniqueness of the seventh art.
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