#a late quartet

[philhoffman]

A LATE QUARTET (2012)

[tuppencetrinkets]

~#75,000 icons of Imogen Poots, 200x100, slightly sharpened from: 28 Weeks Later, A Late Quartet, Black Christmas, Castle in the Ground, Centurion, Chatroom, Christopher and His Kind, Comes a Bright Day, Cracks, Filth, Frank and Lola, French Exit, Fright Night, Green Room, Greetings from Tim Buckley, I Know This Much is True, Jane Eyre, Jimi All is by my Side, Knight of Cups, Me and Orson Welles, Miss Austen Regrets, Need for Speed, Outer Range, Popstar Never Stop Never Stopping, Roadies, Rule Number Three, Solitary Man, Sweet Virginia, That Awkward Moment, The Art of Self Defense, The Father, The Look of Love, V for Vendetta, Vivarium, Waking Madison and Wish.

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[firstclassmovies]

A LATE QUARTET (2012). Yaron Zilberman directs Mark Ivanir, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, and Catherine Keener in a music drama of a quartet breaking apart.

[philhoffman]

[philhoffman]

[philhoffman]

A Late Quartet (2012) | A Most Wanted Man (2014)

[philhoffman]

Ending an awfully rough month with one of the gentlest films for this week’s Monday Philm: A Late Quartet (2012), dir. Yaron Zilberman. Hard to pick just ten shots for this post when the movie—and Phil as Robert Gelbart—are so gorgeous throughout.

In the brief making-of featurette Discord and Harmony, Phil talks about how this isn’t a film where someone is dying, no one is robbing a bank—it’s just about life and regular people going through real struggles in their relationships, reckoning with their lives up to now. That really allows the characters (and actors) to shine, making use of the smallest nuances to show how the quartet has fallen out of tune.

So many little things I love about this film, especially on this watch—Robert’s damp, messy, fresh-out-of-the-shower morning hair at the start. His impression of Daniel’s accent. The balance between the cold, undersaturated blues and greens of New York City in the winter and the rich warm tones found in the music, in bed, in the concert hall. I’m not too familiar with Christopher Walken’s career but he brings such a quiet sadness to Peter’s loneliness. Imogen Poots is overacting but it’s kind of camp? Robert’s gives a little laugh, and PSH’s voice is so deep, so bass, it rumbles the speakers on my old TV a bit. For a film about music, there’s an awful lot of silence—which serves as tension, cut softly by an up-bow or violently by Robert’s outburst. 

Especially loved the scenes of Robert jogging through Central Park, because in less than a month I’m gonna be running through Central Park in this year’s NYC half marathon! It’s a funny, full-circle moment when I think about it, since Phil is one of the primary reasons I’m running it to begin with!

I started rambling a bit here so I’m just gonna throw it under a cut:

I’ve mentioned before that Phil confided in a friend that he felt this was his best performance. It’s interesting to watch A Late Quartet with that thought in mind. His friend partially agreed, later writing that this performance was the start of what should’ve been—the next, deeper, more powerful, incredible chapter of Phil’s career. He is so clear-eyed, so in control of his body, in sync with the story and his fellow actors and the music. He took violin lessons and was quite good, apparently to everyone’s surprise lmao. Robert’s pain goes so deep, uncertainty and doubts and fears of not being good enough stretching back 25 years, and PSH shows it with the tears in his eyes, a quavering voice, glares of restrained fury and deep breaths.

Anyone at all familiar with Phil Hoffman is probably aware of how hard he was on himself—almost comically, often infuriatingly humble and/or self-critical, take your pick. So I’m glad he was proud of this performance and recognized his own strengths here. He was and is so loved, outside of his work, just for who he was, for being himself, someone so many people would move heaven and earth for. I know I would love him anywhere, doing anything. I’d love him if he fulfilled that fantasy of running away to work at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, unknown and unrecognized, or his other idea of moving to France to teach English, or if he stayed at the deli forever. That’s just how the stars are crossed. But I’m also grateful for what he did do, the souls he brought forth from his own, the lives he lived onscreen and left for us. It’s acting and it’s art and it’s so much more.

Feeling especially emotional tonight because it’s the end of February, the longest shortest month, and this has been a particularly terrible one. It’s one of those illogical quirks of love and grief that he is the reason this time is unbearable and he is also the reason I am able to bear it. Gd, words fail. I just didn’t know what life meant until I met him, is all. Love you in the snow and love you in the sun, Phil.

[philhoffman]

Discord and Harmony: Creating A Late Quartet (2012)