First-time feature director Yaron Zilberman assembles a powerhouse cast for A Late Quartet.
Christopher Walken (Seven Psychopaths, The Affair of the Necklace), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master, Doubt), Catherine Keener (Please Give, Capote), Mark Ivanir (360), and rising young star Imogen Poots (Jane Eyre, Me and Orson Welles) are the principle players.
A Late Quartet is a dramatically charged tale of an illustrious string quartet that is set to celebrate their 25th season as an ensemble with an ambitious recital of Beethoven’s Late String Quartets.
While this milestone would seem to be cause for celebration, it soon becomes a catalyst for the members’ assorted personal traumas and reveals the tangled web of jealousy, envy, ambition, and deeply felt affection that binds the group together.
Older than his colleagues, Peter (Walken), the group’s founding member, is diagnosed with the early symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease that forces him to confront the troubling question of who will succeed him, and what his legacy will be.
When he announces he wishes to make the coming season his last, his three colleagues find themselves at a crossroad.
Competing egos and uncontrollable passions threaten to derail years of friendship and collaboration. As the film progresses gracefully through its own “movements,” long-repressed feelings and explosive emotions shatter the delicate harmony that has bound the group together.
As the ensemble’s aging patriarch, Walken has never been better, brilliantly etching Peter’s turbulent indecision and, finally, clear-eyed resolve about the right path to take — even as, unbeknownst to him, the four-cornered universe that he has lovingly created begins to fly apart.
The film will be shown Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Rialto Theatre in Courtenay. The series concludes march 24 with the showing of The Angels’ Share.
Films are fundraisers for the Comox Valley Art Gallery. For updates and more information, visit www.comoxvalleyartgallery.com.
— Comox Valley Art Gallery