There is a great passion in music. To my ear, the string instruments in particular sing like angels. Films surrounding people who play such music have always been especially appealing. A few months ago, we were treated to Marjane Satrapi's Chicken With Plums
, a French film about a musician who loses his life's meaning after his prized violin is destroyed. (If you missed this in the theater, you seriously missed out – look for it on DVD, hopefully soon.) The Japanese film
Departures
(which won the 2008 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar) is gorgeous – it tells the story of a cellist who takes a job as a preparer of the dead for burial. I also recommend the great Ingmar Bergman's lesser-known 1950 film
To Joy
, about a married couple who both play violins in an orchestra.
We are here today to specifically discuss the newest installment in the Village 8 Louisville Exclusives series:
, directed by Yaron Zilberman and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Imogen Poots, and Christopher Walken as the members of the titular musical group. They are a string quartet known all over the world, and after 25 years, Peter Mitchell (Walken) is diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. As they prepare for what will possibly be their last concert, tensions run high, insecurities surface, bonds are strained, and everything comes into question – all of which is inspired by and structured around Beethoven's Opus 131 String Quartet in C-sharp Minor.
A Late Quartet
is scheduled to play until this Thursday, December 20, but this is subject to extension. Village 8 is located at 4014 Dutchmans Lane. Further theater information and showtimes can be found at the Village 8 website.
Image: Internet Movie Database
