Gayle O’Leary attended the preview of this award-winning Alliance Film Festival entry by acclaimed writer and director Grégory Magne (known for his debut Perfumes) courtesy of Luna Cinemas, and just LOVED IT! Here’s her review.
You will be kept transfixed in your seats until the credits finish rolling.
Particularly with that soaring, complex, and dynamic original soundtrack by Grégoire Hetzel!
Astrid (Valérie Donzelli) the perfect daughter and wealthy heiress of a tycoon, has a once in a lifetime opportunity to assemble a quartet with the unique priceless “San Domenico” Stradivarius string instruments. Even famed maker Antonio Stradivari himself never saw them played together, due to financial woes as this story goes.
As per her late father’s wishes, Astrid reaches out to four virtuosos cherry-picked to form a quartet at a one-off livestreamed concert and play a composition never heard by audiences before from his favourite composer, Charlie Beaumont (Frédéric Pierrot).
You don’t need to be a boffin to appreciate the significance of seeing the four stunning Stradivarius string instruments reunited for the first time in centuries. To deeply emphasise for the daughter who only wants to honour her father by realising his dream of the perfect concert. Or to giggle frequently at the antics of four inflated egos who are tasked with learning to play nicely with one another.
Herding cats would be easier.
How to convince four divas (coincidentally all played by real musicians) to agree on how the works of an obscure composer should be performed with just six days to rehearse?
Invite the composer along unexpectedly to whip them into shape.
How delicious.
I don’t know how they did it, but even the magnificent Champagne region manor rooms managed to look exasperated during each sharp intermediate scene cut bookmarking the frequent arguments, insults hurled, and plucking of strings. Even drinking soup is weaponised. Along with the hysterical placement of a statue. And a hot tub.
Audience members chuckled in advance of each blow up, bristling as tension frequently bubbled between the quartet, and spotting the sure recipes for a fresh disaster to derail their progress. Even better, the film trusts that’s exactly what you’re doing and spells out nothing.
There are so many heartfelt moments brimming with unspoken sentiment, hidden secrets, and the villainy of time obscuring our motivations.
The anxious, image-driven callousness of the quartet contrasts humorously with the pure earnestness of Astrid and of Charlie, whom we empathise with easily through birdsong and shared perplexity at the antics of megalomaniacal people.
Every line of dialogue lands well. I can hardly fault a moment of this movie.
Ten out of ten. I want to see it again.
The Musicians (“Les Musiciens”) hits Luna Cinemas on June 18th
* By Gayle O’Leary. If you’d like to catch up on more by Gayle here on Fremantle Shipping News, look right here!
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