{"id":9666,"date":"2014-09-10T16:43:10","date_gmt":"2014-09-10T20:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9666"},"modified":"2014-09-10T16:43:10","modified_gmt":"2014-09-10T20:43:10","slug":"dvd-quintet-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9666","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Quintet (1979)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Quintet1979\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Very Good<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>Twentieth Century-Fox<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a01 (NTSC)<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 April 25, 2006<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Science-Fiction<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0Set in a dystopian Ice Age, a man masquerades as a player in a deadly game to find his brother’s murderer.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 Making-of featurette \/ Theatrical Teaser Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In almost every occasion where Robert Altman\u2019s tackled a specific film genre \u2013 western, sci-fi, comedy, and thriller \u2013 the results unfold like a director not just attempting to redefine the genre with his own loose approach to its tropes, but denying some of the elements that standardize a genre.<\/p>\n

In Countdown<\/strong> (1967), for example, the excitement of space exploration was muted to dialogue scenes and distant camera positions, whereas the psychological thrills of Images<\/strong> (1972) relied on audience patience with the film\u2019s puzzle structure that flipped between multiple perspectives of a character and an editorial style far from linear. McCabe and Mrs. Miller<\/a><\/strong> (1971) is a western, but its dialogue mix is unintelligible to the point where the audience must rely on visuals, reaction shots, and music to follow the story to its grim finale.<\/p>\n

Altman\u2019s comfort with grim, nihilistic endings is consistent in several films, and the post-apocalyptic setting of Quintet<\/strong> (1979) is no different, right down to an unconventional location, visual style, and music score, but where the film fails is in being too loose, and Altman\u2019s lack of understanding the minutia of a sci-fi film set in a dystopian future.<\/p>\n

Conceived by Altman and written by the director with Frank Barhydt (co-writer of Altman\u2019s HeathH<\/strong>, Short Cuts<\/strong>, and Kansas City<\/strong>), CanCon writer Lionel Chetwynd (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz<\/strong>, Two Solitudes<\/strong>), and Patricia Resnick (co-writer of Altman\u2019s 3 Women <\/strong>and A Wedding<\/strong>), it\u2019s a meandering film where characters talk in nonsensical riddles as an outsider, Essex (Paul Newman), assumes the identity of his brother\u2019s murderer to understand his brother\u2019s involvement in a lethal game called quintet.<\/p>\n

Altman and others shaped the game as the script formed a structure, and it became a kind of Ten Little Indians<\/a><\/strong> riff set 200 years in the future, during the next Ice Age, where boredom is combated by partaking in a board game with real-world consequences for its six players. Essex lost not only his brother (Newhart<\/strong>‘s Thomas Hill) to quintet, but a younger companion (Brigitte Fossey) pregnant with what should\u2019ve been a rare joy for humanity: new life. With that downer established within the first quarter, Essex is supposedly driven by a hunger for truth, a need to exact justice on the mastermind of his brother and girlfriend\u2019s murder, and discover the logic and purpose of quintet.<\/p>\n

The problem is that while Altman and his writers may have understood the game, it\u2019s never detailed in the film beyond seeing characters shifting their respective trio of player pieces, and some goal of \u2018killing\u2019 opponents through the roll of dice. In the DVD\u2019s making-of featurette, Altman concedes the film is structured like a board game with sudden player moves, not unlike the twists and turns of a video game \u2013 making Quintet<\/strong>, alongside Sleuth<\/strong> (1972), Deathtrap<\/strong> (1982), and certainly Clue<\/strong> (1985) rare pre-video \u2018gamer\u2019 films \u2013 but it\u2019s also reliant on muted characters with morose, unemotional behaviour that isn’t especially engaging.<\/p>\n

The most emotionally demonstrative performances come from Vittoria Gassman (Barabbas<\/a><\/strong>, The Sleazy Uncle<\/strong>) and Fernando Rey (Cold Eyes of Fear<\/strong>, Tristana<\/strong>) as Saint Christopher and Grigor, respectively, while Bibi Andersson\u2019s Ambrosia \u2013 also bearing a name akin to a player piece \u2013 has a few moments of personal reflection, but Altman\u2019s deadly pacing and a need to keep the game\u2019s meaning foggy that makes the film lethal.<\/p>\n

The use of Montreal\u2019s Expo 67 ruins, frozen daily with overnight water in -40 degree weather is brilliant, as are the details of set d\u00e9cor and integrated props, but there are oddities that seem illogical: with each surface \u2013 including steps and handrails \u2013 coated in ice, characters would be tumbling and breaking bones on a daily basis, especially since they\u2019re wearing leather gloves and wide boots, so there\u2019s no reason why people living in an already dangerously cold environment would allow for conditions that would make them targets for the film\u2019s feral dogs.<\/p>\n

The motif of dogs also becomes ridiculous when the only surviving breed are very healthy Rottweilers (there\u2019s no other breed?), and they\u2019re frequently feeding off frozen cadavers seen in the background as actors walk and talk. This of course begs the questions: Why would people allow feral dogs within their compound? And why don\u2019t the dogs, reared on human flesh, not attack the living (especially when sleeping or drunk on the ground) when there\u2019s a dearth of the other white meat?<\/p>\n

Essex\u2019 disappointment at the end in being told quintet\u2019s winner is merely to experience the thrill of being hunted and winning is as shallow as Altman\u2019s offering to audiences, and there\u2019s such peculiar laboring on scenes which make one wonder if the director was determined to grind the film\u2019s pacing to a steady crawl, moving scenes as though they too were affected by the arctic temperatures and combative wind and deep snow, or he needed to pad the film to two hours.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a slightly Bergmanesque quality to the visuals – in a sort-of love scene, Altman cuts to some enormous close-ups of stars Newman and Andersson (a regular Bergman stock company member in films, including the experimental puzzle drama Persona<\/a><\/strong>); and the end shot where Essex continues to trudge through the snow away from the camera until he\u2019s no different than a dark spec of nearby rocks evokes the end of The Passion of Anna<\/a><\/strong> (1969) \u2013 but whereas Bergman would allow his handful of characters to breathe and expose their vulnerabilities at various junctures, Altman denies intimate revelations to ensure there\u2019s a sustained \/ prolonged mystique in Quintet <\/strong>before the game is played out with gruesomely killed players (including Jungle Warriors<\/strong><\/a>‘\u00a0Nina van Pallandt), the winner is anointed, and a new round of quintet can begin with Grigor continuing his role as ringleader \/ arbitrator.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt Quintet<\/strong> is ripe with atmosphere, especially from the locations, but Altman\u2019s decision to emphasize the super-cooled temperatures and keep our focus on the centre of the frame by applying fog and Vaseline on the lens circumference means 1\/3 to 1\/4 of the 1.85:1 image is fuzzy, which ultimately robs the film of details needed to emphasize the oppressive environment.<\/p>\n

Tom Pierson\u2019s music is as atypical as other Altman film scores, opting for an innovative approach which denies audiences an epic or tragic sound and theme. Pierson sticks with a delicate repeating figure on harp around which heavy bass, occasional electronic tones, or dissonance evoke the cold environment and its muted characters. While it doesn\u2019t aide in giving the film needed momentum, it certainly matches the tone and grim atmosphere Altman successfully conveys throughout Quintet<\/strong>, and the use of harp does support the peculiar costume designs which mimic Medieval outfits, albeit adapted for arctic temperatures.<\/p>\n

In many ways Altman\u2019s dystopian world is a throwback to the Dark Ages: bare electric light bulbs mimic candles (although why survivors can\u2019t expand the use of the power grid for other purposes is a mystery), food comes from boiling vats, and markets offer assorted trinkets and rubbish taken from frozen ruins. As Grigor and Saint Christopher explain to Essex, the game is their religion and raison d\u2019etre, but for audiences, \u00a0it\u2019s just not that interesting<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fox\u2019 DVD includes a crisp transfer of this always grainy-looking film \u2013 Altman seemed to have preferred a fast film stock for blown-out whites and grimy interior shots \u2013 and there\u2019s a decent making-of featurette where Altman and his associates describe making the film at the icy and dangerously slippery \u00a0Expo site. A teaser trailer rounds out the extras, emphasizing the film\u2019s \u2018deadly game\u2019 scenario like a conventional thriller \/ slasher film by using slo-mo dice and a knife blade.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2014 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a>\u00a0— IMDB<\/a> \u00a0— \u00a0Fan Site<\/a>\u00a0— Composer Website<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In almost every occasion where Robert Altman\u2019s tackled a specific film genre \u2013 western, sci-fi, comedy, and thriller \u2013 the results unfold like a director not just attempting to redefine the genre with his own loose approach to its tropes, but denying some of the elements that standardize a genre…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[562,408,3017,556,3018,3019,3020,3016],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-2vU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9666"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9666"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9674,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9666\/revisions\/9674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}